This program allows to produce laser engraved plated directly from the automated output of a database

There are some types of files:

• the basic blocks of the program,  which do not need any user handling

 
• the main program, written in PERL, to handle the high level aspects (filtering, parsing, global balancing)  and to generate the PostScript output.
• eps.pl : the main procedure;
• charsize.def : the description of each character in every described font (Times, Helvetica, Helvetica-Condensed : Roman, Italic, Bold);

 
• the companion PostScript prologs, containing the effective drawing procedures :
• prolog.eps : the main procedure container;
• _barcode.ps : the EAN13 procedure;
• _iso.ps : defining accents in iso coding;
• _eti.eps : procedures particular to labels;
• _spec.eps : idem, describing the special characters (male, annual...)

 
• the user's definitions for each format/size

 
• often the labels belong to size families and format families; so to simplify the maintenance, the definitions are defined hierarchically :
• generic.def : contains the most basic def
• initions common to each labels (field names and sequence, font relationships...) ;
• x.def : contains the particularities of the generic format x;
• x_05.def : contains the discriminating properties of the particular format x_05 (size 05) : usually the font scaling and sometimes a correction to the general scaling process, for example to avoid  a too big barcode;
• each line contains fields separated by  the character <TAB> (be careful to avoid their conversion into spaces...)
• each line can be redefined to modify its generic meaning
• each line beginning by '#' is a comment

 
• the standardized input, in general generated by a database (PROGRESS)
• the first line contains some descriptive fields (Field_1=xxx<TAB>Field_2=yyy<TAB>...) enabling the whole process

all the other lines are containing the <TAB> separated data fields generated by the database
the EPS (encapsulated PostScript) output for the final stage : the laser engraving.