Printing Architecture

[lynnb at yogananda-srf.org]

I'd like some advice/help from the Python community on technology for 
printing documents generated from browser-based intranet applications 
and/or batch production jobs.  

Most of the documents would be printed from back-end servers, but 
some internal documents would need to be printed directly by the user 
from the browser.

The basic requirements are:
--Consistent, predictable printed output (at least for server-based 
printing, not so important for printing from browser)
--Runnable from batch script without user intervention
--Dynamic programmed selection of target printer, orientation, page 
size, form type, duplex option, etc.

Highly desirable:
--Portable across operating systems
--Uses same or similar API for both printing and display (preferably 
HTML)
--Standards-based to leverage existing layout/formatting/printer 
management tools

Although HTML gives limited control over page layout, it is probably 
sufficient for our report and business document needs.  But it would 
need to be extended with tags for page size, orientation, logical 
printer name, etc.

Piddle is also a possiblity, but it's a low-level API, and is quite 
different from the HTML we would also need to generate for soft-copy 
display.

One solution would be to generate PostScript or PDF from HTML, then 
print with GhostScript or Acrobat Reader.  There's a Perl HTML2PS 
utility.  Anything available in Python?  Commercial products?  
Although the Grail browser project is apparently defunct, it might be 
mined for this purpose. 

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

TIA,

Lynn Blickenstaff