Advice needed for HTML layout

[June Moore]

Hi all,
I have a printout of a barcode label with various sections of info,
e.g. sender, receiver, product details, notes... etc.
I am currently designing a page which must look exactly like the this
label when printed. The problem in HTML is that the table layout
cannot be adjusted to the exact size that I would have liked it to be,
and this causes a lot of frustration indeed.
I need advice from people in this group on how I can solve the problem
in HTML.
If you can recommend any tools that I can use, that would be much
appreciated.

Thanks,
June.

[jmm-list-gn]

June Moore wrote:

Hi all,
I have a printout of a barcode label with various sections of info,
e.g. sender, receiver, product details, notes... etc.
I am currently designing a page which must look exactly like the this
label when printed.

You cannot get a web page to look like a printed page. Period. Your
only near success will be on your computer with one browser. It may look
similar and that is the best you can expect. HTML was not designed for
page layout the way you want.
If you want an exact duplicate, use an image. Given your statement of
the requirements, a good sized image could be made on the fly that would
be quite small in bytes: black-and-white or grayscale, and compressed. PNG
and JPEG both do well in this regard.

--
jmm dash list (at) sohnen-moe (dot) com
(Remove .AXSPAMGN for email)

[Steve Pugh]

ju******@yahoo.com.au (June Moore) wrote:

I have a printout of a barcode label with various sections of info,
e.g. sender, receiver, product details, notes... etc.
Okay.
I am currently designing a page which must look exactly like the this
label when printed.

HTML is not the right job for this task. Either use a format designed
for precise control of the printed output, or simply use an image
format.

Steve

--
"My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you,
I never answer letters and you don't like my tie." - The Doctor

Steve Pugh <st***@pugh.net> <http://steve.pugh.net/>

[June Moore]

jmm-list-gn <jm***************@sohnen-moe.com> wrote in message news:<MJ********************@giganews.com>...

June Moore wrote:

Hi all,
I have a printout of a barcode label with various sections of info,
e.g. sender, receiver, product details, notes... etc.
I am currently designing a page which must look exactly like the this
label when printed.

You cannot get a web page to look like a printed page. Period. Your
only near success will be on your computer with one browser. It may look
similar and that is the best you can expect. HTML was not designed for
page layout the way you want.
If you want an exact duplicate, use an image. Given your statement of
the requirements, a good sized image could be made on the fly that would
be quite small in bytes: black-and-white or grayscale, and compressed. PNG
and JPEG both do well in this regard.

Can you tell me how I can create the image on the fly? Note that the
printout will have some data that is dynamic and I'm not sure if there
are any software available that will allow me to embed the data inside
the image on the fly.

June.

[Rithish]

ju******@yahoo.com.au (June Moore) wrote in message news:<e5**************************@posting.google. com>...

label when printed. The problem in HTML is that the table layout
cannot be adjusted to the exact size that I would have liked it to be,
and this causes a lot of frustration indeed.
You could try creating the labels in PDF.
If you can recommend any tools that I can use, that would be much
appreciated.

http://www.ros.co.nz/pdf/user.php
Regards,
Rithish.

[Andy Dingley]

On 11 Aug 2004 20:53:26 -0700, ju******@yahoo.com.au (June Moore)
wrote:

I have a printout of a barcode label with various sections of info,
e.g. sender, receiver, product details, notes... etc.

Dead easy - use HTML, lots of <div>s and use absolute CSS positioning
to control their layout. Use CSS measurements in cm (this is CSS'
biggest advantage over a HTML table for this task)

It's terrible web design, but it's just the ticket for printing
barcodes.

NB - Every user that views the page and has a vaguely competent
browser will get teh same sticker layout. However you will need to
distribute the barcode font to them beforehand. OK for an intranet,
not quite so easy for the world at large.
--
Smert' spamionam

[Vincent De Baere]

On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 04:58:23 -0700, June Moore wrote:

jmm-list-gn <jm***************@sohnen-moe.com> wrote in message news:<MJ********************@giganews.com>...

June Moore wrote:

> Hi all,
> I have a printout of a barcode label with various sections of info,
> e.g. sender, receiver, product details, notes... etc.
> I am currently designing a page which must look exactly like the this
> label when printed.
>

You cannot get a web page to look like a printed page. Period. Your
only near success will be on your computer with one browser. It may look
similar and that is the best you can expect. HTML was not designed for
page layout the way you want.
If you want an exact duplicate, use an image. Given your statement of
the requirements, a good sized image could be made on the fly that would
be quite small in bytes: black-and-white or grayscale, and compressed. PNG
and JPEG both do well in this regard.

Can you tell me how I can create the image on the fly? Note that the
printout will have some data that is dynamic and I'm not sure if there
are any software available that will allow me to embed the data inside
the image on the fly.

There is. It will require server-side programming. Take a look at:

http://www.boutell.com/gd

http://be.php.net/image

grtz

Vincent

[Rithish Saralaya]

ri*****@dacafe.com (Rithish) wrote in message news:<fd*************************@posting.google.c om>...

ju******@yahoo.com.au (June Moore) wrote in message news:<e5**************************@posting.google. com>...

label when printed. The problem in HTML is that the table layout
cannot be adjusted to the exact size that I would have liked it to be,
and this causes a lot of frustration indeed.

You could try creating the labels in PDF.

Of course, as the others have mentioned, what I have suggested has to
be be done with server-side programming.

Regards,
Rithish.