Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Image in a report

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Image in a report

    Does anyone know if you can scan a paper form as an image and use it as a background in a report? If so what would the scan DPI have to be?
    I would like to use this for preprinted forms. Then Line up the appropiate fields for the form.

    Thanks
    Mark

    #2
    Re: Image in a report

    Probably easiest to scan the paper form to a pdf file and merge the report pdf with the form pdf. Would take a bit of trial and error to get the best results.
    There can be only one.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Image in a report

      I've done what Stan is suggesting. You use merge_pdf() function to merge two pdf in to one - like one is the background form and one is the data. It worked flawlessly.
      Steve Wood
      See my profile on IADN

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Image in a report

        Steve and Stan, why do you have 2 pdf files

        one is apparently the "blank form"
        but what is the other one from?
        how does he align the data from the one to the other?
        doesn't he have to have a "background" to use to position the fields?
        Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
        972 524 8714
        [email protected]

        ____________________
        "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Image in a report

          I can see uses for each method here, but the PDF merge method means that in many cases, instead of just printing the final result directly from the report, the PDF has to be opened and then printed from the PDF reader which is not user friendly IMO. To me, unless it is not possible to do it directly, I would opt for having a background image so that it can be printed directly.

          ---I do seem to remember some difficulties that I believe Steve Wood had regarding this and is why he went to the PDF merge. Steve, if it was you, can you reiterate what it was that made you go the merge route instead of a background image?
          Mike
          __________________________________________
          It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
          It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
          Henry David Thoreau
          __________________________________________



          Comment


            #6
            Re: Image in a report

            I have done many scanned forms and used as a background. I think around 300 dpi.

            Just set it as the background, size it so it looks right and place fields.

            Never did the pdf thing yet.


            Dave




            .
            Dave Mason
            [email protected]
            Skype is dave.mason46

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Image in a report

              Thank you all

              I am not sure what a pdf merge is. What I was after is since my forms are preprinted. I needed a guide or a picture of the form in order to place the fields close to where they would be printed on the form.
              Although this brings up a good question on the posability to be able to print the background image and the fields together and print them also incase I do not have anymore preprinted forms.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Image in a report

                Mark,
                You could also reread a previous thread on this....
                http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...ad.php?t=77819
                Mike
                __________________________________________
                It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
                It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
                Henry David Thoreau
                __________________________________________



                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Image in a report

                  Thanks Mike for finding that old thread for me.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Image in a report

                    I have been doing this with HIFA 1500 forms for Medicare and insurance companies for maybe the last 11 years. They are preprinted with magnetic ink that are auto read, and you have to use their forms.

                    For the record, I have never been able to scan one of these and have it work, as is, as a background. The scanner will either skew the image a bit, or Alpha will skew the image a bit. And, in addition to that, some printers will printout a little differently.

                    But, the image is a place to start with. Take your best shot at the background, and then keep moving your data around until it aligns correctly.

                    If you are working with a very tight form, like the HICFA 1500, the slightest skew to the background makes a big difference.
                    Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                    972 524 8714
                    [email protected]

                    ____________________
                    "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Image in a report

                      Martin is correct. I think he is saying to scan the image as a background for a startring point. Once you have the fields somewhat aligned, remove the background and print a plain paper(my idea). See how that ligns up to the form(use a window?). Move fields accordingly and reprint. It does take a bit of trial and error sometimes.

                      Been doing it that way for many years(about 20). It works.

                      One trick is to have all users on a same printer. My car applications are specified to work with Okidata 320(wide) and some others are ok.

                      Kind of like Martin's form, I do automotive contracts that may be 3 feet long and as much as 18" wide with small slots for the data. No data can be obscured in any way(touching printed), and must align exactly. These are sometimes 7 layers thick and why we must use the dot matrix. Other forms are easy to print and I still set them up as above. When the state changes the form(s) a little bit or a newer contract is issued, I get real busy.

                      Some of my competitors are now using preset pdf's that are filled in by their app. Not real sure those will hold up in court and I am responsible to give the **client the best shot at not losing business and money. Maybe later I will switch. They print off 3(or more) copies of a contract that may be 3(or more) pages long and have the customer sign all those.
                      **Dealer saves $0.60 per contract and could lose thousands if challenged in court.



                      .
                      Dave Mason
                      [email protected]
                      Skype is dave.mason46

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Image in a report

                        Dave, Google BIP 0008.

                        It's the rules in the UK for the "Legal Admissability of Electronic Evidence".

                        I had to complete the process at a Gvmt. installation when I was PM on a back scanning and EDRMS system installation. There was a concern that a judge would not accept the content of a scanned document when the original had been destroyed.

                        I know it inside out now, so if I can assist, just holler.
                        See our Hybrid Option here;
                        https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


                        Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                        You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Image in a report

                          Hi Ted,

                          1 I am US only, not UK

                          2 The printed stuff has a back page that is usually tossed in the reprint version with lots of legals on it. Dealer's business people are not very trustable about paperwork.

                          3 All a customer purchasing a car has to say is "I did not see that" or something similar. If you cannot supply concrete evidence it was placed in front of them and signed, they win. Dealer is considered guilty until proven innocent beyond any shadow of a doubt.

                          Been in court many times and know the drill.


                          .
                          Dave Mason
                          [email protected]
                          Skype is dave.mason46

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X