About printable output
Although all web browsers let you print HTML pages, HTML-format
pages are not optimized for printed output. For example, lack of
control over line breaks, page breaks, headers, footers, and page
numbers are just a few of the problems that you encounter when designing
reports and other pages meant to be printed.
In the
context of ColdFusion, the term printable output refers to
pages that include the following features:
ColdFusion provides the following tags for generating printable
output:
cfdocument: Creates printable output
and returns it to the browser or saves it in a file. For more information,
see Creating PDF and FlashPaper output with the cfdocument tag.
cfreport: Uses the specified report definition
to create printable output and return it to the browser or save
it in a file. ColdFusion supports report definitions from the following
tools:
ColdFusion printable reports are available in the following formats:
- FlashPaper
- ColdFusion creates a SWF file. Clients must have an up-to-date version
of Adobe Flash Player installed.
- Adobe Acrobat
- ColdFusion creates a PDF file. Clients must have the Adobe Reader
installed.
- Microsoft Excel (ColdFusion reporting only)
- ColdFusion creates an Excel spreadsheet.
Note: The
Excel report output format type provides limited support for the formatting
options available in ColdFusion reporting. Images and charts are
not supported and numeric data containing formatting (such as commas,
percents, currency) appears as plain text in Excel. The Excel output
format supports simple reports only and it is recommended that you
give careful design and layout consideration to reports designed
for Excel output.
- Crystal Reports (Windows only)
- ColdFusion passes control to Crystal Reports, which creates
HTML. This option is available with the cfreport tag
only.
