PDF Tags - undocumented feature :-)

[Pier Kuipers]

Hi all,

While working on a few PDF templates for a prospective customer, I
noticed that the text in the samples they provided me with was
justified (aligned both left AND right). The Lasso Language Guide
makes no mention of this option, and simply states that text can be
aligned left, right, or center. The iText documentation *does* mention
the possiblity of justified text, and luckily this works with the
Lasso tags, too - as long as you specify the area where you place your
text, I don't think it works with -type="paragraph":

[
Var:'Text'=(PDF_Text:'The mysterious file cabinet in orbit has been
successfully lassoed. The file cabinent had been traveling at a
velocity of 300 meters per second. Top scientists suspect that the
cabinet had been in orbit for some time.', -Font=$face);
$pdf->(add: $text, -width=350, -left=20, -top=400, -height=400,
-align='justified');
]

Just thought I'd share :-)

Pier
--
Pier Kuipers
Visual ID
Unit S02
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ITT Tallaght
Dublin 24
Ireland
Tel. [phone]
Mobile [phone]
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[Jolle Carlestam-3]

22 okt 2009 kl. 01.47 skrev Pier Kuipers:

> Hi all,
>
> While working on a few PDF templates for a prospective customer, I
> noticed that the text in the samples they provided me with was
> justified (aligned both left AND right). The Lasso Language Guide
> makes no mention of this option, and simply states that text can be
> aligned left, right, or center. The iText documentation *does* mention
> the possiblity of justified text, and luckily this works with the
> Lasso tags, too - as long as you specify the area where you place your
> text, I don't think it works with -type="paragraph":

Nice tip, although I did know about it. Problem is that since Lassos  
pdf tags can't deal with soft hyphens it's of little use for me. Soft  
hyphens is a must if you want justified columns to look good.

HDB
Jolle


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[Pier Kuipers]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 5:45 AM, Jolle Carlestam <list@...> wrote:
> Nice tip, although I did know about it. Problem is that since Lassos pdf
> tags can't deal with soft hyphens it's of little use for me. Soft hyphens is
> a must if you want justified columns to look good.

Mmm, that's a good point, especially since I need this trick for a
Dutch client - and Dutch has awfully long words such as
rijksstudietoelageaanvraagformulier, making hyphenation pretty much
essential. I notice that iText does actually have that option, see
http://itextdocs.lowagie.com/tutorial/objects/chunk/index.php at the
very bottom of the page. Maybe it's time to talk to Bil again and see
what he can do...?

Best regards

Pier

--
Pier Kuipers
Visual ID
Unit S02
Synergy Centre
ITT Tallaght
Dublin 24
Ireland
Tel. [phone]
Mobile [phone]
Web http://www.visualid.com

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[bilcorry]

Pier Kuipers wrote on 10/22/2009 3:46 AM:

> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 5:45 AM, Jolle Carlestam <list@...> wrote:
>> Nice tip, although I did know about it. Problem is that since Lassos pdf
>> tags can't deal with soft hyphens it's of little use for me. Soft hyphens is
>> a must if you want justified columns to look good.
>
> Mmm, that's a good point, especially since I need this trick for a
> Dutch client - and Dutch has awfully long words such as
> rijksstudietoelageaanvraagformulier, making hyphenation pretty much
> essential. I notice that iText does actually have that option, see
> http://itextdocs.lowagie.com/tutorial/objects/chunk/index.php at the
> very bottom of the page. Maybe it's time to talk to Bil again and see
> what he can do...?

>From what I recall, the hyphen library had some funky licensing issues.


- Bil



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[Pier Kuipers]

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 8:52 PM, Bil Corry <bil@...> wrote:
>From what I recall, the hyphen library had some funky licensing issues.

That sounds like bad news, doesn't it?

PK

--
Pier Kuipers
Visual ID
Unit S02
Synergy Centre
ITT Tallaght
Dublin 24
Ireland
Tel. [phone]
Mobile [phone]
Web http://www.visualid.com

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[bilcorry]

Pier Kuipers wrote on 10/23/2009 4:37 PM:
> On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 8:52 PM, Bil Corry <bil@...> wrote:
>>From what I recall, the hyphen library had some funky licensing issues.
>
> That sounds like bad news, doesn't it?

Ah, this is it:

---8<---
Remark that the XML files were not created by the iText developers. The XML files were created for Apache FOP. We have downloaded them and we have put them in a separate jar for your convenience. Some of them may be GPL or not usable for commercial purposes so, read the licenses and decide what to keep.
If you can't find the hyphenation pattern you are looking for, you can create your own as described at the FOP site.

from: http://itextdocs.lowagie.com/tutorial/objects/chunk/
--->8---


It is possible to add this functionality to Lasso's PDF tags, but it would be up to the individual developer to evaluate the licensing for their application.


- Bil


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[Jolle Carlestam-3]

25 okt 2009 kl. 01.36 skrev Bil Corry:

> Pier Kuipers wrote on 10/23/2009 4:37 PM:
>> On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 8:52 PM, Bil Corry <bil@...> wrote:
>>> From what I recall, the hyphen library had some funky licensing  
>>> issues.
>>
>> That sounds like bad news, doesn't it?
>
> Ah, this is it:
>
> ---8<---
> Remark that the XML files were not created by the iText developers.  
> The XML files were created for Apache FOP. We have downloaded them  
> and we have put them in a separate jar for your convenience. Some of  
> them may be GPL or not usable for commercial purposes so, read the  
> licenses and decide what to keep.
> If you can't find the hyphenation pattern you are looking for, you  
> can create your own as described at the FOP site.
>
> from: http://itextdocs.lowagie.com/tutorial/objects/chunk/
> --->8---
>
>
> It is possible to add this functionality to Lasso's PDF tags, but it  
> would be up to the individual developer to evaluate the licensing  
> for their application.

That is still something we can live with. Can the affected XML files  
be stored separately in a Lasso distribution or do they ned to be  
integrated into the resulting code? If they can be separate I suggest  
Lassosoft immediately pay you to do the integration. This is a long  
sought after major increase in the usefulness of the pdf tags.

By the way, I read the license used for most language files. I can't  
see any clauses in there that would prohibit Lassosoft to include them  
in a distribution.

http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt

HDB
Jolle


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