[Cialug] pdf thing (again)

Fri Nov 3 09:51:18 CST 2006

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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> > Cialug at cialug.org
> > http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> > 
> 
> 
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Dave J. Hala Jr., President <dave at osis.us>
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