Kevin Wells has found another remote application programmer interface (API) to make use of for the benefit of RISC OS users, and as a result has released a new application: Web2PDF.
Like a lot of Kevin’s software, Web2PDF makes use of Wget to relay information input into the program’s RISC OS window to the remote API, and then feed the results back to the user. Usually those results are presented to the user via the application itself, but this time there is a subtle difference.
The remote API used by the program is the Web page to PDF API provided by APILayer (with whom you will need to register to get an ‘API key’ to make use of it) – and if the application name didn’t provide a big enough clue to what it does, surely the API name does! It takes the address of a web page, and turns that web page into a PDF file.
As a result, rather than display the results itself, when given the address of a web page (and sending that up to APILayer) Web2PDF opens a dialogue allowing you to either save the resulting PDF, or (in the RISC OS sense) run it – i.e. open it in your PDF viewer.
The astute among you might be quick enough to realise that if you can display a web page in your web browser, you can print it – which means you can simply print to PDF if you have the appropriate driver installed. However, not all web pages display as well as we’d like in RISC OS browsers, so this might be a handy additional tool for looking up information online without the need to switch platforms.
If you find any of Kevin’s software useful, why not consider rewarding him for it by buying some merchandise or with a small contribution.
