>>Just received VSI*FAX and got FormsXPress on the way. I feel like a kid
>>on Christmas morning ... but
>>what I really would like to make the circle complete is some method
>>whereby I could receive a faxed form via VSI*FAX, fill in the blanks and
>>fax it back all without having to print a hard copy ... Of course, there
>>is the matter of the signature ...hmmm.
> If you can receive faxes to a file with VSI*FAX (I've never
>used it to receive), it wouldn't be too hard to write a program or
>script that would fill in the blanks and add a scanned fax signature to
>the bottom, and finally send it back out...
(Disclaimer: I also have not used VSI*FAX to receive a fax and have
not used a release in a year. There could be new release that does
this and hence my comments are..., well, gosh... wrong?)
I do not think the completeing of a faxed form is trivial though I
would not say it can not be done. If VSI can receive a fax o it it
would do so as a graphic image file, not text. That file would then
need to be OCR'd to create text. OCR from a fax is one of the tougher
OCR challanges due to the "noise" on the page. Not being text limits
your dealing with the document to "painting" any modifications. It is
not a metter of plugging ASCII chars into the document, it is having
to edit a bitmap adding new objects that happen to be your words.
Axial registration, purportional spacing and other attributes we take
for granted in a computer produced document are not as reliable in a
fax from paper. Comp to comp faxes are better though the image vs.
text problem is still there.
I'd like to do this, too. The answer for a serious business need with
cost justification may well be EDI and one of the many EDI standards.
If it is to fill in the credit app faxed to you by Wingtips-2-Go,
there apears to be no easy (read cheap) answer.
======================================================
"My boss says we need some eunuch programmers."
"I think he means UNIX and I already know UNIX."
"Well, if the company nurse comes by, tell her
I said never mind."
- Dilbert -
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(303) 666-0499 Superior, CO
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