Clarification of Answer by
maniac-ga
on
30 Jan 2003 16:19 PST
Hello Yaaru,
The request for clarification appears to be quite clear. I read
"form", saw the "form", but did not realize it was interactive.
Hmm. This makes your choices far more limited.
To answer the "how does this happen" (this being - enter the data and
print the form), that is pretty easy to explain. The PDF Reference
(see below) has an entire section on "Interactive Forms". In a form,
you can set up the fields, specify the type of data to be entered, and
can even use Javascript to process information on the form. The way
Adobe generally describes it is to use the menu selections in Acrobat
to lay out the form, specify processing, and so on. If you look
closely at the PDF you referenced (in a plain text editor); you can
search for "form" or "Javascript" to see the definitions that are
included. For example, the "Print" button is just enough Javascript to
tell Acrobat Reader to print the file.
The format of PDF files are described in great detail (almost 1000
pages!) in the "PDF Reference, Third Edition, Version 1.4" at
http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/acrosdk/docs.html#filefmtspecs
(the first link under file format specifications). This is one of
several documents provided as part of Adobe's Acrobat 5.0 Software
Development Kit (SDK).
The Javascript object model is described at
http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/technotes/acrobatpdf.html
see the link for the Javascript object model under "File Format
Specifications".
With that as background, the hard part is to find "cost effective
software" to generate these kind of files. Most of the PDF generators
do not know anything about creating forms. Going back to "Planet PDF"
http://www.planetpdf.com/
and selecting "PDF Tools" and then searching with
Category: Forms and FDF
Platform: Windows
(leave the other entries at the defaults)
provides a list of 22 tools in this category. I looked at the
description of all these to select the few that appear to provide the
"create form" capability for PDF's.
Adobe Acrobat ($249.00)
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html
This is obviously the reference implementation. A number of the other
tools in the Planet PDF list assume you use this to generate the form
and then enhance the operation of the form by tying it into a
database, sending by email, or some other operation.
Liquid Office
http://www.cardiff.com/LiquidOffice/
Liquid PDF
http://www.cardiff.com/LiquidPDF/
The form creation is described only in Liquid Office; the Liquid PDF
material describes the creation of PDF's, but does not mention forms
specifically. It does however describe a level of automation that you
may want. I could not find pricing information; I suggest you speak
with the vendor directly for that data.
PageForm ($149.00)
http://www.organicsw.com/pageform.htm
A plug in for PageMaker. It appears to provide a full set of
capabilities but requires PageMaker to operate.
All of the other products listed appear to enhance the usage of PDF
forms, not generate them.
I also found "Formium" ($999.00) separately, but from your question I
don't think you want to pay that much.
I also checked a number of free software sites for other pointers but
struck out. For example:
HTML2PDF - does not support forms
ghostview (and other PS to PDF converters) - ditto
where you can get source code. If you have a software background, you
may be able to modify one of these to generate PDF forms, but I would
expect the effort to be pretty extensive and not worth the effort.
--Maniac
