(OT) Open source PCL to PDF converters?

[Bill Campbell]

On Mon, Mar 12, 2007, Walter Vaughan wrote:
>Bill Campbell wrote:
>
>> Does anyone here know of any open source PCL to PDF conversion
>> programs?  A google search comes up with a fair number of
>> commercial options.
>
>I don't have a solution, but just a comment that we accept a system that 
>generates PCL5 code as "normal", but pdf creation as something "abnormal" and 
>needs a converter.
>
>What has happened to us to allow this as normal?

As others have pointed out, Adobe PostScript and PDF have been somewhat out
of the mainstream for printing, particularly for accounting applications
where the native print mode (should be) plain ASCII, perhaps with some
codes for pitch, bold face, underline, etc.

My reason for wanting to go from PCL to PDF is to process plain text output
with printer control codes to set pitch to something other than the
default, then turn convert this to something viewable by people who don't
have smart dumb terminals that can display more than 80 characters.

I developed a printing subsystem in the first part of the '80s that take a
standardized set of printer codes from applications, converting them at run
time to specific printers including HP LaserJet compatible, Epson, Okidata,
DMP-2100 some Panasonics, and others so the application programs don't
require change when a printer type is changed.  This is implemented at the
SYSV printer interface script level in conjunction with ``lp'' or ``lpr''
wrapper scripts that direct the printer output to the appropriate system
and printer (which may result in printing using ssh to a remote system).

I first wrote these scripts to deal with printing problems on Radio Shack
Model 16s running Xenix where their versions of the RealWorld accounting
software sent CRLF at the end of lines causing the normal Radio Shack
printers to double space.  My scripts strip all trailing whitespace off the
input, adding special line-ending characters depending on the destination
printer so one didn't have to deal with stupid software design (and
RealWorld was *REALLY* stupid as versions of their accounting software
would open and close the printer for every *LINE* printed which made life
very ``interesting'' when attempting to capture output from their programs
that thought they were printing directly to the printer device instead of
to a spooler).

Bill
--
INTERNET:   bill at Celestial.COM  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
FAX:            (206) 232-9186  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676

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