TIFF Merging

[bont]

This might be a little off topic, but I have heard of some doing similar with Paint Shop Pro. I would prefer to not use Paint Shop, unless I have to.

I have a tiff image of a form document. I would like to take a text image document, and convert the text to a pdf/tiff image, and then layer the text image over the tiff document image. I have 2 questions:

1) does anyone know the best way to create the tiff image of the text information from the ASCII text document? We are looking for consistency and speed.
2) does anyone know how to combine the 2 tiff images with a layer effect, by command line procs?

All comments are welcome, thank you in advance your advice/

 

[tviman]

If this form is for a web page - don't use TIF's. TIF's are not web compatible and are usually HUGE!

Again, if this is a web form, it will be light years faster to use HTML & CSS to render your text rather than putting the text in an image.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

 

[bont]

No, not a webpage. The form would originally be a pdf single page form, like a doctor's office visit.

 

[tviman]

Ok, your only hope hee is to take the background image that you waht and type the text over it. Then, assuming you have the necessary software to create a PDF file, you would select FILE->PRINT and when the print window appears, select the printer that creates the PDF file (Mine is Adobe Distiller). If you've never done this before, it seems a little odd, but you're actually doing is printing to a file, not the printer. The result will be your form, in PDF format.

There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!

 

[bont]

OK all, I have found a solution. It resides at

http://www.iteksoft.com/.

Basically this software package is a pdf print driver with some advanced features. I kept thinking, if I built a pdf driver, it would be like this. Basically I would use the overlay ability. I would open an application, such as notepad (I know there are better editors, but I want font selection as well), and then I would print it using the driver. On the setup, I specify the name of the PDF form that I want to print onto. Now, all I have to do is make sure my original Notepad document is created with the proper lines and spacing from my app and I have forms that won't shift when I print them on a printer.

 

[Sheri99]

If you use an image editing program like Paint Shop Pro, I think you will have to make text frames above the form in each place text goes, and copy/paste the text from the text file into each one. So unless the text can go into one frame, kind of like a letter on letterhead, its not going to be very fast. If it can all go into one frame, you could do it in PSP. Assuming you have multiple records you want to overlay over the same form, always in the same place, always formatted in the same way, maybe you could automate it with a script in PSP. Not sure about this since the text needs to be copied and pasted.

If you need multiple text frames placed over the form image and don't want to copy/paste for each one, I believe it could be automated in a page layout program like Adobe InDesign. InDesign can import all kinds of image files, documents and text files, but cannot export the result as Tiff. It can export in PDF or Jpg. Text on the layout can flow between multiple text frames.

Sheri