Customer Request I can't handle

[Bob Rasmussen]

On Thu, 5 Jul 2007, Del wrote:

> This customer is running FilePro on Windows XP.
> 
> They output a report to the laser printer that contains a print code at the beginning of the page to print small (16 pitch).
> 
> The report prints in "portrait" mode, not landscape, and is wider than 80 characters, but fits the page anyway because of the small print.
> 
> They called and asked if I could "make the report into a PDF" so that they could view it onscreen and then distribute it to their clients.
> 
> However, they still want the ability to print it after viewing - and they want their clients to be able to print it
> 
> After further analysis, I determined that what they want is to get the same effect as if they printed the report to a laser printer and then scanned in each page to make a PDF out of it (graphical image of page).  The PDF could then be distributed and would print correctly on just about any kind of laser printer.
> 
> I am not very knowledgeable about creating PDF, although I have software (printwizard, paperport) that does it.
> 
> I did some experimenting, and, as far as I can determine, I can't do what they want with any product at my disposal.
> 
> I put the report to a file and was able to view it with notepad.  Laser control characters then show up as strange symbols, which disturbed them.  When viewed and then printed from notepad, the command string to print condensed does not work, so the report lines wrap around and screw up the formatting. If you just point to the output file and click on "print", Windows launches notepad anyway and it prints the same way.
> 
> I tried creating a PDF using PrintWizard, but the same thing happened
> 
> We were able to read the file with Word and then reformat to print correctly, but it took a lot of editing which they don't want to do.
> 
> I almost got what I wanted with Monarch - the report looked good on the screen, and was able to set the font for condensed print, but the pagination was way off, with page headings creeping up and down the page. Monarch does not have any controls for changing the page depth, as far as I can tell.  
> 
> Before I tell the client I can't do it, I wanted to consult the list members to see if someone knows of a product that will do this for them, namely create a PDF file that has the same formatting as when the report is printed on the laser printer.
> 
> Any help greatly appreciated.
> 
> Del Neroni
> 

Print Wizard should certainly be able to take a PCL file as input and 
output a PDF. It is possible that you have an early version of Print 
Wizard in which this was not possible, or not easy. With the current Print 
Wizard, try
   printwiz yourfilename.PCL /fPDF://youroutputfile.PDF?view

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
            fax: (US) 503-624-0760
            web: http://www.anzio.com