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:) or serial port (from COM1: to COM9:), 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 and serial ports are physically installed on your machine (you only have USB ports for printers).

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

In addition, it 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, IP, 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 and PDF/A 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, or your ISP's SMTP server, 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
• Direct PDF printing to printers that don't support it natively
• 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: https://www.printfil.com/eexam.htm