I’ve been using ReportLabs to make pdfs in Python. It took some getting used to but I can put together just about anything I can imagine. I still get a little lost when I need to dig into the source code and how it generates pdfs from templates though.

Depends on the project. If it’s for fun, sure make all the square wheels you want and learn how to make them round. But if you just want your project to work you’d find something to use. Really depends on the developers goals.

What helps me is asking Copilot to try doing it. When it spits out garbage; if it hits any of my targets I can tune it from there.