An open source program that converts text and .DBF files to PDF (portable document format) files has achieved its initial stable release. The “xtopdf” program is written in Python, and is suitable for use on embedded Linux devices such as PDAs that support Python, according to project leader Vasudev Ram.

According to Ram, xtopdf v1.0, which is released under the BSD open source license, can be used to quickly convert plain text or .DBF database records into PDF files, providing a read-only, cross-platform way to view and print data. Support for additional source file formats is planned in future releases, according to Ram.

Ram says xtopdf has no OS-dependent code, and should work on any platform where Python runs, including Linux, Unix, and Windows. It requires Python 2.2 or higher, as well as the open source version of the ReportLab toolkit, which is also written in Python.

More details about xtopdf are available at the project's SourceForge Website. The popular Ghostscript open source program also includes a number several postscript and PDF converters.

 
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