4 ms·

I feel like if you are claiming "beautiful" output then it's obligatory to have at the very least screenshots of said output PDFs (or better yet, a sample for t

I feel like if you are claiming "beautiful" output then it's obligatory to have at the very least screenshots of said output PDFs (or better yet, a sample for the same link in the CLI screenshot, especially so people can see how the text flows, what quality images are captured at, how text can be selected, etc).

algon33 3y ago
Yeah, that would make this post a lot better.
- abhibeckert 3y ago
  Agreed. I would offer a PDF version of the project's readme file as a demo. OP: this is important. There are a million tools to generate PDF files, most of them don't produce nice looking PDFs.
dvcoolarun 3y ago
Arr! Just updated the post with a sample PDF.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  Is it just me or does the sample not look that beautiful?
  - doctorwho42 3y ago
    Kinda looks like the script just grabbed the <p>'s and did a copy paste. Without much thought to format
  - tomcam 3y ago
    Correct, it is only you who looks that beautiful
- dheera 3y ago
  I'd strongly suggest to include the sample PDF screenshot in the Github readme as well. Also just my opinion and honest feedback but I don't really consider that PDF "beautiful" or readable. However, your project is a very good start toward something that is potentially very useful. Here are my suggestions: - Switch to a modern, beautiful, readable serif font that isn't an overused (Times New Roman, Garamond, and pretty much any MS fonts are overused and will make your PDF end up looking like "yet another Word document"). Some good options that come to mind are Tiempos Fine, Butler, Lora, but there are lots of good ones out there. Shop around for something both unique AND highly readable. Make sure your PDF generator embeds the font or (preferably) converts all text to paths instead of just referencing the font. Also, know the difference between fonts designed for printing and screen reading and fonts designed for both, and adjust according to whatever use case you're marketing. - Figure out how to make the sub-headers heavier weight and significantly larger to stand out. Be bold with your font size changes. Printed documents look "nice" when the sections are clearly laid out and EASY for the eye to parse from a distance how the document is organized and which are top level headings and which are subheadings under those headings. For generation purposes there's a good chance you can probably just parse it from <h1> <h2> <h3> ... tags in the HTML, unless the website uses some JS-framework-of-the-month bullshit. Use more white space before each header to physically separate it. Avoid using lines between a header and the text it corresponds to, as that can be distracting to the eye since lines are normally thought of as separating sections. I'd give you a pull request but I'm super busy these days.
  - starbugs 3y ago
    Just one thing to add: Reduce the line length and make the font slightly bigger. Maybe increase the line height a bit.

algon33 3y ago

Yeah, that would make this post a lot better.

abhibeckert 3y ago
Agreed. I would offer a PDF version of the project's readme file as a demo. OP: this is important. There are a million tools to generate PDF files, most of them don't produce nice looking PDFs.

dvcoolarun 3y ago

Arr! Just updated the post with a sample PDF.

Hamuko 3y ago
Is it just me or does the sample not look that beautiful?
- doctorwho42 3y ago
  Kinda looks like the script just grabbed the <p>'s and did a copy paste. Without much thought to format
- tomcam 3y ago
  Correct, it is only you who looks that beautiful
dheera 3y ago
I'd strongly suggest to include the sample PDF screenshot in the Github readme as well. Also just my opinion and honest feedback but I don't really consider that PDF "beautiful" or readable. However, your project is a very good start toward something that is potentially very useful. Here are my suggestions: - Switch to a modern, beautiful, readable serif font that isn't an overused (Times New Roman, Garamond, and pretty much any MS fonts are overused and will make your PDF end up looking like "yet another Word document"). Some good options that come to mind are Tiempos Fine, Butler, Lora, but there are lots of good ones out there. Shop around for something both unique AND highly readable. Make sure your PDF generator embeds the font or (preferably) converts all text to paths instead of just referencing the font. Also, know the difference between fonts designed for printing and screen reading and fonts designed for both, and adjust according to whatever use case you're marketing. - Figure out how to make the sub-headers heavier weight and significantly larger to stand out. Be bold with your font size changes. Printed documents look "nice" when the sections are clearly laid out and EASY for the eye to parse from a distance how the document is organized and which are top level headings and which are subheadings under those headings. For generation purposes there's a good chance you can probably just parse it from <h1> <h2> <h3> ... tags in the HTML, unless the website uses some JS-framework-of-the-month bullshit. Use more white space before each header to physically separate it. Avoid using lines between a header and the text it corresponds to, as that can be distracting to the eye since lines are normally thought of as separating sections. I'd give you a pull request but I'm super busy these days.
- starbugs 3y ago
  Just one thing to add: Reduce the line length and make the font slightly bigger. Maybe increase the line height a bit.