Hi Francois,

I know I haven't done the best job at exposing all of the cool things you can do with my Report Engine tool. However, you can very quickly and easily create a PDF Document full of images without using the VFP Report Writer. I don't currently support the G4 TIFF files. However, I did start working on TIFF G4 file support before but had some other high priority items to fix first. However, it is on the list. But for some quick idea of how you can do a multi-page PDF document with an image on each page the code is as simple as the following. I already do this for creating photo calendars of the kids to send to the grandparents so they can print them on their own printers at home anytime.

I know that Tracy was pointing out that there are a lot of things that the tool does and I try to make it as easy as possible all without using VFP FRX's. Running FRX's though without change is a major goal of the product but was not it's original first use. I wanted to be able to generate high quality reports programmatically without using an FRX like we used to be able to do in the old FoxPro DOS days using @ SAY.

Here is some sample code:

SET CLASSLIB TO MINDSEYEREPORTENGINE
*
* USING BETA VERSION ADD THE FOLLOWING LINE
* 
SET CLASSLIB TO MINDSEYEREPORTPREVIEWFORMS ADDITIVE
oREPORT = CREATEOBJECT('MindsEyeReportPreviewForm')

*
* Now you can call all the Methods and set Properties of the ActiveX control which is hosted
* in a VFP Form to make it easy to use. You could also use the control on a VB Form as well.

WITH oReport.oReportEngine
   .AddText('','Picture 1',3.25,0.5,0,0,'Arial',20)
   .AddPicture('','Image1.JPG',0.5,1,7.5,9.5)
   .NewPage()
   .AddText('','Picture 2',3.25,0.5,0,0,'Arial',20)
   .AddPicture('','Image2.JPG',0.5,1,7.5,9.5)
   .NewPage()
   .AddText('','Picture 3',3.25,0.5,0,0,'Arial',20)
   .AddPicture('','Image3.JPG',0.5,1,7.5,9.5)
   .NewPage()
   .AddText('','Picture 4',3.25,0.5,0,0,'Arial',20)
   .AddPicture('','Image4.JPG',0.5,1,7.5,9.5)
   .NewPage()
   .AddText('','Picture 5',3.25,0.5,0,0,'Arial',20)
   .AddPicture('','Image5.JPG',0.5,1,7.5,9.5)
   .SaveToPDF('My Picture Files.PDF',.T.) && Save the document to a PDF document and then Open the PDF File.
   .FirstPage() && Move to the First Page in the Report
ENDWITH

*
* Now SHOW the form to see what you have
oReport.Show()

You will find that the SaveToPDF() Method is VERY FAST compared to Adobe's PDF Writer. If you have any questions, suggestions or ideas let me know and I will see what I can do to help you out. There are even seperate compression settings for the BMP images and JPG/GIF images within a PDF document. All images are currently stored in a PDF document as JPG images for size issues. However, when BMP images are converted to a JPEG you can have them converted at 100% (default value 100%) so that they do not have any artifacts but are still compressed. I did this so that you could place SCREEN CAPTURES for Help Files without looking bad into a PDF document but still have them compressed. Adobe only lets you compress ALL images to the same level or no images.


>If your goal is pdf output, have you looked at:
>
>http://www.mindseyeinc.com/ReportEngine/index.htm

I like this product.

But i'm currently looking for a product that will generate "on-the-fly"
a nice looking pdf document made exclusively of tiff G4 files
(scanned multi-page documents) stored in a c/s db.

Building a book on the fly from images no text. No real place
for a report writer. here.

There is a host of tools that can do the job. But the best ones
have a dll interface not an ocx one... I am unable to run the dll
interface.

The only one to work http://www.pdfocx.com/ is neat but offers
very little control on the pdf making:
- no annotation,
- no encryption,
...