Traditional Electronic Printing On The Internet

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Traditional Electronic PrintingOn The Internet

• William J. Bill McCalpin
• EDPP, CDIA, MIT, LIT
• Principal, MHE

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• Xplor 21st Global Conference and Exhibit
• Miami Beach, Florida
• October 30, 2000

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Printing Versus The Internet
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Printing Versus The Internet

• Electronic printing is an 125,000,000,000 (US)
  industry worldwide (www.xplor.org)
• There are now an estimated 98,685,000 host
  computers on the Internet (www.mids.org)
• Xplor International estimates that the production
  of paper documents and electronic documents is
  still increasing
• So, for a while yet, were living in a hybrid
  world

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Printing Versus The Internet

• Customer service needs identical look and feel in
  paper and electronic documents
• Regulatory agencies continue to have an interest
  in document presentation
• Customers need a re-education process as
  documents change media
• Hence, there are good reasons in the short run to
  be concerned about presentation

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The Nature Of Print Streams
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EBCDIC Versus ASCII

• BCD - Binary Coded Decimal
• BCDIC - Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
• EBCDIC - IBM Extended Binary Coded Decimal
  Interchange Code
• ASCII - American Standard Code for Information
  Interchange

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EBCDIC Line Data

• EBCDIC encoded - 8 bit
• Record-oriented because of IBM OSs
• Carriage controls
• Machine carriage controls
• ANSI carriage controls

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ASCII Line Data

• ASCII encoded - 7 bit
• Record orientation is not intrinsic to OS
• Text files use print controls to delimit records
• Common print controls
• x0d carriage return
• x0a line feed
• x0c form feed

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The EBCDIC Family Tree

• EBCDIC text
• 1403 data - EBCDIC records with a carriage
  control
• LCDS - Line conditioned data stream
• 3800 Mod I
• 3211 data with Xerox DJDEs
• Others
• AFP, MODCA, and IPDS

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The ASCII Family Tree

• ASCII text
• ASCII text with print controls
• ASCII text with escape sequences
• Epson MX-80 Xerox UDK (XES)
• QMS QUIC IBM PPDS
• HP PCL Xerox Metacode
• Print programming languages using ASCII
• Interpress PostScript

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Line Data And Conditioned Line Data

• 1403, 3211, other EBCDIC line data streams,
  including Xerox DJDE
• 3800 Mod I and other IBM data streams
• ASCII text files of all sorts

• 1 This is text
• F44444E88A48A4A8AA
• 100000389209203573
• F CL
• F This is textRF
• 02222256672672767700
• C00000489309304584DA

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Print Data With Escape Sequences

• Epson and many other impact printers
• Xerox UDK (XES)
• QMS QUIC
• IBM PPDS
• HP PCL
• Xerox Metacode
• AFP, MODCA, and IPDS

• X01060001040002000154686973206973207465787401
• AMB 100 AMI 300 STO 0,90 SCFL 3 SVI 14 TRN This
  is text

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Print Programming Languages

• !PS-Adobe-2.0
• Title Blue Book Program 7, on page 157
• EndComments/Times-Roman findfont 18 scalefont
  setfont
• 72 500 moveto
• (This is text) show
• ...

• Interpress
• PostScript (and PDF)

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The Nature Of Internet Formats
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Common Internet Formats

• The most commonly used data format on the
  Internet is HTML - HyperText Markup Language
• The next expected wave on the Internet is XML
  (eXtensible Markup Language) and its related
  standards such as XSL, SVG, etc.
• As a secondary standard, PDF is widely used to
  present static documents

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HTML

• HTML is an instance of SGML
• HTML has a set of 40 to 50 tags, which are
  grammar based
• HTML tags have default presentation
  characteristics, but these can be overridden with
  CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

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Sample HTML

• lt!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0
  transitional//en"gt
• lthtmlgt
• lth1gtPoison Ivy Vineyardslt/h1gt
• ltpgtPoison Ivy Vineyards is an experiment in
  growing wine-quality grapes in a backyard in a
  residential neighborhood in Richardson, Texas.
  This website serves as a running diary of the
  steps I took to create the vineyard and -
  eventually - to make wine.lt/pgt
• lt/htmlgt

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XML

• XML is eXtensible Markup Language, which means
  that you can make up the tags
• Since a browser cant know how to format the
  tags, default formatting is in outline form
• Normally, you would use XSL (CSS) to describe how
  each tag is to be formatted

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Sample XML

• ltNAMEgtWilliam J. "Bill" McCalpin, EDPP, CDIA,
  MIT, LITlt/NAMEgt
• ltJOBTITLEgtPrincipallt/JOBTITLEgt
• ltAFFILIATIONgtMHElt/AFFILIATIONgt
• ltADDRESSgt
• ltSTREETgt1400 Cheyenne Dr.lt/STREETgt
• ltCITYgtRichardsonlt/CITYgt
• ltSTATEgtTexaslt/STATEgt
• ltZIPCODEgt75080lt/ZIPCODEgt
• ltEMAILgtmccalpin_at_mhe-consulting.comlt/EMAILgt
• lt/ADDRESSgt

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Sample XSL

• This is an ltemphgtimportantlt/emphgt point.
• ltxsltemplate match"emphgt
• ltfosequence font-weight"boldgt
• ltxslprocess-children/gt
• lt/fosequencegt
• lt/xsltemplategt

