Question about barcode sizes

[Stef Epardaud]

Hello,

I am using iText to generate a sheet of product labels with a barcode on
each label. To represent the labels I use a PdfPTable and set the cell
sizes absolutely.

When I try to fit a barcode 128 on a cell, I get into trouble because
the code itself can be any number of characters long: when it is "000"
the barcode is scaled up (somehow) to fit the cell's width, which makes
it too high to fit in the cell and therefore is not visible. When the
code is "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" the barcode is scaled down so that it
does fit in width but the height of the barcode is too small.

I can set the bar (individual bar) width but this doesn't help me much
since I don't know how many bars I will have (I only know the cell's
width). I can set the bar's height but that also doesn't help me since
it will be scaled to fit the barcode's width. Furthermore if I try to
guess the smallest code I can have and set the bar height so that it
fits, it makes it ridiculously thin in height when the largest codes are
used.

Ideally I would be able to generate a barcode for a given width and
height so that larger codes "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" would have their bars
high enough to fill the cell's height, and smaller codes "000" would use
either smaller bar heights (so that scaling up still makes it fit both
size constraints) or be centered if that produced bars too wide (due to
the scaling up).

I did try to create an image from the barcode and scale it, but I was
unable to break the ratio so that the barcode height always fits the
cell's height, regardless of the barcode's total width.

Am I entirely missing something? Is there another way to produce what I
need? Thanks for your help (and for iText).


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[1T3XT info]

Stephane Epardaud wrote:
> Am I entirely missing something? Is there another way to produce what I
> need? Thanks for your help (and for iText).

There are 4 ways to add a barcode/image to a PdfPTable.

Let me quote from the (unpublished) Second Edition of "iText in Action"
(it's also mentioned in the first edition), but I have the manuscript of
the second edition in front of me, so that's easier:

"When you create a PdfPCell with an Image as parameter, the default
padding is 0 pt instead of 2 pt. With an extra parameter of type
boolean, you can ask iText to scale the image so that it fits the width
of the cell #2. By default, the value of this boolean is false and the
image isn't scaled #1. This is a risk: if the image doesn't fit within
the borders of the cell, it will exceed them and overlap with other cells.
Adding an Image with addCell() will scale it, but the properties of the
default cell will be used #3: the third poster in image 4.9 has a
padding of 2 pt and it's bottom aligned. Finally, you can add an image
as an element. The Image is scaled so that it fits the cell width for
100%, unless you change the width percentage with the method
setWidthPercentage()."

You're probably adding the barcode with addCell(). Try the alternatives
to avoid scaling.
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This answer is provided by 1T3XT BVBA
http://www.1t3xt.com/ - http://www.1t3xt.info

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[Stef Epardaud]

On Thu, Nov 05, 2009 at 11:47:01AM +0100, 1T3XT info wrote:
> There are 4 ways to add a barcode/image to a PdfPTable.
> [...]
> You're probably adding the barcode with addCell(). Try the alternatives
> to avoid scaling.

I was using cell.setImage() and needed to make it cell.setPhrase() to
avoid the scaling. In order to have the width scaled but fill up the
entire cell's height nonetheless I also scale the barcode image myself,
but that means I disable the barcode's text so that it isn't scaled and
print it myself underneath the barcode.

Thanks for your help.

It would be a lot easier however if there was a way to set the barcode's
width and height so that it would fill the entire size without having to
handle the barcode text outside.
--
Stéphane Epardaud

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