Looking for Virtual Printer

[akugami]

I'm looking for a free Virtual Printer software for Windows. Wondering if any of you guys have a suggestion.

We need it to print in a jpg or bmp format. PDF virtual printers don't seem to work well for our usage.

Currently, I'm using Snagit (virtual printer and screen capture utility) on my computer but as we add new computers for more workers, we don't want to keep paying for Snagit licenses.

 

[balloonshark]

You may be able to get snagit on sale. Be sure and read the first 3 posts as they also suggest ShareX which is free but I'm not sure it will do what you want. http://slickdeals.net/f/8783563-snagit-15-camtasia-90-edu-pricing?src=SiteSearch

 

[vailr]

PDF virtual printers don't seem to work well for our usage.

Try Foxit PDF reader; it includes the ability to print to a .pdf file, instead of to an actual printer. The installer includes creation of a virtual .pdf printer, which will appear in Control Panel/Devices and Printers, alongside the actual physical printer.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/foxit_reader.html
Although the description says "free: ad supported", there's also an option to use the software ad-free.
For a Windows screen capture utility, try:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/faststone_capture.html
For improved printer control, try:
http://fineprint.com/fp/

 

[PliotronX]

Wow, those are all great choices! ShareX looks like a niftier version of Greenshot which I have been using. PDFCreator has the ability to print to PDF and JPG though it has an installer you need to pay attention to and decline junkware. For splitting pages to individual JPGs there is also PDF Shaper (which can do other cool stuff like password protect PDF that I don't think Foxit Reader can do).

 

[Evander]

Microsoft XPS Document Writer is built into Windows. Prints to a file with .xps extension. Look for it under Devices & Printers. When you print something, select it from the pull down list of printers. Works well and costs nothing

 

[John Connor]

I don't understand. You want to print a jpg or bmp in PDF or what?

You can always print screen, crop and paste in Office, Libre Office or Open Office. I just did this myself for a file I needed to fax. I made it into a pdf from an image.

 

[PliotronX]

I don't understand. You want to print a jpg or bmp in PDF or what?

You can always print screen, crop and paste in Office, Libre Office or Open Office. I just did this myself for a file I needed to fax. I made it into a pdf from an image.

The utility of "PDF Printers" is that it shows up as a printer only when you print to it, a dialog box pops up asking for preferences/save location. The resulting PDF can be multiple pages. I use this for capturing web pages I don't want to lose track of. When PDF printers screw up the formatting (and they do quite often), I will use unMht for Firefox or SingleFile for Chromium to save the web page (embeds images into the HTML).

 

[akugami]

I want to print to any digital format really. But I find that PDF virtual printers usually screw up the print jobs that I need. We develop specialized software and manually tune the printing to print on receipt printers. Snagit works great, but as we grow, we're trying to look for alternatives to save money. I myself am on 4 different computers and that's 4 Snagit licenses.

The PDF virtual printers that I've tried seem to work fine for "regular" page sized printing and sometimes works fine for certain types of print jobs but not others. Snagit seems to handle everything great, but again, we're trying to reduce costs.

So currently the alternatives for my needs are to continue buying Snagit licenses as we need them, or to use a physical printer and wastes a ton of paper. It's not just printing the reports but also checking the numbers on the printed report as we change/add new features. And working on 4 computers, that means a lot of plugging and unplugging of physical printers which wastes time.

 

[John Connor]

Why do you have to unplug and plug in multiple printers? Shouldn't they all be in a network that you can chose from?

 

[sweenish]

Given that OP wants to "print" jpegs instead of just saving them or using Windows free built-in snip tool should be a clue.