Embedding Fonts in FRX 2

[Persmd]

I am using VFP 9.0 and have been assigned a seemingly impossible task.

We are developing an application where the user must fill in an externally created propietary Adobe PDF form having fillable fields. We of course would like to auto-populate all the fields with data from our application's database.

The end result is the user prints the form (filled in) mails it to a data center where it undergos OCR input into the recipient's system.

Of course this all starts with an FRX in VFP. This was easily created, but exact alignment of the data became impossible because the original PDF uses fonts which are 11.98 points and 9.94 points instead of 12 points and 10 points. These font sets are not readily availabe to us. But if they were I would like to embed them into the FRX without actually installing them into our clients' operating system(s).

Is this possible? If so, does anyone know a way to do it. If it's not possible, does anyone have any suggestions that might help me solve this problem.

Thanks,
Michael

I feel a lot more like I do now...
than I did when I first got here!

Michael

 

[craigber]

First issue.. do you have a license to distribute the fonts?

Second issue.. Even if you could embed the fonts in the FRX, the PDF program (typically Adobe) won't see them there.




Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com/blog

 

[Persmd]

Craig,

That wasn't useful at all.

First if the fonts were available to me, I would have a license.

Second, I'm not looking for "the PDF program" to see them.

Thanks

I feel a lot more like I do now...
than I did when I first got here!

Michael

 

[Mike Lewis]

Michael,

Actually, I thought Craig made a very good point. Just because the fonts are available to you, it doesn't mean you are legally entitled to distribute them. A font is subject to copyright, just like any other creative work.

But to get back to the technical issues, I don't understand why the fonts have to be precisely the sizes you mentioned. If the end-product is a document that is goint to be input into an OCR process, why does it matter what the font size is, provided that the OCR can read it?

Also, are you the sizes are in fact different? The very small differences you mentioned could be caused by the two different definitions of a point - the traditional printer's point (one twelth of a pica, or approx 0.3527 mm), and the more common approximation of 72 points to one inch.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[Persmd]

I guess I just imagined my situation.

Thanks for all the help.

I feel a lot more like I do now...
than I did when I first got here!

Michael

 

[craigber]

Michael,

I directly answered your question. The fact that you don't like the answer is the issue.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com/blog

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I can imageine the exact size of the font matters, of the OCR is not simply done on the whole docuement, but the form template part is filled in with certain outputs.

I can imagine the unfilled PDF forms are printed and then this same sheets are printed on with a FRX only outputting some form areas.

Wahtever is done exactly, I imagine the whole process could be simplified by using the Amyuni PDF Suite, which you can automate within VFP and which allows filling in the PDF forms directly. Fonts and FRXes would play no more role in that.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Persmd]

Thank you Olaf.

I feel a lot more like I do now...
than I did when I first got here!

Michael

 

[DSummZZZ]

But if they were I would like to embed them into the FRX without actually installing them into our clients' operating system(s).

To answer that question, no. You can't embed fonts in a FRX. They have to be installed on the system in order for the system to find them.
The report writer only uses fonts it finds on the system, as does any printer drivers generating output.


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[Persmd]

Thank you Dave.

I feel a lot more like I do now...
than I did when I first got here!

Michael