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With the Views PDF module you can output a view as a PDF document. Each field of
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the view can be placed on the PDF page directly in the administration interface.
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Therefore a new display called "PDF" is added.
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There are already some PDF solutions such as Print. But these solutions use the
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HTML output and converts this to PDF. The disadvantages of such an integration
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are:
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* No control over page flow (e.g. page break).
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* Little or no control over page header and footer.
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* You need HTML skills to change the layout.
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* The rendering is slow and need a lot of memory, because it need to render
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the HTML.
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* Complex tables make troubles.
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* Vector graphics can not be implemented, therefore the printing of the doc-
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ument can be problematic.
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* You are limited by HTML's capabilities.
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Installation instructions:
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--------------------------
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1. Download the module or checkout the module.
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2. Upload the module to your Drupal instance.
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3. Download the required libraries. Download TCPDF and FPDI. Copy the files
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to the lib directory in the module directory. The path must be so:
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"sites/all/libraries/tcpdf/tcpdf.php" respectively "sites/all/libraries/fpdi/fpdi.php".
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If you are using the Libraries API then put them into the libraries folder.
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4. Check under reports if you setup everything correct.
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5. Setup a view with a PDF display.
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6. Use it.
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Basic Usage
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1. Setup a new view or use an existing view. How to do this see in the
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documentation of the Views module.
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2. In the view add the display "PDF Page".
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3. Select the new added display.
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4. Select the Style. You can use PDF unformatted to place the fields in no
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structured way on the PDF. Use PDF table to place the fields in table with
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a table header.
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5. In the settings of the style you can setup per field settings. Such as the
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position, the size of the field, the font and so on. Important: Switch to
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the PDF Page display in the default display this options does not appear.
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6. Under PDF Page Setting you can setup the size of the page.
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7. Under PDF Font Settings you can setup the default fonts for the PDF.
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8. Under PDF Template Settings you can setup a background PDF.
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9. To add a page break, you can add a PDF page break field. When this field
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is rendered new page is added. Reorder the fields if necessary.
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10. You can find also a page number field. You can use it to print the current
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page number. Important for positioning the field in the header or footer,
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you need to set the relative position in the field settings to
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"In header / footer".
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