what is "Print to File" purpose?

[Stalker]

I know it will create a file after u select it but what can u do with it?

 

[CTho9305]

Usually the file is a postscript file. I use Ghostview to view the files. Seeing as I don't have a printer here, it's convient to print, say, a newegg order confirmation to a file, and if I need a printout later I can make one.

As far as I know, Windows doesn't come with a postscript viewer... pretty stupid in my opinion. Also, it names the output file "foo.prn" even if it should be "foo.ps" (probably because it's not always going to be postscript?).

 

[Stalker]

ok thanks

 

[manly]

It is usually not a PS file. It's in whatever language that particular printer understands.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: manly
It is usually not a PS file. It's in whatever language that particular printer understands.

What can you do with non-PS .prn files? (I guess I've usually just used postscript printers)

 

[drag]

Ummm.... It's usually pretty simple to setup a fake postscript printer.

(Anyways if a printer can't handle postscript, then it's not a printer worth messing around with.)

For instance it's easy in Win95 even, just setup a printer and when it asks you for a driver select a printer that says something about being the postscript version. Then set your regular printer as the primary one and everyonce of a while select the postscript one and "print to file" to make a postscript document.

Once you have a postscript document you can turn it into a PDF file by using Ghostview utilities. It's pretty nice, much better then dealing with .doc files, which are mostly crap when it comes to formatting and such.

Of course all you poor bastards stuck with Windows there is a nice website setup so you can do what I can do just by openning a terminal and typing a couple words down.

convert PS to PDF

Or you can just use OpenOffice instead and use it's "make PDF" button.

 

[daMachine]

Also, if you have a laptop and want to print while you're on the road you can use "Print to File." Then once you get to connect the printer, open a DOS prompt and enter the following command where "your_file.prn" is the output file you want to print and "LPT1" is the port the printer is connected to:

"COPY your_file.prn LPT1 /B"

It comes in pretty handy on those road trips.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: daMachine
Also, if you have a laptop and want to print while you're on the road you can use "Print to File." Then once you get to connect the printer, open a DOS prompt and enter the following command where "your_file.prn" is the output file you want to print and "LPT1" is the port the printer is connected to:

"COPY your_file.prn LPT1 /B"

It comes in pretty handy on those road trips.

Is that really the only way to print a non-PS result of a print to file? You'd think MS would have included a GUI for it... how many people really know LPT/CON/PRN/NUL?

 

[manly]

Originally posted by: CTho9305

Originally posted by: manly
It is usually not a PS file. It's in whatever language that particular printer understands.

What can you do with non-PS .prn files? (I guess I've usually just used postscript printers)

Well, for example, so many offices have a LaserJet that understands PCL. You could save a .PRN file at home, and take it to the lab or work to print. Assume all you had was a crappy inkjet or dot matrix printer at home.

And yes, it's silly that you have to use the copy command in a shell, but this is basically a relic from DOS.

 

[Stalker]

I read drag the file to the printer icon will work too in XP