-printInDocumentOrder

(Merge only)

Control the order in which Merge lays down objects and their backgrounds.

Syntax

-{prt}printInDocumentOrder Y|N

Description

When -printInDocumentOrder is not specified, it defaults to N (i.e. off). In that normal mode Merge will do several passes over the set of objects to be printed.

1. Lay down any shaded backgrounds
2. Lay down any images
3. Lay down text
4. Lay down fields

This works admirably well 99% of the time. However, sometimes you want to have greater control over the object drawing sequence. By specifying -printInDocumentOrder, (when specified, it defaults to Y), Merge will proceed down the document DOM tree, as represented in the Form Explorer view, and draw each object as it goes. For each object in turn it draws the background of the object before drawing its foreground. In this way, you can control whether one object gets drawn above or below another object by ordering those objects in the Form Explorer.

If your Merge run is using multiple output configurations you really should specify the leading prt as in:

-pdfPrintInDocumentOrder     or     -lj4PrintInDocumentOrder

If you are trying to stamp an image overtop of a page's content it is common to put that image at the bottom of the Form Explorer list. Then specify this._transparent = true; on that image object because you want the lighter areas of the image to allow the underlying page content to show through. But, (and backwards compatibility keeps us from changing this), for PCL you must use -lj4PrintInDocumentOrder=Y whereas for PDF, you must use -pdfPrintInDocumentOrder=N. The underlying technologies address these requirements differently.