[KLUG Members] Opening "print to file" documents

[Seth Kramer]

My understanding is that a "Print to File" command creates a file of
instructions to a printer (what size paper to use, what to print, etc).
Typically when you print to a normal printer the driver creates this file
and sends it directly to the printer, so you never see it. Since the format
of the file would be dependant on the printer driver (PostScript, PCL are
common, but there are others) there's probably not a standard way to read
it. My suggestion for making this file "human readable" would be--if
possible--to send it to the printer, otherwise if you want something in PDF
you're going to want a driver that will create PDFs.

I think the original idea behind the "Print to File" was a situation where
you don't have a printer, but want to take it to computer X to print. So you
install the driver for Computer X's printer and print to file. That way you
don't have to have the application you're printing from on that machine. I
seem to recall stories of people printing to files when I was in college to
take the file to the computer lab and print the file out on the VAX terminal
that was a print server as well. I've never actually done this so I don't
know that it works that way, but that's my understanding.

Can anyone confirm? or bash me over the head with the club of truth and
wisdom?

Thanks,

Seth

On Nov 9, 2007 10:32 PM, Eric Beversluis <ebever at researchintegration.org>
wrote:

> I'm confused about what happens when I select "print to file." I find
> that I can open those documents with several different pdf readers
> (Evince document viewer, KGhostView, KPDF), but not with Acrobat reader
> for Linux. This is an issue only because I sometimes need to send these
> to Windows to print at work and I don't seem to be able to find anything
> in Windows that opens these files. (I also don't seem to be able to find
> anything to open the Windows print to file documents (.prn), but that's
> not an issue for this list.)
>
> I tried Googling "print to file linux" but didn't find anything that
> explains what kind of document that command generates. Something some
> has led me to think it's a Postscript document, which is why I thought
> Acrobat would open it.
>
> So if anyone can illuminate me on these two questions, I'd appreciate
> it:
> 1.  What kind of document does "print to file" generate and why can
> these other pdf readers open it but not (Linux) Acrobat?
>
> 2.  Is there any way I can open these files in Windows (to read, perhaps
> to print or else to cut and past into a Word or OO.o Writer document)?
>
> Thanks.
>
> EB
>
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