>Currently, we send out critical letters and we use PCL5 for formatting (e.g. bold, margins, etc.) We have customized templates that include the PCL5 and merge fields that VFP can replace items like name, address, etc.
>
>But, PCL5 is a PITA and not all printers support PCL5.
>
>In the past at a different shop I used West-Wind and GhostScript to create PDF files. But that was using the VFP report writer. What we have now is straight up text that is kind of marked up if you will. I think that we are stuck with the text and won't be able to use VFP report writer.
>
>Does anyone know what we can do to turn manipulated text strings into PDFs?

For pure, flowing text I'd use Markdown.
Tables are also ok, Header and Footer can be filled with small tables
to allow different info there.

Summarizing items on a page can be done, but via "raw Markdown"
as described in PanDoc I'd NOT do / learn unless certain of need to repeat
regurlarly and often -perhaps searching in / switching to R-Markdown,
as analyzed data often has to be published, they might have packages
already set up for such jobs.

For scattershot Form letters I still use Word to automate basic fields
and append text part written in Markdown first,
then converted into Word stream either via Pandoc or other tools.

Markdown is GREAT if you aim for different screen sizes
(is streamlined HTML IAC), the fixed output is an afterthought -
but tables I'd load into Excel and then paste into Word sections
can be done without Excel or Word ;-)

YMMV
thomas