Once again, thanks for all the input.
Unfortunatley I found the PDF package and the
Text::PDF package
fairly useless. They seem to be strong in reading a pdf
file, but very weak or useless for actually creating a pdf file.
I also did look into the ps2pdf which is not a bad solution
if you want to install ghostscript.
The "PDF file creator written in perl" seemed promising
but it is licensed ... how lame. Also the txt2pdf is licensed
so screw them. I was getting really depressed as it seems
that everyone that touched pdf files was out to make
a crapload of money (adobe of course being the worst offender).
Anyway to wrap up my tale ... PDF::Create (duh!)
It is not part of the PDF package apparently (different authors),
but after another
extensive search (eventually from freshmeat.net) I stumbled on
a message that refered to it. BTW it is
not in search.cpan.org.
So I tried:
perl -MCPAN -e "install 'PDF::Create'"
and wah-lah! It worked, (and beautifully). Although it is
simple, and not fully implemented yet it works beyond my needs.
Here is a full program the creates a PDF file:
use PDF::Create;
use strict;
my $pdf = new PDF::Create('filename' => 'test.pdf',
'Version' => 1.2,
'Author' => 'Perl Monger',
'Title' => 'Test Test');
my $page = $pdf->new_page;
my $f1 = $pdf->font('Subtype' => 'Type1',
'Encoding' => 'WinAnsiEncoding',
'BaseFont' => 'Helvetica-Oblique');
$page->string($f1, 40, 30, 600, "Hello from pdf Hell!" );
$pdf->close;
I hope others find this helpful.
Update: PDF::Create Version 0.01 is now in
search.cpan.org