Mark is right about the fax really being an image (most likely a TIFF). I've had to do some rather ugly things like this before and what I did was use ImageMagick to convert the pdf to a tiff, place the second image atop it in the correct spot, then merge the layers and save it out as a another image (or pdf in this case).
If you can change your process, you might take a look at Adobe's LiveCycle products. They are designed to do document (including paper) management and workflow things. I don't have much experience with the tools, but I investigated it a little bit when I was looking at the possibility of taking paper forms and turning them into pdf forms that users could fill out online. And lastly you might take a look at Apache's FOP project.It uses style sheets and XML to programmatically create PDFs (and other formats). You could create an XSL:FO style sheet to take two source images (the pdf of the fax and the image of the signature), place them through CSS, then output the resultant document to PDF. I've had to do this before and it takes a bit to wrap your head around but in the end, its just XML and CSS. Cheers, Judah On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 2:43 PM, Mark Kruger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Chris, > > Since you are working with faxes you are not "really" working with a PDF. > In > reallity you are working with a TIFF file or JPG that is embedded in the > PDF > - one tiff or jpg for each "page" of the PDF. If you know the page you need > to work on you can do the following: > > Extract the page as an image. > Overlay your signature image in the proper position on the extracted image. > Reassemble the PDF as a new PDF File (this might mean extracting each image > and stringing them together again). > > CF 8's new image libraries are excellent for this sort of thing. > > Some things to keep in mind. The image qualify of the fax will vary greatly > so getting this right might be a bit of a crap shoot. Also, you can't > predict how the pages come in in your fax document. For example, if someone > faxes correctly the "first" page is the cover page, but what if they fax > backwards? What if they get pages upside down? There are a good number > possible human errors that can be introduced using FAX. > > -Mark > > > > > > Mark A. Kruger, CFG, MCSE > (402) 408-3733 ext 105 > www.cfwebtools.com > www.coldfusionmuse.com > www.necfug.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris Jordan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 10:35 AM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: I need some help figuring this out... > > *bump*... anyone? Thoughts? > > Thanks, > Chris > > On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 3:17 PM, Chris Jordan > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > > Hi folks, > > > > I need some help figuring something out, and after searching the web a > > bit on my own, and posting this question to my local CFUG, I thought > > I'd pose the problem to everyone here on CFTalk to see what came of it. > > > > Okay, so I need to write a program that checks an email account which > > will be receiving emails with PDF attachments. That part is no > > problem. The program then needs to embed an image onto the PDF in a > > specific physical location on the document. Technically speaking this > > will be an image of someone's signature, but for the sake of > > discussion it can be any image I want. Once the signature (image) has > > been affixed to the PDF, it is then saved and reprinted and then > > someone faxes that final printing to the end recipient. > > > > I don't have too much control (*read: basically none*) over the PDF > > before it gets to me. The reason being is that it starts life out as > > an *actual paper document* which is then faxed to a service (efax > > corporate, I think). That faxed image is turned into a PDF file and > > emailed to a predetermined email address. > > > > Is this going to be possible for me to do programmatically? The idea > > is that the person who needs to sign the document logs into the web > > based app., selects the document they want to sign, and the program > > takes care of putting the right signature in the right place on the > > document and re-saving it. > > > > My client currently accomplishes this by carrying around a tablet PC. > > They then check their email, save the attachment, open the PDF with > > Adobe Acrobat Pro, and sign using the touch screen. They want to be > > able to do this from a Treo 755p instead. That's where the web based > > app. with passwords and pre-captured signatures comes in. > > > > I got a suggestion from my boss that I try to use the CF Report > > Builder to build a report that would contain two generic objects: A > > PDF (to be passed > > in) and a signature (to be passed in). This generic report would allow > > me to position each of the generic objects as I want, and then I'd > > call the report passing it an original PDF and a signature image. He > > has apparently done this sort of thing before in FoxPro's in-built report > writer. > > > > I've played around with that last idea a bit this afternoon, but I > > can't seem to figure out a way to get CF Report Builder to do what I > > want. I'm wondering if something like Crystal Reports would allow me > > to do what I'm wanting. The problem there is that I've never used > > Crystal, and my client would have to purchase a copy even though I > > don't know that it would allow me to do what I'm wanting to do any more > than CF Report Builder. > > > > Attached is an image of one of these signed PDF files with some > > sensitive information blurred out. > > > > Any and all help is much appreciated. > > > > Cheers! > > Chris > > > > > > -- > > http://cjordan.us > > > > > > -- > http://cjordan.us > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:312098 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
