Document Template Engine

Question

I need to choose a good template engine for creating documents in our application. Requirements:

• If possible, create Microsoft Word and PDF
• Good template capabilities, including support for simple replaceable parameters, arrays / lists and hierarchies, if possible
• Allow enabling custom graphics
• Ideally, templates should be editable in Microsoft applications or other friendly users.

The task is to transfer some data structure from the system and make a good document out of it. Examples include reports, business offers, product visions, and more. Ideas are welcome :)

One approach is to write it yourself, but maybe there is something ready-made and not necessarily free. Technically, it's best if it can be cross-platform, but Windows is just fine, as well as a last resort.

Answer 1

People use docx4j to do similar things. (Disclaimer: my project)

docx4j provides you with tools for creating docx documents (as opposed to old binary ones) and output to PDF (although ymmv).

To create commercial documents, look at such as Exari and Thunderhead.