The only .NET PDF library on there cost money. If you don't feel like paying for a PDF library, just write yourself a PDF service in Java or Ruby or something, and use one of their free OSS options.
Not .NET specific, but I use WKHtmlToPDF[1] - you feed it a html file via command line and it converts it to PDF using the Webkit engine. Works well for my uses and I actually prefer maintaining html templates.
Same here; I've written a cross-platform (PC and Mac) .NET application that generates reports as HTML in shared code, and both systems create printable output as PDF files created by WKHTMLTOPDF.
Can't you use the Java lib over IKVM ? Won't be the prettiest but will be simpler and faster than going a custom service and spinning up a separate VM.
I would pay quite some money for a good PDF library. I've seen some monstrosities in my career. And never a good one that has the ease of merging data with a template. I heard of people using Microsoft Word templates and saving those to PDF. I don't know if I want to venture in that direction but I definitely understand where it's coming from.
Aspose Words (which costs money, and is only "cheap" if you're a med/large business) is the best PDF generation tool I've worked with recently for .NET, handily beating Aspose PDF. Generate the document(s) you need with templates and data as you say, then save them all as PDF.
