ANN: ReportLab PDF products - demo package

[Andy Robinson]

For two years, ReportLab have been distributing an Open Source 
PDF library written in Python.  To help promote our commercial
products and our Open Source library to a wider audience, we
have now prepared a standalone demo package which includes its
own Python interpreter and library.  

Packaged as a single Windows installer, this demo includes both 
commercial and Open Source tools for creating and manipulating PDF 
files in a variety of ways.   This enables people without a prior
installation of Python (e.g your boss and colleagues) to try out 
and begin exploring our tools.

Included are:

* reportlab: our free, Open Source toolkit for producing PDF files
from the Python scripting language

* RML2PDF: our easy to use enterprise reporting solution allows
you to write files in Report Markup Language (RML, our simple,
high-level XML dialect) and convert them into PDF. RML is the most
direct and practical route from XML to PDF

* PageCatcher: allows you to reuse existing PDF files or elements
of existing PDF files in a range of flexible ways

* Other useful tools including
Preppy: a small, versatile text pre-processor (JSP/ASP-like)
PythonPoint: generates PDF slides from simple XML

* Python: the general purpose scripting language (Windows v2.1.1)

* support files, examples, tests and documentation for the above.
(RML2PDF & PageCatcher are evaluation versions of commercial software)

The ReportLab demo provides you with Enterprise-level solutions
you can try from your desktop. Everything in it is proven
technology; elements have been in production use in high
volume environments for major financial institutions for
over a year.

Using these products, you can create and use PDFs in ways you never
though possible: dynamically insert text and images from a range
of sources, create new PDFs (from a low level canvas or high level
XML) equally easily from your desktop or a server, overlay new
content on existing PDFs, re-order pages, do conditional flow in
dynamic-created documents...

To download the ReportLab Demo, go to our web site:
http://www.reportlab.com/newdemo.html
(Platform: Windows. File size: 6.4 Mb)

For more information:
web site: www.reportlab.com
email: info at reportlab.com
user group: groups.yahoo.com/group/reportlab-users

Enjoy!

Andy Robinson
CEO/Chief Architect, ReportLab Inc.