[Cialug] pdf thing (again)

[David Champion]

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? 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>