[Info-vax] OpenVMS printing to PDF

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Dirk Munk skrev den 2015-05-20 12:28:
> Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>> Dirk Munk skrev den 2015-05-20 01:23:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Indeed a PDF tool can do that. But think of a billing program that
>>> produces
>>> PDF output files. Similar to FMS, you first produce a PDF form with named
>>> fields, and then you fill those named fields in your application. When
>>> the
>>> form has been completed you write the pdf form, as an individual form, or
>>> all of them as one big file, just as you choose.
>>>
>>
>>
>> That is mostly what the JetForm siute of applications did.
>> Used JetForm Design to design a form (Windows based).
>> Applications created a flat text file with the "data".
>> Jetform Merge (we used the VMS version) then inserts
>> the data into the form and (in that case) produced a
>> PCL5 file to be printed. With logos and barcodes.
>>
>> A "PDF form" is usualy something that should be filled in
>> interactively using the Adobe Reader and is something quite
>> different.
>>
>> Jan-Erik.
>
> A PDF form (or FDF)...

The FDF file is not the *form*, it is the data file to be
filled into the form (which is still a PDF file).

> ...can be filled in interactively of course, but also by
> an application. Just Google a bit and you will find many
> applications that can do this.
>

Something like this, I guess:
http://www.pdf-tools.com/pdf/pdf-form-filling-flattening.aspx

The popular opensource alternative seem to he PDFtk (PDF ToolKit).
https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/
https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-server/

PDFtk would be nice to have ported to VMS. On *my* list this
comes *way* ahead of a web-browser...

Here is a nice tutorial on the process:
http://www.myown1.com/linux/pdf_formfill.shtml


> There are also quite a number of applications that can read the filled in
> data from FDF files. Contrary to a web page, a FDF form is rigid,...

The FDF file is not the form. And the usual approach seems to use
"flattening" in the "fillin" operation. That removes the "forms"
attributes from the PDF file so that it is not editable using
simple PDF form tools anymore. It is just a plain flat PDF file.


> ...it [FDF] can not change it's appearance.

The FDF file is just a simple specielly formatted PS file.
There is an exmaple on the tutorial page above.

Jan-Erik.