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PDF

• PDF is Adobes Portable Document Format
• PDF is a print stream, not an SGML instance
• PDF is similar to PostScript, but more portable,
  because it carries its own resources
• PDF provides good fidelity, at a price

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Sample PDF

• PDF-1.1
• ...
• 2 0 obj
• ltlt
• /CreationDate (D19960809191047)
• /Producer (Acrobat Distiller 2.1 for Windows)
• /Creator (Adobe PageMaker 6.0)
• /Author (Doc)
• /Keywords ()
• /Title (bills)
• /Subject ()
• gtgt
• endobj

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Limits Of Browsers
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A Normal HTML Page
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Default Font Increased
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Using Ghouly Solid
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Adjusting The Fonts
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Methods Of Moving Traditional Electronic Print To
The Internet
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Five Methods

• Conversion to PDF
• Rasterization to gif or jpeg
• Recomposition into HTML/XML
• Conversion to normal HTML/XML
• Translation to highly formatted HTML/XML

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Conversion to PDF

• This is a print stream to print stream conversion
• The output in PDF usually looks very similar to
  the original printed document
• Many tools which create the PDF also add value,
  such as hypertext links, bookmarking, et cetera,
  to the PDF document

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Pros And Cons Of PDF

• Pros
• High fidelity to original document
• Reader is widespread and free
• Reasonably transportable
• Widely used in some circles (e.g., IRS)
• Cons
• PDF files tend to be large
• PDF documents are paper-sized centric
• Browser requires a plug-in

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PDF Sample

• PDF-1.1
• ...
• 2 0 obj
• ltlt
• /CreationDate (D19960809191047)
• /Producer (Acrobat Distiller 2.1 for Windows)
• /Creator (Adobe PageMaker 6.0)
• /Author (Doc)
• /Keywords ()
• /Title (bills)
• /Subject ()
• gtgt
• endobj

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Sources For To PDF

• Composition Tools - create new PDF documents from
  source code
• Transforms - translate existing formatted print
  streams into PDF
• Larger Systems- composition or translation
  capabilities inserted transparently into document
  systems
• See Xplor Products and Services Reference Guide

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Rasterization to gif or jpeg

• The print stream israsterized, that is,
  converted to a bit map format
• GIF Graphical Interchange Format (GIF) -
  Invented by CompuServe for graphics. Supports
  only 256 colors, or 8 bits.
• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
  Specifically for more than 256 colors, with
  better compression, but is lossey
• Excellent discussion of each at
  http//www.efuse.com/Design/web_graphics_basics.ht
  ml

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Pros And Cons Of Rasterization

• Pros
• Image is exact copy of original document
• Image can be viewed on any browser which takes
  gifs and jpegs
• Cons
• Resolution is hardcoded at one size
• Theres no text to search
• Download is longer
• No correspondence of printed pages and HTML
  pages

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Sample Rasterization

• This page was originally created in PDF, then
  rasterized, and converted to a jpeg

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Recomposition into HTML/XML

• Data is extracted from a print stream
• Templates have been created in advance
• The extracted data is merged into the templates
• There may be fewer or more output pages in HTML
  than were in the print stream
• Templates are built to be the most effective in
  the browser window

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Pros And Cons Of Recomposition

• Pros
• HTM/XMLL pages are well-suited for the browser
• HTML/XML is considered by some to be simpler than
  PDF
• Cons
• HTML/XML pages dont necessarily match the
  printed pages
• All pages (templates) must be pre-composed

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Sample Recomposition

• This document is a sample telephone bill which
  have been divided into 11 HTML pages
• Note how the HTML pages are divided by subject,
  not by page overflow

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Conversion to normal HTML/XML

• Both data and formatting information are
  extracted from the print file
• Some formats easily correspond to an HTML tag,
  e.g., a heading to lth1gt
• More complex formatting can be approximated by
  the use of table tags

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Pros And Cons of Conversion

• Pros
• HTML/XML pages look similar to printed pages
• Pages are in HTML/XML, not PDF or raster
• Cons
• Fidelity is approximate
• Reader can substantially alter the presentation
• Graphics may not be supported

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Sample Conversion
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Translation to highly formatted HTML/XML

• This method uses particular CSS commands to do
  exact placement of text in the window of the
  browser
• This is as close as XML gets (today) to being a
  print stream
• Fonts are still subject to user override

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Pros And Cons Of Translation

• Pros
• Author has very good control over the
  presentation of text
• Cons
• Much of the value of a tagged language is lost
• Portrait print pages still dont fit on landscape
  browser windows
• May not work with all browsers
• Fonts can still be overridden

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Sample Translation

• ltHTMLgt
• ltHEADgt
• .ps9positionabsolutetop676pxleft454pxwidth
  65px
• .ps10positionabsolutetop676pxleft535pxwidth
  66px
• .ps11positionabsolutetop676pxleft1102pxwidt
  h70px
• ltSPAN CLASS"ps9"gtltNOBRgtBalancelt/NOBRgtlt/SPANgt
• ltSPAN CLASS"ps10"gtltNOBRgtForwardlt/NOBRgtlt/SPANgt
• ltSPAN CLASS"ps11"gtltNOBRgt5,000.00lt/NOBRgtlt/SPANgt

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William J. Bill McCalpin

• EDPP, CDIA, MIT, LIT
• Principal, MHE
• 1400 Cheyenne Dr.
• Richardson, Texas 75080-3921
• 972-231-3660 (v) 972-690-4521 (f)
• mccalpin_at_mhe-consulting.com