Re: Mixing PDF files with AS/400 Output

Jon Paris wrote:

My customer regularly receives a PDF file which contains images which must print
in the center of a page.  At the top and bottom of the page they have to place
output generated by the AS/400.  Currently they print the 400 data and someone
with a MAC scans it and overlays it onto the PDF image - not exactly automated
!!  Currently they only get about 8 of these a week so it is not too bad but the
volume is growing ............
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Theoretically, this is feasible.  A PDF document is simply a collection of
pages.  Each page is a collection of print directives: text, graphics or images,
all at specific X/Y coordinates.  Again theoretically, you can read through the
PDF file, copying it to a new PDF file.  As you read the directives for each
page (and write them to the new file), you should then be able to insert your
own text print directives, thereby printing the appropriate AS/400 data.  This
would require a fairly detailed understanding of PDF format and a pretty
extensive use of the PDF classes that I used in my Splf2Pdf class, but there is
no technical reason it couldn't be done.

I'd guess you'd probably have to pay someone a reasonable fee to do it, but if
done correctly, it would have some pretty cool uses.  I'd design it as an
overlay processor, so that you could include images (like logos) to be printed
on each page.  Combined with the CPYSPLFPDF command that Don Denoncourt wrote
(which does all the dirty work of encapsulating my Splf2Pdf routine), you could
do a decent poor man's AFP, combining a static form design with the output from
a standard AS/400 report.

Now that I've stated the problem and solution, I wish I could justify the time
to do it!

Joe


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