Dynamic/Customizable PDF output

Hey guys and gals,
I need to produce a PDF report that is customizable by the end user...
Think of an Invoice with multiple Lines and I want the end user to be able to define/set stuff like:
1. Logo image at the top, they can choose where (Left, Middle, Right)
2. Location of the Remit-to address
3. Font and size for Invoice Number
4. Width and location of the invoice line Description
5. Margins
I'm trying to avoid BI Publisher and instead use a "free" tool so my clients can afford it.
How would you guys tackle the problem?
Thanks,
Russ

Good news...
pl/pdf v2.1 seems to support turning xhtml source into PDF (plpdf_xhtml package).
I have previously used the Apex "HTML editor standard" item type to edit and store HTML that I parse and replace tokens within the HTML to create customized emails.
I'll use the same technique to allow the user to design/layout the report in the HTML editor. Then I can parse/replace the tokens and pass the resulting HTML to plpdf_xhtml.xhtml_to_pdf routine which returns a PDF BLOB.
Only significant question remaining is how tough is the validation of the XHTML and can I pre-validate the HTML entered by the user will be sufficiently valid XHTML.
Thanks for the lead on pl/pdf and I'll update this thread as I experiment...
Russ

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