Re: How to create a PDF-Printer from the command line

[David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>]

On Sun 07 Jan 2018 at 11:06:01 (+0000), Curt wrote:
> On 2018-01-07, Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > How does one convert a text file to a PDF using the command line?
> >> >
> >> 
> >>  unoconv -f pdf text.txt
> >
> > 50+ megabytes of the libreoffice stack to install, But yes, that will
> > do it. A sledgehammer to crack a nut.
> 
> Depends on the nut, doesn't it?
> 
> Anyhoo, I don't understand where you get the 50+ megabytes. I see two
> dependencies in stable (python3 and python3-uno), a package size of 48.8
> kB, and an installed size of 327.0 kB. So I'm understanding the package
> does not depend upon the installation of LibreOffice proper (the
> redoubtable "stack"?).
> 
> Perhaps my comprehension is faulty.

I guess you forgot to read    man unoconv:

       "unoconv uses the LibreOffice’s UNO bindings for non-interactive
       conversion of documents and therefore needs an LibreOffice
       instance to communicate with. Therefore if it cannot find one,
       it will start its own instance for temporary usage."

Myself, I use paps and ps2pdf. paps has a few options that I use,
like margins and columns, and I get a few more obscure Unicode
characters rendered successfully using the Freemono fonts than
I get with cupsfilter, but that's probably because I haven't
studied how I could modify the latter's behaviour.

Cheers,
David.