PDF Forms - a new approach (At least for us)

[Tom Podnar]

I have to agree with Jay here.

I looked at various methods for what I needed to do, and a big factor in the final decision was that PostScript is the most accurate (page layout wise) method of describing forms to be changed into PDF. And many, many applications can "print to PostScript", both in Linux and Windows. In Windows you can create a generic PostScript to file printer that works with most apps (with a little editing). Linux is usually even cleaner.

My designer method happened to be of the "fork nearest to hand" variety. Although our documentation source is all in FrameMaker, I've been using CorelDRAW since the earliest days, and the latest release has its own built in "Device Independent PostScript File" printer definition which generates cleaner PostScript output than most Windows drivers. So I can literally change my form sources in seconds, print them as a PostScript file to my template directory, and the next form that gets processed as a PDF will automatically use the updated template.

Our forms don't have any transparency, drop shadows and the like, although they are easy enough to add, but incorporate color, inverse text, rounded corners on boxes and the like to make them a bit more readable.

Tom Podnar

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay Ashworth" <jra at baylink.com>
To: "FilePro Mailing List" <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 10:11:24 PM
Subject: Re: PDF Forms - a new approach (At least for us)

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fairlight" <fairlite at fairlite.com>

> No, it must be automated.
> 
> The idea is to leverage HTML and CSS3 to make more attractive PDFs than you
> can get away with using PCL5 from native filePro. Colour, better layout,
> drop-shadows, rounded corners, etc.

HTML/CSS is not the intermediate language I would pick enroute to PDF, 
unless you were there already for some reason; you're going to have to
impose additional constraints on the rendering to get anywhere at all.

"We know how to write in that" isn't really a sufficient justification
for picking an intermediate language for this task, IMNSHO.  :-)

Since I'm about to have to dig this hole myself, I'm somewhat sympathetic...

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates       http://www.bcp38.info          2000 Land Rover DII
St Petersburg FL USA      BCP38: Ask For It By Name!           +1 727 647 1274
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