[Cialug] pdf thing (again)

[Barry Von Ahsen]

agreed - it took me 4-5 hours to get the w9 form laid out correctly

-barry


Dave J. Hala Jr. wrote:
> I hate to say it, but designing the forms on a windows box using acrobat
> pro, was pretty easy. I'd never used it before and it only took me a few
> minutes to figure it out. At moment, I'd say that is definitely the way
> to design/create the pdf forms.
> 
> I like the control that you have with ezpdf, but I don't think that
> designing my forms that way will be cost effective as my forms are 
> fairly complex.
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 09:41, David Champion wrote:
>> We've used both ezpdf and pdf-lib. Not ironically, ezpdf is easier to 
>> work with. But setting up large / complex forms is still a pain.
>>
>> At least the tool that DH is using lets you design the forms in a GUI.
>>
>> -dc
>>
>> Barry Von Ahsen wrote:
>>> we use ezpdf (http://www.ros.co.nz/pdf/) here at work to generate 
>>> contracts and w9 forms from database data.  the initial setup of a form 
>>> can be a bit difficult (you can pixel position everything, if you wanted 
>>> to), but the price is perfect :)
>>>
>>> -barry
>>>
>>> (some sample code)
>>> include_once('class.ezpdf.php');
>>> $pdf = new Cezpdf('letter','portrait');
>>> $pdf->ezSetMargins(43,30,30,50);
>>> $bf_size = 12;
>>>
>>> $mainFont =  '/fonts/Helvetica.afm';
>>> $pdf->selectFont($mainFont);
>>>     
>>> // SET DOCUMENT INFO
>>> $pdf->addInfo('Title', 'My PDF');
>>> $pdf->addInfo('Subject', 'Test');
>>> $pdf->addInfo('Author', 'Me');
>>> $pdf->addInfo('Producer', 'Myself');
>>> $pdf->addInfo('CreationDate', date("m/d/Y h:i:s A") );
>>>
>>> $txt = "This is a paragraph\n";
>>> $pdf->ezText($txt,$bf_size,array('justification'=>'left'));
>>>     
>>> $txt = "Your name is: " . $database_variable . "\n";
>>> $pdf->ezText($txt,$bf_size,array('justification'=>'left'));
>>>
>>> if($stream) {
>>>     $pdf->ezStream();
>>> } else {
>>>     $pdfcode = $pdf->ezOutput();
>>>     $fh = fopen("/path/to/pdf",rb);
>>>     fwrite($fh, $pdfcode);
>>> }
>>>
>>>
>>> Dave J. Hala Jr. wrote:
>>>> Basically what I did when trying out pdf-tools' form filling tool was to
>>>> load the pdf form into acrobat professional. Then I defined the data
>>>> fields and saved the form.
>>>>
>>>> To fill the form, I read the data from the database, and passed the
>>>> information to the form filling tool on the command line. Their tool
>>>> took the original pdf and the data and created a new, filled out pdf. It
>>>> was slick and it worked well. Smoking fast, with almost no overhead.
>>>>
>>>> I'm not against forking out $2k for pdf-tools's software. However, I
>>>> have all dual cpu machines and possibly a quad coming in the future.
>>>> That will raise my licensing fees considerably. Don't get me wrong,
>>>> pdf-tools is well worth the money and they have excellant support.
>>>> However, if I can find a lower cost alternative, I could be more
>>>> competitive.
>>>>
>>>> :) Dave
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 07:42, carl-olsen at mchsi.com wrote:
>>>>> From what I see, it looks like it would be possible to build the FDF
>>>>> file using PHP and data from a database.  I'm not too familiar with
>>>>> running command line instructions using PHP, but I'm sure that its not
>>>>> difficult.  I'm wondering if I can create the form using Acrobat and
>>>>> then use this tool to fill in the form fields, or whether the PDF has
>>>>> to be created using this tool.  I know how to create a form with fill
>>>>> in fields using Acrobat, but I'd be lost if I had to create one from a
>>>>> command line.
>>>>>
>>>>>  
>>>>>
>>>>> I know how to capture form fields from a PDF and put the data into a
>>>>> database, but I never could figure out how to populate the fields from
>>>>> the database later when I wanted to print out a copy of a form that
>>>>> someone filled out using a web browser.  The options I found at that
>>>>> time were very expensive.  I looked at the IRS website and found the
>>>>> tool they were using was about half the price of the Adobe tools, but
>>>>> it was still several thousand dollars.
>>>>>
>>>>>  
>>>>>
>>>>> Carl Olsen
>>>>>
>>>>> Web Developer
>>>>>
>>>>> Drake University
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>         -------------- Original message from "Dave J. Hala Jr."
>>>>>         <dave at 58ghz.net>: --------------                         > 
>>>>> I've been experimenting with a trial version of PDF Tools
>>>>>         form filling         > tool. (www.pdf-tools.com) It takes an 
>>>>> existing pdf, and
>>>>>         allows you to         > insert data into the form fields in 
>>>>> the pdf.         >         > It works awesome. However, its priced by 
>>>>> CPU. This makes it
>>>>>         a little         > pricey on a dual cpu server or a dual core 
>>>>> server. I'm
>>>>>         looking for a         > lower cost alternative.         > 
>>>>>         > I found something called pdftk or PDF Toolkit         >
>>>>>         
>>>>> http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/04/17/1943230&tid=47
>>>>>         >         > It seems to be the solution I'm looking for. Has 
>>>>> anyone had
>>>>>         any         > experience with it before? 
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