I'm developing a WP7 app that has a lot of math content, and I need to display expressions as images.
The data for these expressions is in the form of strings like this:
"d=\\sqrt{2} \\times a"
"A=a \\times \\frac{\\pi}{4}"
etc.
The goal is to take a string like this, run it through some parser of some sort that then outputs an image of the expression in LateX style.
Does anyone know of some magic code I can include / have a solution?
Much appreciated.
A possible solution without getting Tex to run on windows 7 phone, would be to use a web service.
You would post your equation string to a web service and it would reply with the image data or a url. Example
In the event that tex for windows 7 phone exists, that above mentioned page also links to a script called tex2im which shows how to create an image from tex code.
Related
My project for JDE is to convert the invoice number that appear on JDE report to bar-code. Would you mind to tell me how I am able to do it? Because I am just a beginner for JDE software.
You need some kind of bar code java or jde library which you include into your project. Then you use the APIs provided by the library to convert numbers to barcode. ZXing
is one of hte libraries I know. However, I never used it with Blackberry.
A simple google after 'blackbaeery jde barcode' would give you plenty of more info.
If you install a Barcode Font you're supposed to convert any character into a barcode. But you should define what type of barcode you'll use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode#Types_of_barcodes
For 1 dimensional codes (like EAN f.e.) - you can use bar code font as recommended by
lhoffman. - Usually you need to calculate control character, add it to your string and output it in BI Publisher with barcode font.
Second approach - is kind of workaround - generate bar code as image using third party web application and include image into report (in runtime).
f.e. create simple wrapper for library like this - http://barcode-coder.com/en/barcode-php-class-203.html
it should receive invoice number as part of url and return image with proper bar code.
something like: http://..*.*/barcode/12321312312.png
shouldn't take more than 5 lines of php.
and include it in bi publisher like this: https://blogs.oracle.com/xmlpublisher/entry/dynamic_images
as advantage- you have more control on bar code and can use 2D bar codes.
Does anyone knows about any editor allowing to visually design a form (by form I do not mean DFM or Delphi form, but a "paper form", like those pre-printed forms that you fill with some info) and that generates pascal commands to draw that form in a Printer (or Image) canvas?
What I want is an easy way to draw/design this form visually, composed just by lines and text, and a way to convert this to Pascal commands that when run, will draw that form in a Canvas (Image or Printer), respecting the original layout and scale, doesn't matter the Canvas DPI where it is being drawn.
Update: Maybe I wasn't clear enough about what I need and why I need it. I developed an Open Source component called TFreeBoleto (freeboleto.sf.net). It is used to generate and print bank billets (a common method for billing people in Brazil). Right now, the component uses a TBitmap image containing the "billet" mask, and TextOut methods for the dynamic areas (ie: billet number, customer name, etc). It is fine when looked in the screen, but some people complains that the quality of the printed image is not good. The component uses a BltTBitmapAsDib procedure to maximize the quality of printing, but some people still think it is not good enough. So, my idea was to avoid using a bitmap image as the form layout, and draw everything direct in the canvas (both form and printer). Check here for a sample of what a bank billet looks like.
Of course ReportBuilder and/or FastReport could solve the problem, but they are not free, so I cannot include it in the component. I need "native" solution that any standard Delphi install would be able to compile.
You might get what you want out of the Fast Reports Report Designer which is a commercial reporting system for Delphi. Remember that a report is just a page. That page can be shown on the screen or printed on the printer.
You also might find that something like TRichView helps you.
Whether using TRichView in particular or not, I would look into using HTML to do what you want. I would use HTML+CSS to do both a screen and printer layout, that can also be viewed on the web. For simple text layout plus text boxes I think even bare HTML and HTML tables might be sufficient. To visually design simple text pages, using a Delphi application, I would use TRichView.
In both cases, you would be creating documents, not code. To create code that creates a page, without using any document system, would be very difficult indeed, and I am not sure what you would really do with that code, since you would need a compiler or interpreter to convert that code into something that you could use. Please clarify what you mean by "creating code", and what syntax you would want that code to be using. If HTML is code in your definition of "code" then maybe HTML is the best kind of "code" for your problem.
I do my form-work with WPTools. It is also a commercial product. The core is a very good wordprocessor and form-designer. The engine can render text and forms to any canvas (screen, printer, also create pdf) and is highly flexible. Output is mainly rtf and html.
I also see no advantage in creating pascal code to redraw the form. What you need, i think, is a good WYSIWYG-editor which creates a document that fits your needs.
Check out ReportBuilder # http://www.digital-metaphors.com/
It is a commercial reporting tool for Delphi - around a long time, very high quality, with all native Delphi source code packaged with it. I am using it for an important commercial project right now and I recommend it highly (I'm not working for them.) I've used MANY Delphi reporting tools over the years and this one is the best IMO.
RBuilder also has extensive support for paper form emulation see:
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/products/report_design/form_emulation.html
I haven't worked with that feature, but you can download a full-featured demo and try it.
Yoy can use Adobe Acrobat (full version) to create forms.
Then you can use free Acrobat Reader to display and print forms or other COM object in your application.
I think it is best solution for you.
PS
All tools for reports that are included in Delphi are free for you to design form and are free to distribute if user only preview and print already designed reports.
The same is valid for Adobe Acrobat (you may distribute forms) but you have added that you need to print form and some text over form. Maybe it is easier if you use reports but it is possible to do the same using PDF.
Most report engines are not open source but are free to distribute. There is many components for creating PDF - paid (one time), free, as well as open source.
PPS
I have read your updete for second time. Since you are using TBitmap and you can to TextOut so: You can use TMetafile. There is many editors for metafiles and it is free to distribute metafiles.
I am just curious if I can be able to copy books from google or not.And I am also curious to know what to make such kind of material.
I suppose the best way is to convert the text pages to images. You'd still be able to capture the images, but they wouldn't be in text form anymore; to get them back in their original form, you'd have to OCR them, which is an arduous process.
Is there a way to create an editable PDF programmatically? By editable, I mean you can click in a text area and type in your name, that kind of thing.
I'm using Ruby and have found PrinceXML and Princely to be nice projects. I'm wondering if they could do that?
Prince doesn't mention forms in the documentation, and renders forms as static drawings, so I doubt it.
pdfTeX can do it with the hyperref package. Here's a tutorial.
Example:
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{Form}
\TextField[backgroundcolor={1 1 0},value=can do forms]{hyperref}
\end{Form}
It looks like this:
screenshot http://grab.by/23nP
(Of course, then you're using TeX instead of whatever reports library you like. I'm sure there's an alternative.)
I would like to create pdfs with ruby. One special need is embedding a picture into text (or a textblock), which means I need to be able to let the text flow around the image. E.g. the image should be in the rigth upper corner and the text should start left of the image and continue after the image by using the whole width of the page. How can I do this in ruby? Thank you for any suggestions!
In the past to get print quality PDFs in Ruby, I used rtex.
It's fast too, which is a real bonus.
Prawn to the rescue?
I like the html -> pdf approach. Although it is probably not the best option (prawn is) it makes it easy to design the pdf. See this website. You could also go for the approach documented at jimneath.org.
Good luck
iText is the heavyweight that will allow you to do anything you want with PDFs you can bridge to it with jRuby.
Another option I used was driving open office (it has a ui less option which you can automate from Ruby)
How about having Ruby generate some LaTeX code, then use pdflatex to produce the PDF?
Although I haven't done it myself I've seen people use a headless Open Office. You can control it from Ruby and use it to generate PDF files. You can even use an Open Office template and just fill in some elements into it.