IMAGES

Syntax

images "filelist"|{expr} [,across n] [,down n] [,res|resolution n] [,color] [,tray value|{expr}]

Description

Appends image files from the filelist, which can be a literal or an expression.  The list may contain any number of semi-colon delimited file names.  Each is converted to a native image in sequence and added to pages following the current page, optionally scaled and tiled based on the across and down options.

The images are produced at 300 dpi unless otherwise specified.  The images will by default be produced in black and white unless pcl color images are indicated with a uf90c –color (or –ci) command line option, or if the color option is specified in the images command.

Note that images, particularly color images and high resolution images, can become quite large, resulting in larger print jobs or pdf files than are typical.

Images must be scalable, so therefore images need to be in a format that can be converted via configured image conversion and scaling programs or the UnForm Windows Support Server.  Further, of course, one of these image conversion options must be enabled.  Common formats include jpg, tiff, bmp, and png.  Specifically, pcl images cannot be used as they are not scalable.  In addition, if Ghostscript is available on the server or the Windows Support Server, then pdf files can be included.   This is particularly useful when used with UnForm archive libraries, as pdf images can be extracted from the libraries and appended to a job.  See the Statement example in samples/arcdemo.rul for an example of using the images command along with functions to extract archive images as PDF files.

The images command can involve a great deal of image processing.  Performance benefits can be achieved with PDF files if Ghostscript 8.10 or higher is available, either on the UnForm server (indicated by the pdffitpage=1 entry in uf90d.ini) or via the Windows Support Server.

The tray option is provided to draw paper from the tray specified for the pages produced by the image attachments.  The tray value should match the syntax found in the tray command, or can be an expression that produces an equivalent text value.

An images command may be placed inside an 'if copy' block or be run with an exec() command in a code block in order to append images only on selected copies or pages.

Examples

images "termsconditions1.jpg;termsconditions2.jpg"

images {all_invoices$},across 2, down 2, resolution 150, tray 5

Drivers: pcl, pdf, postscript