Printing via Web-based fP

[Bob Rasmussen]

See inline comments below.

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007, Fairlight wrote:

> Okay, I have a question.  Printing not being my specialty, I'm more than
> willing to defer to some outside knowledge.
> 
> We have a solution we will want to print from.  Our needs right now are
> fairly lean, but specific.  More may be added later, however, so I need to
> think in the long term.
> 
> Basically, right now we have both reports and forms that have simple but
> specific formats, and involve text and line drawing.
> 
> My thought was to originally do this with HTML+CSS, but that just plain is
> -not- viable in my opinion (and in fact), as you really can't control some
> factors adequately.  Printing directly from that format is dicey at best.

You're right, it is very difficult to get reliable, repeatable printing 
from a web browser.

> My next two alternatives to look at were PrintWiz+WePO, and going with PDF.
> 
> PW/WePO has some things going for it.  For one, I've worked with it before.
> Well, with WePO anyway.  The PW side should be pretty much like any other
> report designing.  I -think- it's a matter of a different printcode table
> as far as fP is concerned.  If I'm mistaken, tell me, as that's a key
> assumption--that the learning curve would be shallow on that end of the
> output design because it's very similar to designing normal reports.  On
> the downsides are cost ($1500 is relatively reasonable in my opinion, but
> it's not my budget, it's the client's), and compatibility--namely that it's
> an ActiveX-only control, which means either IE, or FireFox with IETab
> installed as a plugin.  So far, that's the only way it's going to work.
> This may be viable short-term, but I'm not so sure about long-term,
> especially at that price.

You've pretty much nailed it. WePO (which is an ActiveX incarnation of 
Print Wizard) can take PCL generated by your filePro with an existing 
printcode table. Or, you can switch to PW's printcode table, causing fP to 
generate Print Wizard Markup Language. This starts out compatible with the 
Asman PCL tables, but can more more easily adapt to higher-level functions 
such as including a barcode, a logo, or a form overlay.

> PDF...is a whole other can of worms.  I have looked at a LOT of solutions
> in the last week.  Basically I've been looking at PCL to PDF converters.  I
> can't find one for under $795, and I didn't have entire confidence in that
> particular one.  Seems like $1900+ is about standard for this
> functionality.  The one that comes highly recommended, jetpcl, is just an
> ungodly sum of money to pay for the functionality, especially in the
> context of the project as a whole.
> 
> I've looked at ghostpcl, but the problem is that I'm on Windows for this
> project.  The instructions for compiling under MVSC++ do not hold up under
> the 2005 Express Edition of VC++, and I can't find a precompiled binary
> distribution of it (I'm wondering -why-, but the fact remains it apparently
> can't be had).

Since you're running a Windows box on the server end, you could run Print 
Wizard (not WePO) in a command-line mode in order to translate PCL to PDF. 
$300. Same printcode options as above.

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

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
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