You can download the full PDF Reference (PDF: 4.3 MB / 696 pages)(second edition) as a PDF file
(book normally published by Addison Wesley) from Adobe and there are even more documents about that available in theirDeveloper Program.

PDF is using the "way cool" plain text format to stay portable, so it's easy to process :-)
e.g. you can view and edit the contents of any PDF file with a text editor.

To convert HTML to PDF you could use the pdflib which is a commercial Code library with function wrappers for perl java and C++ and .. BUT thats some bucks to pay (for commercial use). The Author also wrote a book about PDF and as well how to use his library.
But still you need to translate the HTML to the appropriete PDF descriptors.
An Idea here seems to be parsing existent HTML but to go on the reight side it seems much better to use XML as a BASE and produce HTML and PDF from it.
Thats the way I do but as I don't own the rights of the code produced I cant post that. sorry
On CPAN you'll find some modules when searching for PDF, as merlyn suggested.

There are also some packages around on the net that support a wide range of PDF, e.g. search C|NET or other scripting archives. There are a few - just search.

Have a nice day
All decision is left to your taste

UPDATE also interesting is first alpha release (v1.0a24) of PDF on the Fly, a Perl5 library for creating PDF files

In reply to Re: HTML 2 PDF by little
in thread HTML 2 PDF by BigBoffin

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.