Multipart Forms with ScriptServer(r) PAN





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MULTIPART FORMS WITH SCRIPTSERVER® PAN

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Abstract

The ScriptServer® PAN Printing System (PAN) product supports multipart forms. This document describes the steps and conditions necessary to create and use a basic multipart form.

What is a Multipart Form?

A multipart form is essentially multiple copies of a document (preprinted, often pressure-sensitive multipart forms should be familiar to most business customers). The differences between printing multiple copies and printing a multipart form are:

instead of collating the output as job copies, the output is collated with all impressions of each page together
a different background or watermark is often used for each impression of a page

Techniques Covered In This Memo

This memo covers the basics of creating a simple, multipart form. ScriptServer PAN supports additional features such as backside images and tray selection which are not discussed here.

Creating a Multipart Form

The steps are quite simple:

Upload EPS graphics for the watermarks or background images for the different parts with PAN Administration -> Resources -> upload form image.
Create a form with PAN Administration -> Manage forms -> create form and add the uploaded image resources to it.

By default, when creating the form the images will be inserted in the correct location in the manifest and in the correct order. For example in the screenshot below the image resource for the watermark for the first part is called "Copy1" and the image resource for the second part is called "Copy2".

That's all there is to creating a basic multipart form with ScriptServer PAN!

What Kinds Of Data Can I Print On A Multipart Form?

You can print two kinds of data on a multipart form.

ASCII (legacy or variable) Data

A common use of multipart forms is to print documents such as invoices or bills of lading, where one copy goes with the goods or customer and the other copy stays on file. The pages of data need to be separated by form feed characters (Control-L, ASCII 12 decimal); most such output which is being adapted from traditional preprinted forms will already have the pages separated with form feeds.

PostScript

PostScript files can be printed on multipart forms as well. This includes the output of the PAN Windows Driver, so yes: you can print a Microsoft Word document on a multipart form!

Can I Print Multipart Forms On A PCL Printer?

The techniques given in this memo will work not only on PostScript printers but on PCL printers as well, because ScriptServer PAN will take care of having the PostScript converted to PCL for you. Some advanced techniques may require a PostScript-capable printer.