I'd like to build a cross-platform (linux and Windows at least) Python app that provides end users with the ability to create and modify layout templates for printed documents. These templates will be used to generate documents by merging them with the results of DB queries.
It's important that the system be relatively easy to use and also provide a relatively high level of flowing options. For example it should be possible to specify that, of the space available, a certain box will occupy a minimum amount of space, and expand (with scaling font size) to fill additional available space, determined dynamically based on the contents of a given result set's fields. It's important that the layout be very space-efficient, so it needs to build the layout using a smooth, fine-grained precision, rather than splitting it into lines.
I'm considering using openoffice's form builder, but I'd really prefer to be able to tune the available options down to a comprehensible, applicable set. Perhaps it's possible to use its widgets without running a full writer app? It still seems a bit of a monolithic and heavyweight solution for a goal that is fairly modularizable in nature. Also, it seems like some of my goals can't be met by this approach with requiring the user to delve into code.
Is there a freely available module, toolkit, or application that provides this functionality? It's preferable, though not absolutely necessary, that the templating system be integrated into the rest of the app.