Printfil Manual - Description of the software

Chapter 1 - Description of Printfil

This software allows character based applications to print to any Windows printer, including USB, network printers, faxmodems and PDF writers, even if it is a Dos/Windows application or a Unix/Linux app. running on a Windows PC via telnet, without changes to the original applications.

You can set your application to print to an ascii file, or you can have Printfil capturing a parallel port (PRN: and from LPT1: to LPT9:), automatically redirecting your print jobs to any printer, even to a printer which is physically connected to the captured port and even if no parallel ports are physically installed on your machine.

Printfil loads at PC bootup and runs as a background task on the tray area (in the lower right corner, near the clock). It activates automatically when it finds something to print.

In addition, it will allows you to:

• preview printing
• include logos or other images stored in separate files
• colorize the text
• print A4 landscape sheets in place of printing on dot-matrix 136-column printers
• print to ANY printer installed in the Windows Control Panel, including USB, GDI, Windows-only and Virtual printers
• send print jobs via fax (using any third-party fax software which acts as a printer - eg. Microsoft Fax - or a multifunction - all-in-one - printer)
• print to networked printers without having to "NET USE" a LPT port
• use specialist Windows fonts (barcodes, for instance) in addition to normal characters
• export print jobs in PDF format, with or without user intervention, with optional encryption and password protection
• send print jobs via e-mail by using your own e-mail client program, with or without user intervention
• use a single, customizable set of escape sequences for ALL printers, regardless of make, model and emulation provided (or no emulation at all, as for Virtual and Windows-only printers)
• print complex jobs to legacy printers in RAW mode (including drawings and graphics) without going through the Windows driver and without changing the original data flow
• automatically manage an archive of all the captured jobs in a directory of your choice
• print your jobs to multiple printers simultaneously
• easily print PRN files
• and other interesting features

All this without changes to your applications.

If you are developing host based applications (like Unix) to run on a Windows Terminal Emulator, you can stop battling with transparent-print characters and different settings for different printers. All you need is a shared file system (NFS, SCO-VisionFS, Samba etc. ) to store output for your print jobs and PRINTFIL.

You can find some examples of working configurations here: http://www.printfil.com/eexam.htm

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