BACKGROUND
- I am using a commercial application on windows that creates a drawing
- This application allows only two output options: (1) save as a bitmap file and (2) print to a printer
- The bitmap is useless for my purposes - I want the vectors
- Looking at the print output (I sent to the Windows XPS print driver) it seems clear based on the amount of zooming I can do without loss of detail that the underlying vectors are being send to the print driver
- Once I get the vectors, I will be writing some code to transform them for some other use.
MY QUESTION
- What are my options for getting the vectors from the print?
OPTIONS I HAVE THOUGHT OF SO FAR
- Take the bitmap and use a program like VectorMagick to. I have tried this approach. It does not produce the fidelity I seek even when the original bitmap is large. Practically speaking I believe that using any tracing approach will not give me the quality vectors I need.
- Print to the Adobe PDF driver. This technically works. I have Adobe CS4 so I can print to it save the resulting PDF and then import the PDF into Illustrator and then export as some other vector format. The problem with this approach is money/licensing. I own a personal copy of Adobe CS4 - so this is fine for me. But I need to capture the vectors at work for business purposes - and no I'm not going to install my personal copy of CS4 at work.
- Is there a "print driver" that captures the print output directly into a vector format? I have seen some commercial ones via google. If you've used them, I would like to hear about your experience with this technique. I could write my own and in that case do you have links to any existing code that I can start with.
Customer
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VeryPDF docPrint Pro v7.0 includes a function to hook spool documents for all Windows Printers, it works by following workflow,
docPrint Pro install a Printer Hook Control => User Print a document to "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" => Printer Hook Control redirect this document to docPrint => docPrint saves the print document to PDF and Text file => redirect to original "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" again => OK, Finished.
You can download and install docPrint Pro v7.0 from following web page,
https://www.verypdf.com/app/document-converter/try-and-buy.html#buy_pro
https://www.verypdf.com/artprint/docprint_pro_setup.exe
after you install docPrint Pro v7.0 successful, you can run following command line to install HookPrinter and set necessary options to the Hook Printer Control,
"C:\Program Files (x86)\docPrint Pro v7.0\artprint.exe" -hookprinter
You can click "Install HookPrinter" button to install HookPrinter first, and set some options, click "Save&Close" button to close the dialog. After that, you can print a document to any Windows Printer, HookPrinter will capture this print job and redirect to docPrint, docPrint will save document to PDF or other formats in specified folder, and then re-print the document to original printer again.
See Also:
Intercepting data sent to a Windows printer
http://www.verydoc.com/blog/intercepting-data-sent-to-a-windows-printer.html
How to intercept and capture a print job and convert it to PDF & Plain Text & Image files and then print?
http://www.verydoc.com/blog/how-to-intercept-and-capture-a-print-job-and-convert-it-to-pdf-plain-text-image-files-and-then-print.html
Can I forward and redirect print jobs from one printer to another in windows?
https://www.verypdf.com/wordpress/201607/can-i-forward-and-redirect-print-jobs-from-one-printer-to-another-in-windows-42706.html
How to capture printer spooler file when printing and then view and/or print that spooler file again?
https://www.verypdf.com/wordpress/201607/how-to-capture-printer-spooler-file-when-printing-and-then-view-andor-print-that-spooler-file-again-42708.html
Capture data from printer port and save to file (Excel/PDF) with VeryPDF Document Capture
https://www.verypdf.com/wordpress/201607/capture-data-from-printer-port-and-save-to-file-excelpdf-with-verypdf-document-capture-42712.html