using LEADTOOLS to convert doc to pdf

Question

I am playing around with Leadtools to see how it might benefit me but i am a little frustrated with their documentation regarding how the process works. I am creating a library with methods that take an input file, convert it to pdf, add a qrcode to the file and save it and then reading the qrcode again.

1. Does a pdf have to be converted to an image before leadtools is able to read the qrcode?

2. Does leadtools allow converting from doc to pdf and then adding the qrcode or do i have to convert it to an image as well?

3. Is there anywhere I could look at code samples of how I can go about doing what I talked about other than the leadtools site itself?

Answer 1

I am sorry to hear that you are having difficulties, but I will do my best to get you pointed in the right direction.

To answer your questions:
A1.) Yes, the PDF will need to be rasterized before the LEADTOOLS barcode engine can be used. Our barcode engine will only work with raw image data. Once the file is decompressed into raw data, we will not access the file any further.

A2.) Yes, you can rasterize Microsoft Word documents using either our file I/O methods or with the LEADTOOLS Virtual Printer. Once you have the raw image data, you can pass it to the barcode engine to write the QR code into the data. Once the barcode is written, you can then compress the image into any supported format, including (raster) PDF. You can also create a searchable PDF by running the resultant image through an OCR engine & outputting to PDF.

A3.) The LEADTOOLS SDK has a main barcode demo that should illustrate the ability of the SDK to handle the features you describe here. There are also tutorials in the help file, and various projects on our support forums. We have also created a couple different CodeProject articles here:
Multi-Platform Barcode with LEADTOOLS 18
How to Read Barcodes from Images using LEADTOOLS

You haven't mentioned here what programming language you are developing with or what the specific problem are that you have encountered. Without knowing either of those, it's difficult to get more specific into any methods or other resources to check out. For a simple raster conversion of a Microsoft Word Doc to PDF and writing a barcode, I think this would probably take between 10-15 lines of code.

If you have not already, I would highly recommend sending an email to Support@leadtools.com or open a live chat with the LEADTOOLS Support team from LEADTOOLS.com. We can get into more specifics there and help you more directly with any issues you are encountering.

Walter Bates
LEADTOOLS Developer Support

Answer 2

I tried adding this as a comment, but it is apparently too long for that. So I have added it as another answer.

Even if you are building a DLL, I would suggest starting out building a simple demo with a view of the image so you can see what exactly is happening to the image. Once you are comfortable that the image is being modified the way you want, then implement that code in your own library.

Also, I would recommend testing out the toolkit with the provided main demos. The demos are there to illustrate the different options you have access to in the code. If you can accomplish what your application or library will need to do through the demos, then it would be worth your time to begin coding specifically what you need. You might even need to use multiple demos to verify the tools can accomplish the goals that you have. You have all the toolkit code for the demos, so you can take them apart and use the specific pieces that you need in your application.

If you are having trouble identifying which demos to try out or whether the toolkit has the specific functionality that you need, your best bet is to contact Tech Support directly to ask. We are here to help get you pointed in the right direction.

To get down to brass tacks, the source of the image data is not all that important from the perspective of the barcode engine. It needs a RasterImage handle (raw image data) to write the specified barcode. Whether the image data is created on the fly, read from file, or generated from a scanner, it does not make a whole lot of difference.

To find the main .NET barcode demo, I would start out by going to the LEADTOOLS shortcuts. To get there, go to the Start menu -> LEADTOOLS -> Help and Demos. The shortcuts are broken down by programming language, feature, and then the base toolkit. You should be able to find the WinForms .NET barcode demo here:
..\Shortcuts.NET Class Libraries.NET Framework\01 Imaging\07 Barcode

Our toolkit example is a .NET WinForms project, but it will work in ASP.NET also.

Here are some links to tutorials if you want to dig right into the code:
Loading and Displaying an Image in WinForms
Reading Barcodes
HOW TO: Load and Display an Image with WebImageViewer

There was also this recent code tip posted illustrating how to read and write UTF-8 characters in a QR barcode.

We provide both .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 DLLs for our barcode engine. Both of these work within Visual Studio 2012.