Help with producing forms

rbuser

I have to produce some legal forms using RB7. I have the original form in a
9 page PDF document. I extracted these pages as PNG files and then
converted them to GIF files.

I used the GIF images as report backgrounds and then overlaid the data text
on top but the report prints far too slow because it is of course a graphic.

I beleive the correct way to do it is to convert the PDF to WMF which is
still a vector type image and should print faster. I don't know of a tool
that can do this.

So my questions are:
1. Is this the correct way to proceed ?
2. How can I convert PDF to WMF images ?

Thanks

nicocizik

Hi Andrew,

1. Yes, using a WMF instead of a GIF will give you the best possible image
resolution and spacing.

2. I have never used a conversion tool like this personally but I'm sure
some other customers will chime in with their experiences. You may also
check out Gnostice, (http://www.gnostice.com). I know they have a PDF
toolkit that may do these conversions for you.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

I found a way to convert PDF to WMF using Adobe Illustrator.

I now have a WMF file but it is not drawing correctly in RB at all. The
fonts are completely the wrong size for a start.

The WMF should be ok because it looks and prints correctly from Windows XP
picture & fax viewer.

I have sent an example WMF file to your support email together with a GIF
image showing what it should look like.

I hope I am going to be able to get this to work because I don't see another
way of producing forms with RB.

rbuser

Hi, Andrew

Take a look at Grid Pack for ReportBuilder at
http://www.planitechnologies.com, it used to design very complex fill-in
form reports, it will save you a lot of time, since it saves necessary
information into your reports, so the speed of loadding report and printing
is very faster compare to loading whole backgroud images/graphics.

William

rbuser

Thanks I had a look at it but it still seems a lot of work to create a form.
I have quite a lot of forms to do and it would still be a lot easier to try
and use their original PDF image.

Your help file makes no mention of how to use your grid controls in the RB
runtime designer. I design all of my reports at runtime because by
application data is not available at design time.

nardmoseley

Thanks for sending the example. From testing it in Delphi, in RB and in MS
Word, the wmf as it appers in Delphi and RB is not scaling properly. The
form is longer and wider than in MS Word. I researched it, but do not have a
solution.

ReportBuilder relies upon Delphi's TPicture object and the Windows
PlayEnhMetaFile function to render metafile images.

Make sure that you creating an enhanced windows metafile rather than a the
older 16-bit style meta file.

You might try to find another conversion program and see whether you get
better results.

From searching Google Groups, I saw some comments by Danny Thorpe concerning
WMF internals and accuracy. It was informative but no solution was provided.
Search Goolge Groups on 'Delphi draw accurate wmf' and look for
'Windows MetaFile (wmf) shows distorted'

We can continue to research it was time allows...


--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors Corporation
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

> Make sure that you creating an enhanced windows metafile rather than a the
I'm not sure I know how to tell ?

Anyway I have a solution to the problem:
1. Extract a page from the PDF and save it as a graphic.
2. Change the graphic to another colour e.g. light green.
3. Put the image on the RB page.
4. Put text and line controls etc over the top of the image to replicate it.
You can see how it lines up against the light green image.
5. When satisifed, delete the green image and you have now duplicated the
page and it will print quickly.

This of course takes quite a while to do.

What we really need is for someone to create a new RB control that can load
a PDF and display one page of it as a background on the RB page. I would
gladly pay several hundred $ for such a component. Any volunteers ?

rbuser

Hi, Andrew

The demo EXE located on my download page exactly tells you how to use my
grid component at run time, since there is a button which launches the RB
run time designer, and you would see 5 extra grid pack controls on the RB
control palette.

Again, I would disgree to load PDF or any kind of graphic images as a whole
page backgroud, it would cause the speed to be very slower.

William