---
date: "2005-10-12T04:41:45Z"
title: Generating PDFs with Ruby
---

<p>
One problem I've run across a couple of times at work is generating automated <acronym title='Portable Document Format'>PDF</acronym>s.  While reading the <a href='http://www.artima.com/rubycs/index.html'>Ruby section of Artima</a>, I stumbled across <a href='http://www.artima.com/rubycs/articles/pdf_writer.html'>"Creating Printable Documents with Ruby"</a>, which cover's <a href='http://www.halostatue.ca/'>Austin Ziegler's</a> <acronym title='Portable Document Format'>PDF</acronym> library for <a href='http://ruby-lang.org/'>Ruby</a>, <a href='http://ruby-pdf.rubyforge.org/'>PDF::Writer</a>.  Besides having a great <acronym title='Application Programmer Interface'>API</acronym>, <a href='http://ruby-pdf.rubyforge.org/'>PDF::Writer</a> also has an <a href='http://ruby-pdf.rubyforge.org/pdf-writer/manual/index.html'>extensive manual</a> (generated by <a href='http://ruby-pdf.rubyforge.org/'>PDF::Writer</a>, of course), wrappers for common tasks such as generating <a href='http://ruby-pdf.rubyforge.org/pdf-writer/doc/classes/PDF/SimpleTable.html'>tables</a>, <a href='http://ruby-pdf.rubyforge.org/pdf-writer/doc/classes/PDF/QuickRef.html'>reference sheets, and brochures</a>, 
</p>

<p>
I'm wondering how long it'll take before someone writes a <acronym title='Portable Document Format'>PDF</acronym> target for <a href='http://dev.rubycentral.com/downloads/ri.html'><acronym title='Ruby Interactive'>RI</acronym></a>, or, even better, <a href='http://rdoc.sourceforge.net/'>RDoc</a>.  In the mean time, I have something that'll give me an excuse to use more <a href='http://ruby-lang.org/'>Ruby</a> at work.
</p>