bubble forms

[nutcase]

Crystal 6.0

I'm using crystal to print 100,000+ "bubble" forms, (you know the fill in the circle with a No. 2 pencil but stay inside the lines) type form. These are sent to customers who fill in some more circles and send them back. We then read them with an optical scanner, (don’t even ask, you don’t want to know).

The forms are generated from an SQL stored procedure. The best character I have been able to find is an upper case M in courier 12 pt bold. This still does not “fill in the circle” enough. In the old mainframe days we used to print a W on top of an M in the same print positions.

Anyone have any ideas?

BTW, there are 300+ “bubbles” on the form of which I bubble in about 30% and the customer bubbles in some more.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[foxdev]

If practical, how about a Wingdings2 0xC5 character?

Robert Bradley

http://www.foxdev.com/

 

[kenhamady]

Crystal can print one character on top of another, but it will take 2 separate objects.

So if you are using a formula that says:

If boolean then "m" else ''

you will need another one that says

If boolean then "w" else ''

place both objects one over the other and they will both print in the same spot.

Are you writing from the Florida Elections Commissions? Ken Hamady

http://www.kenhamady.com/

Crystal Reports Training and a
Quick Reference Guide to VB/Crystal

 

[nutcase]

Thanks for the ideas!

Robert, I tried the wingding route but I have to print at exactly 6 characters per inch to hit the bubbles. That's why I'm using the courier 12 pt bold. I also tried building a character in bmp, same problem.

Ken, I have been working on the overlay concept and it seems to be working, however the code I'm having to write is getting very complex. In the SQL stored procedure that builds each of the 300+ fields, I'm building two fields for each bubble, one set to an M and the second set to @. Then in the crystal report I just lay the two fields on top of one another. Double printing is achieved and almost 85% of the bubble is filled in.

I'm not at the Florida Elections Commissions but it looks like we are both using 25 year old technology.

the other
Ken

 

[kenhamady]

Rack one up for The Kludge! Ken Hamady

http://www.kenhamady.com/

Crystal Reports Training and a
Quick Reference Guide to VB/Crystal