adammichaelwood
commented
6 years ago I've asked around, and Sphinx is somewhat well known for bad tables in PDFs. I know one TW who switched an entire project off of Sphinx to Ascidoctor because tables in PDFs was a major requirement. (We're definitely not there, but its good to know that the problem isn't just us...)
Here are a few ideas of how to proceed:
- Don't solve the problem.
- Make a note in the PDF directing people to the online version.
- We could even conditionally hide the tables in the PDF.
- Change paper size.
- This only makes sense to me if we could change the paper size only on page with tables. I don't know if that is possible. But, I think landscape view and slightly smaller font would make a difference.
- Build the tables outside sphinx-build and re-import them as pictures
- This seems pretty doable, if a little brittle.
- Walk the whole project through ascidoctor on the way to PDF.
- This strikes me as a terrible idea, but I'd be remiss in not including it as a potential option. Also, we may find out it's way easier than it seems. So it might be worth someone taking an hour to at least try it once.
- Add a build step that intervenes on the tables while still in a TeX file.
- Patch the latex-builder
- This would be a boon to the rest of the sphinx community, but strikes me as the hardest possible way to solve our problem.
I don't love any of these solutions.
ankita240796
PDF output was added in #537
But there is still a problem with the tables.
See, for example: page 335, 336, 338, 345, 402 (or thereabouts...)