Hi, Art
As Alex said, it is outside the purview of FOP, or indeed XSL FO.
I suggest the PDF spec, the comp.text.pdf newsgroup, and PDFZone.com
(http://www.pdfzone.com) as resources.
The main problem is the binary nature of PDF. What makes a file "text" or
"binary" has nothing whatsoever to do with special characters, although that
is an assumption that is frequently made (it's even the basis of tests on
UNIX, although it doesn't make much sense) - it has to with whether the
positioning of data within a file is rigid or not. PDF is an excellent
example of a file format that is human-readable and looks like text
(particularly if no compression is used), but is binary due to the fact that
every object in the file starts at a recorded offset and may not move. This
is why editing PDF is possible, but quite difficult. Except for trivial little
edits in a good text editor that change one set of contiguous N characters
to another contiguous set also of length N. The best way to edit PDF, in
general, is to edit the source and re-generate.
Regards,
Arved Sandstrom
At 05:53 PM 7/2/01 +0800, Art Simcoe wrote:
>Thanks Alex,
>
>I have been doing just that, sifting through hundreds of records to see if
>this is possible...
>
>but as always, a shortcut is most helpful.
>
>Thanks for your reply...
>
>Art
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Alex McLintock [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>> Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 5:41 PM
>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Subject: Re: add image to pdf template
>>
>> --- Art Simcoe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with ammending an
>> existing
>> > pdf document. At this stage it would be sufficient for an image to be
>> added
>> > an existing pdf template. Can anyone provide any sample code i could
>> look
>> > at?
>>
>> Parsing a PDF file is not trivial - but you are welcome to grab the specs
>> and try.
>> ALthough it is totally outside the requirements for XSL:FO and hence FOP
>> it
>> has been discussed briefly on this mailing list. Why not use the mailing
>> list archives
>> to find out what was said?
>>
>> Alex McLinrock
>>
>> =====
>> Alex McLintock [EMAIL PROTECTED] Open Source Consultancy in London
>> OpenWeb Analysts Ltd, http://www.OWAL.co.uk/
>> DR WHO COMPETITION:
Fairly Senior Software Type
e-plicity (http://www.e-plicity.com)
Wireless * B2B * J2EE * XML --- Halifax, Nova Scotia
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