How Can I Edit PDF's Using ASP Code

Lucy · October 14th, 2003, 06:07 AM

Hi there

Could anyone help me with the following:
Do you know of any code that you could use to edit a PDF?
A user would be able to go onto a website, enter in the text they wanted to put in to a specific area of a PDF (to customise it with their own name) and then download this PDF with their new info in it. They would also need to save this new updated PDF as a JPEG.

So, for example, I have a PDF which contains the following:
Merry Christmas
Regards
Miss XXXXXXXXX

A user would need to go into this PDF and change 'XXXXXXXXX' to, say, 'Lucy Robinson', and then save the PDF as a JPEG with this name in it.

Amy ideas?!

Thanks in advance

Lucy

planoie · October 14th, 2003, 11:29 AM

You'll need to look into a PDF generator or a PDF editor. Adobe Forms have this capability, but they are very difficult to work with. There are some other threads on these forums that address this issue. They might not be in the ASP forums, but the concepts are the same regardless.

Is there a reason you are converting a PDF to a JPEG? Kind of defeats the whole concept of a PDF (IMO).

Peter

Lucy · October 15th, 2003, 04:19 AM

Thanks for that - i'll look into the info you've mentioned :)

Only reason for converting the PDF to a JPEG is that the PDF would essentially just be an image with some text over the top which they can edit. The user would then want to put this image onto their site and possibly hand it out as a flyer.

Lucy

harpua · October 15th, 2003, 08:42 AM

I found a web site the other day you might find something similiar to what you need http://www.pdfzone.com

josh1979 · February 10th, 2005, 08:17 PM

Anyone ever find or hear of a solution to this problem?

I have a similar task to do. I've tried to do it numerous ways including reading the file in as a TextStream then find and replace a temp value in the pdf with the name/variable. It works but it isn't a great solution as Acrobat rebuilds the file when it opens it after the change has been made. I think it has a checksum or something and can tell if the file has been altered. I think because i'm trying to read the file in as ASCII format and not in a hex format. Not too sure but there has to be an easier way. perhaps converting it to XML or something but then i'm not too familiar with that either. I've looked at pdf generators/editors but most of them cost big bucks and i am restricted from installing things on my server (COM objects etc) which adds to the challenge for me

. Any suggestions would be great.

cheers
Josh