Greetings to the group & a belated happy G5 day to you all.

I have a job application form, which can be submitted completed using
"black ink or type". Since I'm obsessively neat I hate my handwriting,
and would like to run the form through my laser-printer.

I have scanned the form to .bmp using my Windows box [1] and was able
to produce a result which looked in Word to be quite acceptable, by
setting the image properties so it was behind the test, and typing in
the appropriate places.

When I came to print, tho', only the text which I have typed came
through - NOT the image of the form itself. Whn I print-as-pdf I get
the same effect. Perhaps the problem is that I have used only carriage
returns & TABs for spacing, however I think many small text boxes
mught be quit arduous - does anyone know if they would work..? I have
tried furtling through the image & paragraph properties to no avail.

I also tried opening the bitmap in Photoshop, however the text tool
isn't really designed for this sort of job - it treats text cleverly
as moveable & scaleable, which I don't really need. I just want to
choose an appropriate font & size, then tab into position. I can't
help feeling there should be some kind of solution if I print the
bitmap as pdf, and then find an appropriate editor.

Has anyone else tried anything like this, please..? Can you tell me
how you've done it, or recommend some more appropriate software.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions,

Stroller.






[1] If anyone knows of OS X drivers, or would like to write some, for
a Trust Compact Scan USB 19200, I would be immensely grateful if they
would let me know.

in article jparrish-4C94F3.21495724062003[at]enews.newsguy.com, Jason Parrish
at jparrish[at]newsguy.com wrote on 25/6/03 3:49 am:

> In article <385cfcc.0306241545.5fec4a39[at]posting.google.com>,
> stroller[at]bigfoot.com (Stroller) wrote:
>
>> Greetings to the group & a belated happy G5 day to you all.
>>
>> I have a job application form, which can be submitted completed using
>> "black ink or type". Since I'm obsessively neat I hate my handwriting,
>> and would like to run the form through my laser-printer.
>>
>> I have scanned the form to .bmp using my Windows box [1] and was able
>> to produce a result which looked in Word to be quite acceptable, by
>> setting the image properties so it was behind the test, and typing in
>> the appropriate places.
>>
>> When I came to print, tho', only the text which I have typed came
>> through - NOT the image of the form itself. Whn I print-as-pdf I get
>> the same effect. Perhaps the problem is that I have used only carriage
>> returns & TABs for spacing, however I think many small text boxes
>> mught be quit arduous - does anyone know if they would work..? I have
>> tried furtling through the image & paragraph properties to no avail.
>>
>
> That's how I do it. I usually scan to a high quality TIFF and then
> paste it into word. Then I use transparent text boxes to fill in the
> blanks. It's not so bad, since you can copy the text box and use the
> same one over and over rather than drawing a new one each time.

Please excuse the Blue Peter-ish suggestion, but why don't you print up the
form first (if you can) in hard copy, and then type over it on the screen,
so both come out together. Might be the 'image' thing that's stopping both
printing together?

You could try putting it in a table? Rather than individual text boxes?

In article <385cfcc.0306241545.5fec4a39[at]posting.google.com>,
stroller[at]bigfoot.com says...
>Has anyone else tried anything like this, please..? Can you tell me
>how you've done it, or recommend some more appropriate software.
>
If you use a Windows pc then I would recommend Visioneer's ScanSoft
Paperport.
Great shame it's not available for the Mac. I don't know of anything
comparable that is.

--
To email me go here.
http://www.dream-weaver.com/email.html

Stroller <stroller[at]bigfoot.com> wrote:

> Has anyone else tried anything like this, please..? Can you tell me
> how you've done it, or recommend some more appropriate software.
>
> Many thanks in advance for any suggestions,

I print out the forms and then I use this thing I bought some time ago.

It's called an 'Electric TypeWriter'. It has the ability to place the
print anywhere on the page very accurately so there is no problem with
line spacing.

When (not if) I make a mistake, there is a button that automatically
lifts the printed letter or word or phrase right off the page. I don't
know what the print medium is but, it's not ink the way I know it.

Marvelous. There are even choices of typeface and size.

Cheap too.

HTH
Tom
--
My ol' grandaddy taught me to always;
post in plain text,
quote only that portion to which you are replying,
post replies at the bottom.

In article <BB1F01B6.13E77%bellajonez[at]yahoo.co.uk>,
Bella Jones <bellajonez[at]yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> in article jparrish-4C94F3.21495724062003[at]enews.newsguy.com, Jason Parrish
> at jparrish[at]newsguy.com wrote on 25/6/03 3:49 am:
>
> > In article <385cfcc.0306241545.5fec4a39[at]posting.google.com>,
> > stroller[at]bigfoot.com (Stroller) wrote:
> >
> >> Greetings to the group & a belated happy G5 day to you all.
> >>
> >> I have a job application form, which can be submitted completed using
> >> "black ink or type". Since I'm obsessively neat I hate my handwriting,
> >> and would like to run the form through my laser-printer.
> >>
> >> I have scanned the form to .bmp using my Windows box [1] and was able
> >> to produce a result which looked in Word to be quite acceptable, by
> >> setting the image properties so it was behind the test, and typing in
> >> the appropriate places.
> >>
> >> When I came to print, tho', only the text which I have typed came
> >> through - NOT the image of the form itself. Whn I print-as-pdf I get
> >> the same effect. Perhaps the problem is that I have used only carriage
> >> returns & TABs for spacing, however I think many small text boxes
> >> mught be quit arduous - does anyone know if they would work..? I have
> >> tried furtling through the image & paragraph properties to no avail.
> >>
> >
> > That's how I do it. I usually scan to a high quality TIFF and then
> > paste it into word. Then I use transparent text boxes to fill in the
> > blanks. It's not so bad, since you can copy the text box and use the
> > same one over and over rather than drawing a new one each time.
>
> Please excuse the Blue Peter-ish suggestion, but why don't you print up the
> form first (if you can) in hard copy, and then type over it on the screen,
> so both come out together. Might be the 'image' thing that's stopping both
> printing together?
>
> You could try putting it in a table? Rather than individual text boxes?
>

Nothing stops mine from printing together. It works perfectly. Everyone
finds the best way to do stuff themselves but for me this seems much
easier than either of those two suggestions. YMMV. J-