"ouch: the beginning of the end"

[Mark Waddingham]

On 2017-03-08 14:51, Roger Eller via use-livecode wrote:
> So... Why not convert the forms to high-res (300+ dpi) PNG or JPEG as 
> Mark
> suggests as one of the many options, and overlay LiveCode fields to 
> create
> an app for filling the form?  Once filled in, merge the high-res image 
> with
> the collected field data into a fresh new PDF generated via the Quartum 
> PDF
> Library (using 100% LiveCode scripting).
> 
> http://users.telenet.be/quartam/pdf4rev/benefits.html
> 

This sounds like a good balance. I should perhaps point out (after my 
previous
slightly 'gloomy' post) that generating PDF files by hand for specific 
cases
is not that hard as they are mostly text files (in their simplest form).

In Dr Hawkins case, it sounds like images + overlaid text is sufficient 
and as
long as the text is ASCII then Quartam PDF's abilities should be more 
than up
to the task.

[ The reason I mention ASCII text here is that one of the hardest parts 
of
generating PDF (and PostScript, to be fair) is actually text rendering. 
As
they are both display/print oriented output formats they require text to 
be
fully processed into positioned glyphs taken from subsets of embedded 
fonts.
If however you stick to ASCII, or the slightly larger standard Adobe 
encodings
with the default PostScript fonts then most of the complexity falls 
away. ]

The hard part about PDF support (at both sides) is generality - which is 
what
you need if you have no control over what PDFs are coming in, or what 
might
need to be printed to PDF.

Warmest Regards,

Mark.

-- 
Mark Waddingham ~ mark at livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/
LiveCode: Everyone can create apps