Creating image overlays

An image overlay can be used to place additional information on a document when a user sends a document to a local printer. The additional information from the image overlay is merged with the document before the document is sent to the printer. For example, you might want to print the word COPY on all documents sent to a local printer.

The image overlay must be a monochrome, device independent bitmap, stored in a file with a file type of BMP. Although Content Manager OnDemand scales the bitmap as required, for best results, the bitmap should have the same aspect ratio (the ratio of width to height) and be approximately the same size as, or evenly divisible into, a page of the data to be printed with it.

After you create the BMP file, build a DLL file, which includes the bitmap. The name of the bitmap resource in the DLL file must be the same as the identifier specified for the image overlay on the Image Overlay Files page.

Store the DLL file on the Content Manager OnDemand library server. Specify the location of the DLL file in the Advanced options on the Print Options page.

The following example describes how to create an image overlay bitmap and build a DLL file with the Microsoft Visual C++ development environment:

1.      Create a new project of type MFC AppWizard(dll) in a new workspace.

2.      For each image overlay to be created:

• Use the Insert menu to create a new bitmap resource.
• Set the bitmap ID to a double-quoted string, such as "Text". The string that you specify must be the same as the image overlay identifier on the application Miscellaneous Options page.
• Set the bitmap Colors to Monochrome.
• Set the bitmap Width and Height to values that can be evenly divided into the width and height of the data to be printed with it:
  • If the bitmap contains only solid letters and numbers, a relatively small size should work well. For example, if the data has a standard 8.5 by 11 inch aspect ratio and is printed on a 300-pel printer, a width of 425 and a height of 550 should provide good results for solid letters and numbers.
  • If a pattern is being used, a larger size provides better results after scaling. For example, a width of 2550 and a height of 3300 should provide better results.
• Draw the bitmap.
• Save the bitmap.

3.      Build a release version of the project.