PHP to Print

Need to find a good "backwards" program.

[Frequent]

I have a free classifieds site that is run on PHP. Clearly my intentions are the reverse of the current classifieds industry trend, I want to take an on-line classifieds and put it into an off-line format.

Does anyone know of a program that can easily convert data in my on-line database and format (paginate) it for print?

Basically, I was thinking about promoting the site by printing a paper version of the ads currently on-line for distribution at a couple of local events.

It doesn't need to be terribly elaborate but I'd like it to look better than just printing the pages off the site and photocopying them.

Any suggestions? Feel free to sticky to avoid a TOS violation.

Freq---

[nakulgoyal]

I think it depends on the kind of database you have right now. You can just create a snapshot of what you want your print version to look like, and then create a template.php file, and calling the variables at the right place, you can make it a ready to print kind of classified thing for yourself.

Does that make sense?

[webkami]

Yes you are right.

some more hints.

Let yourself or your designer design the page with static data AND TRY TO PRINT IT FIRST.

cause problem with webpage designs are that some elements like table backgrounds and borders (if are of 1 pixel are ommited while printing by IE)

So make a printer friendly page with design you want and static data.

and somebody here can help you populate that static design with data....

Can be me :)

[Frequent]

Just to clear things up. I understand that making a printer friendly html page would be the way to go if I needed to print something myself.

I was planning on printing 1-2 thousand of these so I would need the data arranged in a format that a commercial printer could work with.

Perhaps I'm not giving commercial printers enough credit and they can work with html files with no problem.

Freq---

[ergophobe]

I think most print service bureaus want postscript, pdf or quark files, probalby some adobe formats too.

There are some pretty good scripts for outputting DB data to PDF via PHP as long as your formatting requirements are fairly simple.