Shipping Labels

[wood]

I am needing to create shipping labels that will always be the same. The user enters the information that will be on the label and selects the location where the label starts on a 6 label page. The user also indicates how many labels they need to print. This label must have different text sizes and an image. The labels are then created into a PDF document.

Has anyone done this before, or come across a module that will do this? I have found modules, but they don't allow for different text sizes or images.

If you can point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

The usual way is to create postscript rather than pdf.
There are many modules on CPAN that should help with either route.
I haven't done much of this myself so I don't think I can help much.


Trojan.

 

[wood]

Since I am new to all of this, I will need some direction.

I found a module that will create labels and put the result in a PostScript file. My problem with that is that our users will not be able to see the file and save it, before they print it. That is why I was leaning to a PDF file.

Anyone know how to convert the PostScript file to PDF, before giving it to the user?

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

There are tools that will do that for you, a free tool called ps2pdf (on linux) for example.
As I said, I believe that there are a number of modules on CPAN that can help with creating a pdf.
The reason that most people lean towards postscript is because it's a textual language and, in principle, you can create a postscript file with nothing more than a batch of "print" statements.


Trojan.

 

[TonyGroves]

There's a module on CPAN called PostScript::Simple, which apparently uses vector-drawing functions like "text", "box", "line", etc. to produce PostScript files. I've never used it myself, but it looks like it might be worth looking into. Saves having to learn the Postscript lingo.

 

[duncdude]

why not do it using HTML & CSS?

Kind Regards
Duncan

 

[PaulTEG]

Win32-Printer is an ideal solution for this on Windows, thanks to Edgar Binans.

And using FreeImage (SourceForge) will let you print graphics, no mention of postscript, but you could set up a PDF printer (CutePDFWriter), and print to that, so they can see what they're printing.

It will print without dialogs to the default printer, if set up that way

HTH
--Paul

Spend an hour a week on CPAN, helps cure all known programming ailments ;-)

 

[wood]

Just as an FYI - I ended up buying a third party solution called PDFlib to create the PDF file. Then I was able to setup the page design and insert images. It's a pretty handy tool.