Depending on which platform you are using and targeting, you might want to consider a reporting solution. These are not perfect but the one thing they do give you is the ability to write a report once and then render it in HTML, PDF, or even Excel.
Usually they also provide an editor that helps you design the report and make it look just right. They provide things like paging, headers, footers, graphs, etc. They also provide an API that you can use to programatically create and run the reports.
I've used Reporting Services in a MS environment and Jasper Reports in a Java environment with good results in both. I'm sure there are other options but these are the ones I've been able to use successfully.
