[reportlab-users] an idea...

[Uwe C. Schroeder]

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Well, "twain" is probably not the best thing - AFAIK it's only available on=
=20
M$. But the basic idea isn't a bad one. I'm actually using a converter from=
=20
OpenOffice XML format to python/reportlab code. It's pretty basic at this=20
time and doesn't really catch all the stuff Oo can do, but it works.
Being able to create a form from a scanned image might be good for the clas=
sic=20
"download and fill in by hand" approach and would save a lot of=20
"retypesetting" of existing paper forms.
The problem I see is the text on the form. Recognizing points from shapes=20
should be much easier to do, however you'd also have to recognize the text=
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via some OCR stuff. I haven't seen any really usable OCR software that's=20
freely available - and even the commercial ones are pretty scarce on Linux.

My $0.02

UC

On Wednesday 14 January 2004 11:36 pm, Barry, Christopher wrote:
> here's a thought, maybe already done.
>
> a twain app that scans a form and generates the reportlab python code
> automatically. Or at least roughs it out. has this been done yet?  this
> would be very useful.
>
> here's how I see it could work. it's a kde app. scan the image. it displa=
ys
> in an editing window. the edit window shows coordinate values in red at
> every point it understands. an algorithm attempts to vectorize the entire
> thing. raster lines can be selected and manually [vector|bezier]ized.
> endpoints can be moved and snapped onto a sizeable grid. various lines,
> shapes and images can be added/deleted. fields are created and assigned.
> labels placed. ReportLab FormCAD. outputs to PDF directly or to the python
> code to create the form with user supplied data. basically a forms
> designer, with raster to vector capability for pulling in legacy
> pre-printed forms via scanner.
>
> I don't have a lot of forms designer experience. can others already do
> this?
>
> I never liked crystal and vb and all that anyway...
>
>
> --
> Christopher Barry
> Manager of Information Systems
> InfiniCon Systems
> http://www.infiniconsys.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> reportlab-users mailing list
> reportlab-users@reportlab.com
> http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/reportlab-users


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