PHP and MySQL Web Development 4th Ed-tqw-_darksiderg

772 Chapter 32 Generating Personalized Documents in Portable Document Format (PDF)
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Result in a high-quality printout
Require only a small file to be downloaded
Be generated almost instantly
Be at a low cost to produce
Work on many operating systems
Be difficult to fraudulently duplicate or modify
Not require any special software to view or print
Display and print consistently for all recipients
Like many decisions you need to make from time to time, you will probably need to
compromise when choosing a delivery format to meet as many of these attributes as
possible.
Evaluating Document Formats
The most important decision you need to make is what format to deliver the certificate
in. Options include paper, ASCII text, HTML, Microsoft Word or another word processor’s
format, Rich Text Format, PostScript, and Portable Document Format. Given the
attributes listed previously, you can consider and compare some of the options.
Paper
Delivering the certificate on paper has some obvious advantages.You retain complete
control over the process.You can see exactly what each certificate output looks like
before sending it to the recipient. Plus, you don’t need to worry about software or bandwidth,
and the certificate can be printed with anticounterfeiting measures.
Paper would meet all of your needs except for being able to generate instantly and
being low cost to produce:The certificate could not be created and delivered quickly.
Postal delivery could take days or weeks depending on your and the recipient’s location.
Each certificate would also cost a few cents to a few dollars in printing and postage
costs and probably more in handling. Automatic electronic delivery would be cheaper.
ASCII
Delivering documents as ASCII or plain text comes with some advantages. Compatibility
is no problem. Bandwidth required would be small, so cost would be very low.The simplicity
of the result makes it easy to design and quick for a script to generate.
If you present your visitors with an ASCII file, however, you have very little control
over the appearance of their certificates.You cannot control fonts or page breaks.You can
only include text and have very little control over formatting.You have no control over a
recipient’s duplication or modification of the document.This is the method that makes it
easiest for the recipient to fraudulently alter her certificate.