Saving as PCL or PS (Postcript)

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eL_PuSHeR
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:23 am

Saving as PCL or PS (Postcript)

Post by eL_PuSHeR »

Tried creating some PCL and PS files for outputting them directly to my Laserjet 1200 printer and I found out none of them worked.

Looking a the file headers I couldn't make heads nor tails but I saw PS was version 3.0 - My printer only supports PS 2.0
I didn't find any button for tailoring output. Can it be done? I mean, telling the program what level/version of PCL/PS you want to use.

Thanks in advance.

Hint: For anyone wanting to do this, there is an ancient ms-dos program called display (1.90) by Jih-Shin-Ho (or something like that. Chinese is not my strong point), that creates PCL5 and PS2 files, which print fine.

Image Alchemy, another ancient ms-dos programs can also create some PCL5, PCL6 (XL) formats.
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Peter2
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Re: Saving as PCL or PS (Postcript)

Post by Peter2 »

There should be no real problem to create PCL or PS 2.0 files:
You have to

a) use the printer-device you want (your old PS-device or a PCL device),
b) start the print-dialogue and
c) produce output files.

a) and b) are standard-feature; step c) is a little bit tricky because XnView does not support "save to file" option in print-dialogue. But you can make it for your own: take the printer you need, change the port (?connection? _ I don't know the proper English word) from "lpt1" (if you use local printer) or network-IP to the port "file" - and then the printer will ask you for the name of the file that you want to save. That is all.

Peter
XnViewMP <Current version> German, XnConvert <Current version>, Win 10
eL_PuSHeR
Posts: 267
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:23 am

Re: Saving as PCL or PS (Postcript)

Post by eL_PuSHeR »

I will try what you suggest, but I want to completely bypass windows printing system, to do the rastering on my own.

EDIT: Saving as PS using my printer dialog "save to file" option generates some sort of hybrid PS file (one with PJL commands in header).
Intel i7 5960X
Gigabye GA-X99-Gaming 5
8 GB DDR4 (2100)
GeForce GTX 970 (Gigabyte)
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