Can you print a picture in quiz?

[Bill D Michael]

You don't mention the type of printer - I've done this with a PostScript
printer, not easily, but possible. You also don't mention the source of
your picture; as in, is it on disk somewhere relatively "permanent", or is
it generated on the fly. In my case I had a letterhead logo for the top of
the page and a scanned signature for the bottom, and they wanted a Quiz
report in the middle. If you have to generate the picture in real-time, or
if you don't have a decent (ie; PostScript) printer, I don't know of a way.
(Assuming you can't preload the picture into the printer's forms memory, or
something else equally tricky.) Here were the steps I used;

Create a PostScript "dummy form" using some software package that
understands PostScript output (I used MacDraw), with identifiable dummy
values for everything that Quiz will be expected to provide in production.
Use a text editor to "split" this form into a header (including the
letterhead logo), a minimal body (that will be generated by Quiz), and a
trailer (including the signature). Depending on the quality of PostScript
generated by your program, this may be quite easy, or very difficult - in
my case, MacDraw and the LaserWriter driver generated nice clean PostScript
code that I could understand; another package I tried generated a garbled
mess that only the printer could understand. Save the header and trailer to
the HP disk as separate text files. (Don't be surprised if they're quite
large. Bitmap pictures in PostScript format can take a lot of space. If you
can use an EPS picture instead, as I could for the letterhead logo but not
for the signature, it'll be a _lot_ smaller.)

Generate the body PostScript code from Quiz; instead of just "REPORT TAB 12
myitem", this meant writing "REPORT TAB 1 '440,1180 P ' + d_quote + myitem
+ d_quote" (providing the position and commands determined from looking at
the dummy form, but with the real data in place). Save this report to disk.

Use MPE commands to append the stored header, the Quiz-created body, and
the stored trailer together into one file.

Send this file to the printer. (I haven't done this on MPE, but on VMS a
straight "PRINT" command with the right FORM type worked; the printer
recognized the file as being PostScript. When the FORM type was wrong, it
merrily printed out 100+ pages of PostScript source code!)

If all went well (and it may take a bunch of trial runs to get the "hand
generated" PostScript correct from Quiz) the printer sees a plain old
PostScript file with embedded pictures and text, and prints it just fine.
My application printed out several hundred letters for mailing on the first
of every month. Even had the address in the right spot for the window on
the envelope. Now if only Quiz could stuff them and stamp the envelopes...

Good luck!

Bill





"Abraham Zwygart" <azwygart@anodizing.com>@sphere.swau.edu on 03/28/2000
05:49:00 PM

Sent by:  owner-powerh-l@sphere.swau.edu



To:   <powerh-l@lists.swau.edu>
cc:
Subject:  Can you print a picture in quiz?


Hi all,

Am on a HP3000 os v6.0 PH 8.19.c1
Can I print a picture in quiz report?  If I can how?

Abraham Zwygart
Anodizing Inc.
Senior Programmer Analyst     Email: azwygart@anodizing.com



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