[reportlab-users] Mailing labels

[reportlab-users@reportlab.com]

Andy,

Thank you very much for this suggestion. I'll probably be playing around a bit 
using this type of approach. The other idea I had doesn't involve .pdf, I'm 
thinking of using xml formatting objects (or something similar) to format the 
output to the user, which can then be imported into a client side label 
template. Does this sound feasible?

Thanks again,

Jesse D'Aguanno
JJRaM, LLC.
www.jjram.com
P.O. Box 60243 
Sacramento, CA 95860 
Phone:	916-813-0869 
Cell:	916-296-4065

Quoting Andy Robinson <andy@reportlab.com>:

> > I shudder at
> > the prospect of having to build templates for every different 
> > printer used. I
> > realize that this is not a problem inside reportlab itself, but 
> > if anyone has
> > encountered, and successfully overcome this problem, I'd love to 
> > hear suggestions.
> > 
> You aren't the first.  Once upon a time somebody on
> this list started collecting lists of printer variations :-)
> In general anything using Postscript and costing say
> $5000 or more is pretty accurate, but inkjets aren't :-(
> 
> The best approach I know is to have a 'test mode' which
> draws, say, grey boirders where it thinks the label edges
> are.  You can then use the canvas transform and translate
> methods.  So if your default script is written with these
> rather pointless calls...
> 
>     # at the beginning
>     NUDGE_X = 0.0
>     NUDGE_Y = 0.0
>     STRETCH_X = 1.0
>     STRETCH_Y = 1.0
> 
>     # and before drawing each page...
>     canv.translate(NUDGE_X, NUDGE_Y)
>     canv.scale(STRETCH_X, STRETCH_Y)
> 
> ...then you can see how much it misses by, and 'calibrate'
> for your printer.  
> 
> If your web server has to work for end users with any printer,
> the best I can suggest today is to offer them a 'test card'
> with a ruler on it and instructions on how to calibrate
> themselves.  
> 
> So, you should keep shuddering because it IS a horrible
> problem, but there is a sane global way to adjust things 
> without making many different templates.
> 
> If you find a better way let us all know!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Andy Robinson
> 
> 
> 
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