pdf forms printing

[Bob Rasmussen]

It's cleanup day for me, and I found the following email getting moldy:

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004, Rod Caddy wrote:

> We have a project that requires a very quick turn around and fairly
> intense thought process.  We are writing a database for an insurance
> agency that will be printing policies.  What we want to do is scan the
> blank forms and then lay the data over the forms and print them.  We
> would pull the data from filepro and tell the appropriate forms to
> print.  Eventually, we will web enable the project but that is not at
> the top of the list of priorities.  This is on a Windows NT network
> running a mixture of XP and Win98se workstations.  We have done a good
> bit of research on the pdf and fdf merge products and this appears the
> way we want to go.  I would appreciate any input you may have in this
> area.  We have 30 to 45 days to get policies printing.

With our Print Wizard product, you can do the following:

1. Take each PDF file and print-to-file it, using an HP LaserJet 5 (or
similar) PCL printer driver. This gives you a file of PCL.

2. Make sure the filename's extension is ".PCL".

3. Construct your reporting programs to place the data correctly on the
form.

4. Use the "printwiz.prt" file that comes with Print Wizard, installed
into your filePro system, to convert printcodes into PWML language.

5. From filePro, print a report to a disk file.

6. Run Print Wizard, specifying the printfile as the primary file and the
PCL file as the overlay. Use a PCL 5 (not 6) printer.

Print Wizard will analyze the PCL file, strip some stuff off of it, and
load it into one or more macros in the printer. Then it will parse your
printfile, translating the PWML codes, and printing the data, while
triggering the PCL macro(s) for each page. You will then get text over
forms.

Note that this approach can do multi-page forms. If the original PDF is a
multi-page form, you get multiple macros, and these are *cycled* as you
print.

Note also that because no scanning is involved, the output looks very
clean. It is also possible to use a bitmap form overlay, but it can be
difficult to get a PDF converted cleanly to a bitmap.

We have helped someone in Tennessee do this with his software package. He
prints on HUD forms, which are legal size, multi-page. He is successfully
printing them on plain paper, 2-sided. It has saved huge amounts of
employee time.

All this works with Print Wizard 2.6, which is the version in general
release. We also have 2.7 in controlled release (soon to become 3.0, and
start a beta program). With the new version, you have these additional
options:

* Have PW translate the PCL, and render the output on ANY printer.

* Create a PDF.

* Fax the output.

* Pre-store the macro(s) into a PCL printer, and use pre-stored macros.

* Use PCL for the main print file.

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
            fax: (US) 503-624-0760
            web: http://www.anzio.com