Printing via Web-based fP

[Brian K. White]

ghostpcl binary for windows

http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/methodsforanyprinter.html

You can get a raster data only version of jetpcl free, and possibly even 
technically legally, though for sure no one intends this, by extracting it 
from the free downloadable demo of vsi-fax. vsi-fax itself stops working 
after a while, but the pcl interpreter (which is jetpcl), works forever as 
long as a certain file exists in a certain place in relation to a certain 
environment variable. The file can even be zero bytes but does need to be 
executable. It's not secret really either, as in breaking an NDA, I deduced 
it in a few minutes by just trying stuff.

Install the demo normally.
Delete all but a few files:
    tar cvf /tmp/t ${VSIFAX}/lib/fxpcl ${VSIFAX}/bin/pcltotif
    rm -rf ${VSIFAX:-holycrap}/

Create a zero-byte vfxsched
    touch ${VSIFAX}/bin/vfxsched
    chmod 755 ${VSIFAX}/bin/vfxsched

Arrange that the VSIFAX variable gets set and that the bin directory is in 
PATH. Easiest way is just leave /etc/vsifax.sh and the line in /etc/profile 
in place which the demo install already did for you.

At this point pcltotif works all by itself and forever.

Now the really evil part, integrate it into hylafax!

Edit the PCL section in /usr/lib/fax/typerules
-------------------------
# 20070219 brian at aljex.com - More, and more specific PCL recognition. Use 
vsifax's pcl interpreter.
# HP Printer Control Language, Daniel Quinlan (quinlan at yggdrasil.com)
0       string          0x1b&l0            tiff    pcltotif -h off -E 
fine -o %o %i
0       string          0x1bE0x1b            tiff     pcltotif -h off -E 
fine -o %o %i
0       string          0x1b%-12345X       tiff    pcltotif -h off -E 
fine -o %o %i
--------------------------

My actual file has a real escape character in place of each of those 0x1b.
The allowable syntax includes 0x1b, \033, and I think ^[ too, and the rest 
of the file in fact uses 0x## a lot but for whatever reason we ended up 
using a real escape.

Now you can "sendfax -n -d######### file.pcl"

Because the heart of it only generates tiff, a fixed resolution raster 
image, this is really only good for faxing, and printing (at 200dpi). Not at 
all for going from pcl to pdf.
Ghostpcl is both better and worse.
Better: ghostpcl uses high level primitivs when converting from pcl to pdf. 
Many things like characters and lines and other geomtrical drawing commands 
get translated into pdf equivalents. Not rendered into raster data. This is 
only true for pdf, it renders all into raster/bitmap data when outputting 
ps.
Worse: ghostpcl does a terrible job with images. Any pcl raster images get 
turned into muddy 75 dpi versions of the original.It ends up looking 
terrible in the pdf.
Also, it runs reasonably fast & light as long as there are no images on the 
input, but runs slow and hits the cpu hard when there are.
Jetpcl is pretty fast & light always.

Brian K. White    brian at aljex.com    http://www.myspace.com/KEYofR
+++++[>+++[>+++++>+++++++<<-]<-]>>+.>.+++++.+++++++.-.[>+<---]>++.
filePro  BBx    Linux  SCO  FreeBSD    #callahans  Satriani  Filk!



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fairlight" <fairlite at fairlite.com>
To: "filePro Mailing List" <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 1:34 PM
Subject: Printing via Web-based fP


> Okay, I have a question.  Printing not being my specialty, I'm more than
> willing to defer to some outside knowledge.
>
> We have a solution we will want to print from.  Our needs right now are
> fairly lean, but specific.  More may be added later, however, so I need to
> think in the long term.
>
> Basically, right now we have both reports and forms that have simple but
> specific formats, and involve text and line drawing.
>
> My thought was to originally do this with HTML+CSS, but that just plain is
> -not- viable in my opinion (and in fact), as you really can't control some
> factors adequately.  Printing directly from that format is dicey at best.
>
> My next two alternatives to look at were PrintWiz+WePO, and going with 
> PDF.
>
> PW/WePO has some things going for it.  For one, I've worked with it 
> before.
> Well, with WePO anyway.  The PW side should be pretty much like any other
> report designing.  I -think- it's a matter of a different printcode table
> as far as fP is concerned.  If I'm mistaken, tell me, as that's a key
> assumption--that the learning curve would be shallow on that end of the
> output design because it's very similar to designing normal reports.  On
> the downsides are cost ($1500 is relatively reasonable in my opinion, but
> it's not my budget, it's the client's), and compatibility--namely that 
> it's
> an ActiveX-only control, which means either IE, or FireFox with IETab
> installed as a plugin.  So far, that's the only way it's going to work.
> This may be viable short-term, but I'm not so sure about long-term,
> especially at that price.
>
> PDF...is a whole other can of worms.  I have looked at a LOT of solutions
> in the last week.  Basically I've been looking at PCL to PDF converters. 
> I
> can't find one for under $795, and I didn't have entire confidence in that
> particular one.  Seems like $1900+ is about standard for this
> functionality.  The one that comes highly recommended, jetpcl, is just an
> ungodly sum of money to pay for the functionality, especially in the
> context of the project as a whole.
>
> I've looked at ghostpcl, but the problem is that I'm on Windows for this
> project.  The instructions for compiling under MVSC++ do not hold up under
> the 2005 Express Edition of VC++, and I can't find a precompiled binary
> distribution of it (I'm wondering -why-, but the fact remains it 
> apparently
> can't be had).
>
> I also looked at another package like WePO that was written in Java, which
> also had a rather large pricetag attached, but which would be truly
> cross-platform.
>
> So...  I'm wondering after all of this what the best move is in others'
> opinions.  Is there a less expensive, yet reliable way to get text plus
> line drawing output (nothing hugely fancy, just where we actually want
> things, not the "best guess" that CSS would give us), in a portable format
> that will reproduce exactly, and at a fair price--preferably as portably 
> as
> possible?
>
> Any constructive input would be appreciated.  I'm sure this has been
> tackled before.  I know of some of the alternatives, but perhaps not all 
> of
> them.  Hence the questions.
>
> Thanks!
>
> mark->
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