[KLUG Members] Opening "print to file" documents

[Eric Beversluis]

I use "print to file" in two kinds of situations: When I make an on-line
payment/deposit and want to save the printer-friendly receipt rather
than print it out and also when I want to save a web page without having
the folder full of gifs etc that saving the page as html gives. In both
cases then it's useful to be able to open the document in the computer,
something that Evince Doc viewer and KGhostView do nicely but apparently
nothing in Windows does. 

Thanks for the response-insights.

EB


On Sat, 2007-11-10 at 02:10 -0500, Seth Kramer wrote:
> 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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