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Topic: Re: Changing text field of an existing PDF (Via Email)
Conf: (P-PDF) Developers, Msg: 31679
From: LeonardR
Date: 12/18/2001 01:44 AM
At 06:28 PM 12/17/2001 +1100, p-pdf-developer Listmanager wrote:
>I can use C, C++, Visual Basic, Javascript or java for the solution.
OK, that's good to know that you're flexible.
>Lets say that I have a standard letter where at the top left I have a
>persons name, address and email. This is in a pdf format. The information
>can be in a special font like "Garamond". Then a user visits the web page
>and then he gets a standard html form which he fills out with his name and
>he posts the form to the server. The server takes the information puts it
>into the pdf file(changes the information already there) and stores the
>new pdf file on the server(or sends it to the printer at the server side).
>The new information will also be in Garamond and in the same position.
OK. Here is what I would recommend.
1) Instead of putting "regular text" in the PDF as a "placeholder", you
should be using PDF form fields. They are designed (just like in HTML) as
a place to put variable data.
2) Purchase a 3rd party server-based form filling tool such as FDFMerge
(http://www.appligent.com) or PDFToolkit (http://www.activepdf.com) that
support "form flattening" with font choices.
3) Use #2 in conjunction with the data from the client to fill in the form
field, and "flatten" it in the font & size of your choice.
4) Use a product such as Ghostscript (http://www.ghostscript.org) to print
the newly flattened PDF.
Leonard
