VeryPDF Knowledge Base

Greetings.

I'm curious to know if your PCL To PDF Converter software is capable of converting captured printer port data (ordinarily destined for a LaserJet 5 on LPT1) and convert it to a viewable PDF file. The captured data is being created outside of the Windows environment (not a typical Windows printer capture file).

I have a custom written DOS program (not my creation) that has the HP PCL language hard coded into it (doesn't use an outboard printer driver), and it only spits out paper hard copies.  In other words, it requires a LaserJet printer on LPT1.  The output is a mixture of text and vector graphics.

I'm looking for a way to turn these paper copies into PDFs without having to manually scan them (lossy).

I've attached some files to serve as examples of what I am working with, and I'll refer to them in my explanation.

I found a DOS program that is capable of accurately capturing the printer port data and writing it to a file. The file "P166.pcl" is one such capture file, which is raw binary data.  I put the ".PCL" extension on it myself (seemed appropriate to me).

This one file is the data that creates a 6 page printout.  I know the data to be accurate because I can use it to print outside the original program with the following DOS command...

COPY P166.PCL LPT1

Of course, this only works on a PC with a LaserJet connected to LPT1.

The .JPG images are photos of the 6 pages printed with this command, which are exact duplicates of the 6 pages that come straight from the program.

I'd like to find a conversion program that I know will (for sure) work before actually purchasing.

Thank you for your time,
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Please look at attached PDF file, this PDF file was created by our another version of PCL to PDF Converter product, we hoping this PDF file will reach your requirement.

After you purchased PCL Converter product from our website, please email to us your Order ID, we will send the latest version to you shortly, the latest version of PCL to PDF Converter will convert your PCL file to PDF file like attachment.

VeryPDF
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Thank you so much.  This looks like exactly what I need.
If all else fails, I'll purchase this software out of my own pocket, but first, I'm going to try to get this purchased with some of my project funding.
Thanks again.
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Hello again,
It turns out, I do have another question...
Does the software have something like a command line switch or some other way of choosing paper size?
I noticed that PDF you sent me was for "A4" paper.  When I try to print it without scaling, the print at the top of the page is cut off.
Here in the U.S., our standard paper size is called "letter", which is about 21.59cm x 27.94cm.  Is the PCL to PDF Converter able to support the page size?
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Thanks for your message, you can run following command line to convert your PCL file to PDF file at Letter paper size,

"C:\Program Files\VeryPDF PCL Converter v2.0\pcltool.exe" -pclcmd "\"-J@PJL SET PAPER=Letter\"" C:\in.pcl C:\out.pdf

VeryPDF
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Does only the newest version support the -pclcmd option you mentioned before?  I tried to paste the command line options you listed below into the downloadable trial version, and it doesn't seem to accept it.  It just displays the usage info and then exits.

It will be a couple weeks until my request gets approved to purchase the registration.  I'm not in a hurry.  I was just trying to determine if I was doing something wrong.
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I'm using the pcltools.exe which date is 2009-08-26, this version does support -pclcmd option, if you are using an old version of PCL Converter application, you may download the latest version of PCL Converter from our website to try again,

https://www.verypdf.com/pcltools/index.html

VeryPDF