PIC_MERGE and export to PDF

[Stéphane Bessette]

We are generating a document using WriteBox() with a PenColor of white. This allows us to easily align text onto the columns of pre-printed forms; we can simply measure the width of the columns and use that measure directly. If we use Write() then we have to fiddle with the measures to obtain the desired effect.

Recently a customer asked us to include an image within the .vpe document in order to print onto a white sheet of paper as opposed to a pre-printed form. We used WriteBox() to print our text and then added the picture with the PIC_MERGE flag. The image is properly placed on top of the text and the white boxes do not show up; this is exactly what we wanted. However if we save this .vpe document as a .pdf then the image completely overwrites the text. It feels as though the PDF conversion is not taking into account (ignoring) the PIC_MERGE flag.

[IDEAL Software Support]

In the VPE documentation it is written: "This flag is unsupported." For this reason it is not implemented for PDF export.

In fact the flag will be removed in the next major release of VPE. It is only working on device driver level (depending on, if the device driver supports it).

Regards
Thorsten Radde
IDEAL Software GmbH

[Stéphane Bessette]

Ok. I'll make a request then.

We deal with multiple customers, of which roughly 40% want us to print on pre-printed paper. This paper has vertical columns and we must print within these columns. The fastest approach has been to use WriteBox with a PenColor of black to align the boxes onto the vertical columns of the pre-printed paper. Once we are aligned we set the PenColor to white and only the text appears.

This approach is giving us problems when the pre-printed paper is not white; the white boxes from WriteBox become visible. If we use Write or NoPen (which is the same thing) then we have to readjust the position and dimension parameters; x becomes x + PenSize, y becomes y + PenSize, and the width becomes width - 2 x PenSize.

My request would be for a "transparent" pen, one where we could keep using WriteBox but it would only print the text and not print the box at all.

[IDEAL Software Support]

We have currently no plans to implement such a feature. I think the easiest way to gain this behaviour is, when you implement your own WriteBox() function wrapper, which handles your requirements, i.e. handles the correct offset depending on whether there shall be drawn a frame or not.

Regards
Thorsten Radde
IDEAL Software GmbH