Software to print vouchers from large amount of txt data

[Alex Zbyslaw]

Bill Campbell wrote:

>On Mon, Oct 22, 2007, simon butsana wrote:
>  
>
>>I am looking for a software that will read repetitive data from a text file
>>and send it to a preformated fanfold paper (impact printer). The software
>>must be customizable as to be told on which area of the paper to print a
>>given field from the source text file.
>>    
>>
>>The data in the text file would thus be translated in a certain number of
>>similar paper vouchers.
>>    
>>
>>Does anyone have an idea?
>>    
>>
>
>I've been using nroff for this type of things for years.  One can do very
>precise text location vertically and horizontally.  Our accounting software
>prints invoices using groff, initially loading an image with .PSPIC, then
>overlaying it with the text.
>  
>
Just to second Bill's suggestion.  I've done both labels and invoices 
with groff/troff with great success.  The only issue is how accurately 
your printer will feed the paper so it may be better to be as generous 
as possible with margins around the printed data.  (If this is fanfold 
paper, maybe it's a sprocket-type printer?  In which case it's a 
question of how accurately the initial page is lined up when the paper 
is first inserted.  You might want a pre-generated test page for when 
new paper is fed in).

Once you know what your troff looks like, any scripting language should 
be able to turn the text file into troff and print it.  Perl is probably 
the obvious one.

--Alex