Classics Forum

RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep

Posted By: Joel W Schumacher
Date: Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:02 p.m.

In Response To: What are you using to produce nice looking reports (ROGER BURTON)

We also integrate forms printing on HP PCL printers with 4GL, though we
generally incorporate C routines to print the forms.

We've done it a few different ways.

1) Learn the PCL and call a C function to "paint" the form (or call the
macro once it's programmed). Then, your REPORT fills in the form. Very
similar to what you do now, but we're actually coding the look of the
form.

2) Use 4GL to gather the data, then do all of the form "painting" and
filling out of the form in C. Call C functions to pass the data you
want to print. This tends to make the "prettiest" reports because you
can use all kinds of extra features like bold, different font sizes,
etc., to print your data.

3) Sometimes we have to deal with new forms from the US Post Office.
What I've done recently to reduce the hand-coding of replicating the
form is to take the PDF file from the post office and bring it into
Paint Shop Pro (I use ver 8.1). Then, I can save it as a graphic like a
BMP. You can either code C routines to read/print the graphic. Or,
I've developed routines to read the graphic and convert it to a
ready-to-print PCL file. When I need to print it, I just read the PCL
file and send it out to the printer. Of course I still have to
rearrange the "fill-in-the-blanks" pieces, which can either be in 4GL or
C.

#3 has really reduced the time for us to incorporate new forms. And the
post office changes them pretty regularly. It beats having to hand-code
PCL to "try" to replicate the appearance of the original. But, because
you're essentially printing a full-page graphic instead of drawing a few
lines and putting some labels on the page, it can require more printer
memory and take longer to send the initial graphic (which, the first
time you send it, you'd program it as a macro, then use the macro
thereafter).

I know it's pretty kludgy, but if we can get a form as an image file or
as a PDF (and convert it to an image), we can print it pretty easily.
Portable Bitmap and BMP are fairly easy formats to decode, but they are
large. That's why I wrote the code to convert them to PCL, which is a
compressed form. It makes for smaller distribution files.

I also know there are PCL to PDF converters available for various
platforms because I looked into that once. Instead of outputting to
your printer, output to a file and then run this program to convert it
to PDF. Or maybe you can open a pipe right to the converter.

But beware and try to obtain a demo or a money-back guarantee first
because I've downloaded trial versions that don't do such a good job at
rendering the PCL.

-----Original Message-----
From: classics-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:classics-bounces@iiug.org] On
Behalf Of ROGER BURTON
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 2:35 PM
To: classics@iiug.org
Subject: What are you using to produce nice looking reports [2916]

Hello all,=20

I'm VERY NEW to this game - forgive me if I've slotted this in the wrong

place, but it seemed the most appropriate option of those presented to
me. I'm=20
sure I'll hear about it if there is a better place.=20

I have used Informix-4GL (exclusively) to run the bulk of our operations
and I=20
would like to continue to follow this path. Until recently, the
production of=20
"documents" (Invoices, POs, Statements ...) was accomplished by running
an=20
Informix Report and invoking a "form" (created with a third-party bit of

software that was stored as a "macro" on an HP printer) as an overlay.
The=20
static portion (a.k.a. the pretty portion) of the document being the
Macro,=20
and the data (the dynamic portion) being supplied by the Informix
Report. It=20
looks respectable; monochrome and a little plain, but respectable.=20

This has served us well for many years. However, this solution is
becoming=20
more and more difficult to support as the original (forms generation)
software=20
is becoming more and more antiquated [it came on 5 1/4" floppies - just
to=20
give you an idea]. Enough is enough, I said, time to re-evaluate. I
further=20
speculated that this (the IIUG site) would be a good mechanism to poll
what=20
others (YOU) are doing if you have a similar situation in YOUR
environment.=20
I'd like to know how others (you) are resolving this?=20

Resolving the aforementioned would be great, but if your solution also=20
encompasses the conditional creation of a PDF file that can be e-mailed,
that=20
would make for a more complete solution. (And I'd look like a superstar
around=20
here.)=20

I am grateful for ALL input and I thank you in advance.=20

************************************************************************
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Messages In This Thread

• What are you using to produce nice looking reports
  ROGER BURTON -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 3:34 p.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    McGrath, Colin -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 3:59 p.m.
  • Re: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    Art Kagel -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 4:10 p.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    McGrath, Colin -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 4:19 p.m.
    • Re: RE: What are you using to produce nice looking
      ERICK NASSAR -- Monday, 27 October 2008, at 11:52 a.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    Joel W Schumacher -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:02 p.m.
  • Re: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    DOUG ANDERSON -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:21 p.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    Miguel Caldera -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:59 p.m.
  • Re: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    David Gerdt -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 7:32 p.m.

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