I once did this for a client that needed spec sheets with unit-specific test data from a database. LaTeX is great because it is easy to generate programmatically. Making nice PDFs is easy.
Exporting to HTML via htlatex is possible, but may require a lot of fine-tuning. Depending on the content, it may be easier to generate the LaTeX/PDF and HTML separately, or to generate only parts of the HTML using htlatex.
LaTeX special symbols are much easier to use than UTF8. It is easier to type -- and be sure that you have properly entered -- en-dashes, non-breaking spaces, fractions, degree symbols, directional quotation marks, and other non-keyboard characters.
Exporting to HTML via htlatex is possible, but may require a lot of fine-tuning. Depending on the content, it may be easier to generate the LaTeX/PDF and HTML separately, or to generate only parts of the HTML using htlatex.
LaTeX special symbols are much easier to use than UTF8. It is easier to type -- and be sure that you have properly entered -- en-dashes, non-breaking spaces, fractions, degree symbols, directional quotation marks, and other non-keyboard characters.