You may want to look at ASP.Net MVC. Very easy to use and it runs fast. IMO, PHP is dieing.

There are several options for web-based printing. SQL Server Report Services (SSRS) (comes free with SQL Server), ComponentOne ActiveReports, Telerik, are just three options.

>We are not quite sure as to what technology we are going to go with (either php or asp.net), and this is not my issue here.
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>What are the alternative approaches for printing in an operational environment (stockmanagement) where documents and labels have to be printed on the fly and reliably.
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>Thanks for any light you might shed on what is at this moment a somewhat perplexing problem for us.