The Etches Journal

Engineering insights on code-first document generation, design systems for print, and building production-grade PDF pipelines.

Engineering

Feb 12, 2026

8 min read

Why Code-First Document Generation Beats Drag-and-Drop at Scale

Drag-and-drop editors break at 100 documents. Code-first engines scale to millions. Here's a practical comparison of both approaches with real architecture trade-offs.

Read Article

Des

design-tokenstailwind+3

Design7 min read

Design Tokens: One System for Screen and Print

Your website uses Tailwind tokens for colors and spacing. Your PDF invoices use hardcoded hex values. Here's how to unify them with a single design token pipeline.

Etches EngineeringFeb 6, 2026

Tut

jsxreact+4

Tutorial10 min read

JSX Components as Document Templates: A Practical Guide

Forget DOCX mail merge. Modern document templates are React components that accept props and render to PDF. Here's how to build them.

Etches EngineeringJan 30, 2026

Tec

css-gridflexbox+3

Technical9 min read

CSS Grid and Flexbox in PDF: How Modern Layouts Work in Print

Web developers use Flexbox and Grid daily. Here's how these same layout algorithms produce precise, multi-page PDF documents.

Etches EngineeringJan 22, 2026

Tec

fontspdf+3

Technical6 min read

Font Subsetting: Why Your PDFs Are 10x Larger Than They Need to Be

A single font file can be 500KB. A subsetted font with only the glyphs your document uses? Under 15KB. Here's how font subsetting works and why it matters.

Etches EngineeringJan 15, 2026