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;

[download]
I hope others find this helpful.

Update: PDF::Create Version 0.01 is now in search.cpan.org

In reply to Re: PDF via Perl? by perlmonkey
in thread PDF via Perl? by perlmonkey

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