pdf_merge() problems

[Steve Wood]

Has anyone used pdf_merge() and found that the resulting merged file has either of these problems (starting with two perfectly good pdf documents):

- one of the two merged pdf documents is the wrong orientation (both of my originals are landscape, and the function converts one to portrait).

- one or both of the merged PDF is simply missing text, e.g. a paragraph with 30 words may be truncated to just 10 words, typically after the first wordwrap line?

If so, how did you overcome the problem? Again, the pdf's are in perfect condition prior to using pdf_merge() but messed up after.

[Steve Workings]

Re: pdf_merge() problems

I've used PDF_Merge() without these problems, Steve.

One suggestion that might help understand what's going on:

Create a couple PDFs from reports other than what you're using now, merge them, and see if you get similar results. That might help define the source of the problem.

[Steve Wood]

Re: pdf_merge() problems

I was using Adobe InDesign to create the background pdf. Alpha report writer is lacking as a layout designer and I wanted to use something better. (the biggest problem I have with using Alpha reports is that you can not format text in a text box - for instance you cannot make one word bold, one underline and one italics in the same text box - formatting applies to ALL text at once.)

But I have played with MS Publisher, CorelDraw, WP, Word, etc., as well as different PDF output formats. Each produce one of the two problems I listed. I bet pdf_merge() is tailored to Alpha Report Writer output.

I may try somthing awful like perfecting my text and then saving it to an image file and embeddeing it in the Alpha report. That way I can format my text as desired. Prior to this I actually had the text as a Field in a related table. That way I could control formatting (selective bolding, etc.) but how it rendered on the report tended to fluctuate. Sigh.

[NoeticCC]

Re: pdf_merge() problems

I was using Adobe InDesign to create the background pdf. Alpha report writer is lacking as a layout designer and I wanted to use something better. (the biggest problem I have with using Alpha reports is that you can not format text in a text box - for instance you cannot make one word bold, one underline and one italics in the same text box - formatting applies to ALL text at once.)

What about RichText controls or HTML ones? They've worked a treat for me so far :)

[Steve Wood]

Re: pdf_merge() problems

I had ruled those out earlier, but I should revisit as I see they provide that formatting (I could swear I found no way to do this). I know this specific report is very fine tuned with zero clearance between objects and every millimeter containing some object.

[NoeticCC]

Re: pdf_merge() problems

I had ruled those out earlier, but I should revisit as I see they provide that formatting (I could swear I found no way to do this). I know this specific report is very fine tuned with zero clearance between objects and every millimeter containing some object.

I did the same, I did eventually have to use a HTML field because it was the easiest way to get my labels to display properly as UTF-8

[Steve Wood]

Re: pdf_merge() problems

Now that I retried that option, I remember why I ruled them out - this report is very tight on space. I could not get the fine tuning out of the RTF object. Looking closer now, I may be able to get it on the HTML object since I can use CSS and tweak it tighter. Decreasing the space between lines and a narrow font are required.

But I still wonder what is the problem with pdf_merge(). At a minimum, it seems to lack a parameter telling it what orientation I want the background to be.