[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > Is it a requirement you start with .pdf? You could do it with > > DocBook XML from a web page, or use PHP's PDF functionality to do it > > as well (http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pdf.php). > > > These are US government forms, which are only available as .pdf. > Otherwise I wouldn't be interested in the conversion. I'm working on the same problem myself. I have a HUD multipage form which needs to be filled in programmatically. A custom program fills it in fine, however, each time the form is revised the program must be revised. The current revision procedure is tedious & clunky at best. The programmer does not have time to modify the program for each printer. (Yes, his program is printer dependent.) Here are my suggestions which parallel the multiple paths I'm pursuing. 1) Get the source. The form is a PDF (final form, not fillable, not revisable). I'm trying to get the original PageMaker 6.5 document from which the PDF was generated with Adobe Distiller. Even better would be getting the original author (HUD) to distill it as a fillable PDF form. 2) Parse the PDF. Barring that happy event, I'm working on parsing the PDF and inserting field place holders so a Perl script could populate the PDF which could then be printed. 3) Convert & Edit the Postscript. Alternatively, I can convert the PDF to Postscript and manually edit in the place holders, but this is rather painful. Perhaps I could edit it with some tool which edits PostScript. (I know there's at least one under Linux, but I can't think of the name right now.) (Adobe Illustrator might work.) 4) Programmatic Overlay. Lastly, I can generate the print file for the PDF form and position the field elements in the correct places. (This is what the programmer does by hand. It takes him a week or several for each printer. He manually aligns each field's position and fonts by handwriting PCL.) I have some code I wrote a decade again to generate the overlay in PCL or Postscript. I can define a database with the field elements and their relative positions, sizes, fonts, etc. Aligning one point would align the rest - in theory. Any other thoughts would be welcome. Anything I develop, I will let you know of. Linux is the best solution for this problem so far. Tools like pdf2ps, ghostscript (for rendering & previewing), perl (of course), pdf tool kits - all these exist with source code. Now all I have to do is make it all work in a timely manner. :-) -- Dan Jenkins ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA, 1-603-627-0443 *** Technical Support for over a Quarter Century
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