Sheetfiller

sheetfiller is a Java tool for filling in sheets. :-) It receives one or more files written in the sheetfiller language that tells the program how to fill in the sheet. The original sheet must be a PostScript file. The output is also a PostScript file.

As an example, let's say we have the sheet ema.ps [ps.gz]. We want the fields of this sheet to be filled in according to the input files. The files ema.sf and char.sf were composed with this purpose. The first one says the sheet is the file ema.ps and describes the position of the fields and the relation between them. For instance, the value of the field called str_mod is equal to the value of the field str minus 10 divided by 2. The second file gives the values of the fields. Both files are written in the same language (in fact, they don't need to be separated). The program reads these files and writes the given values in the right positions, generating another PostScript file: out.ps [ps.gz]. If you have the right tool, you can convert the output to PDF. (In case you are confused, you may figure out what the program does by comparing the files ema.ps and out.ps.)

In other words, you have the files: sheetfiller.jar (the program), ema.ps (the sheet), ema.sf (first input file), and char.sf (second input file). You then run the program with the following command line:

and the program generates the file out.ps. Please note that the input is only the .sf files. You might also have noticed that you need a Java Runtime Environment installed in your system. If you are a MS Windows user, you'll need Ghostscript and GSView in order to view PostScript files.

Download

sheetfiller is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. (Open the jar file for more information.)

Please know that this program was developed for a very specific author's personal use. The source code is a big ball of mud and probably only works well for the input files mentioned on the example. Also, unless you know the author, chances are that this web page is the only support you'll get for the program. (The author is too lazy to write decent documentation and to refactor the source code.)

sheetfiller.jar (20061129)