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Conversion to PCL question...

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  Conversion to PCL question... "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-01 12:23 -0400
    Re: Conversion to PCL question... "Mark T. B. Carroll" <mtbc@bcs.org> - 2011-04-01 19:36 -0400
      Re: Conversion to PCL question... "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-04 11:58 -0400
        Re: Conversion to PCL question... tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-05 23:35 -0400
        Re: Conversion to PCL question... luser- -droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> - 2011-04-05 22:57 -0700
          Re: Conversion to PCL question... luser- -droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> - 2011-04-05 23:01 -0700
            Re: Conversion to PCL question... "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-06 07:37 -0400
    Re: Conversion to PCL question... luser- -droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> - 2011-04-01 23:09 -0700
      Re: Conversion to PCL question... Ilya Zakharevich <nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> - 2011-04-02 22:08 +0000
        Re: Conversion to PCL question... luser- -droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> - 2011-04-02 23:28 -0700
          Re: Conversion to PCL question... Ilya Zakharevich <nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> - 2011-04-03 20:02 +0000
      Re: Conversion to PCL question... "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-04 12:00 -0400
        Re: Conversion to PCL question... PGAGA <grifwood@glinx.com> - 2011-04-04 09:50 -0700
          Re: Conversion to PCL question... "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-04 15:06 -0400

#97 — Conversion to PCL question...

Hello:

I'm new to this group.  I found a reference to it and just thought I'd try 
my question here.

We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even be 
able to get it in PDF format...

But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I have to store that PCL 
somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly. 
Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs. buying 
pre-printed letterhead paper.

We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of 
printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable 
printers.

We do currently use PCL to change font sizes, color, draw boxes, etc.  I 
just haven't been able to get a PCL version of our logo that will work. 
I've contacted VeryPDF and their s/w will make a PCL, but when I try to use 
it, I get errors from it.

Has anyone done this or know how?  We only have one logo and it would be a 
one-time shot.  Is there a company or service that could do this for us for 
a reasonable fee?  Or any thing I can download that will allow me to do 
this?

Any assistance is appreciated!  JJ 

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#98

"JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> writes:

> We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even be 
> able to get it in PDF format...
>
> But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I have to store that PCL 
> somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly. 
> Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs. buying 
> pre-printed letterhead paper.
>
> We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of 
> printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable 
> printers.

The Common UNIX Printing System can via PostScript convert PDF to PCL.
Pick a PCL printer driver and print a PDF to a file using the driver.

That may not be the best way, but it'll probably work.

There's also a PDF-to-PostScript utility based on Poppler. Then
Ghostscript can convert PostScript to PCL. Maybe those are pretty
much the tools CUPS uses under the hood, I don't know.

Basically, certainly if you go via PostScript, you should find that
there are plenty of free tools available.

Mark

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#103

"Mark T. B. Carroll" <mtbc@bcs.org> wrote in message 
news:87y63t35op.fsf@ixod.org...
> "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>> We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even 
>> be
>> able to get it in PDF format...
>>
>> But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I have to store that 
>> PCL
>> somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly.
>> Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs. 
>> buying
>> pre-printed letterhead paper.
>>
>> We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of
>> printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable
>> printers.
>
> The Common UNIX Printing System can via PostScript convert PDF to PCL.
> Pick a PCL printer driver and print a PDF to a file using the driver.
>
> That may not be the best way, but it'll probably work.
>
> There's also a PDF-to-PostScript utility based on Poppler. Then
> Ghostscript can convert PostScript to PCL. Maybe those are pretty
> much the tools CUPS uses under the hood, I don't know.
>
> Basically, certainly if you go via PostScript, you should find that
> there are plenty of free tools available.
>
> Mark

Hi Mark,

Actually, I have managed to get a .bmp converted to .pcl but now I'm having 
a hard time using it.  Once I have the logo in PCL, I need to be able to 
just "write it out" directly to the printer.  Our s/w is opening the device, 
using it, and writing to it.  I imagine it is using the printer driver 
installed for that printer but I don't have any interaction with that.

I can't seem to get the PCL that is in a file "out"...when I print the file 
directly, I just get the "garbage."  Thanks for the input!  JJ 

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#107

On Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:58:12 -0400, JJ <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:

> "Mark T. B. Carroll" <mtbc@bcs.org> wrote in message
> news:87y63t35op.fsf@ixod.org...
>> "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nospam@hotmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even
>>> be
>>> able to get it in PDF format...
>>>
>>> But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I have to store that
>>> PCL
>>> somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly.
>>> Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs.
>>> buying
>>> pre-printed letterhead paper.
>>>
>>> We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of
>>> printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable
>>> printers.
>>
>> The Common UNIX Printing System can via PostScript convert PDF to PCL.
>> Pick a PCL printer driver and print a PDF to a file using the driver.
>>
>> That may not be the best way, but it'll probably work.
>>
>> There's also a PDF-to-PostScript utility based on Poppler. Then
>> Ghostscript can convert PostScript to PCL. Maybe those are pretty
>> much the tools CUPS uses under the hood, I don't know.
>>
>> Basically, certainly if you go via PostScript, you should find that
>> there are plenty of free tools available.
>>
>> Mark
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> Actually, I have managed to get a .bmp converted to .pcl but now I'm having
> a hard time using it.  Once I have the logo in PCL, I need to be able to
> just "write it out" directly to the printer.  Our s/w is opening the device,
> using it, and writing to it.  I imagine it is using the printer driver
> installed for that printer but I don't have any interaction with that.
>
> I can't seem to get the PCL that is in a file "out"...when I print the file
> directly, I just get the "garbage."  Thanks for the input!  JJ

Heh-heh ... the PCL is just the data stream that would go to a PCL printer
in order to have the printer give a rendering of the .BMP image you started
out from.

Feed that data stream to any other printer than an HP PCL printer, and all that
you'll get is the ASCII dump of that data stream.

HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp
-- 
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

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#109

On Apr 4, 10:58 am, "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nos...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> "Mark T. B. Carroll" <m...@bcs.org> wrote in messagenews:87y63t35op.fsf@ixod.org...
>
>
>
> > "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nos...@hotmail.com> writes:
>
> >> We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even
> >> be
> >> able to get it in PDF format...
>
> >> But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I have to store that
> >> PCL
> >> somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly.
> >> Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs.
> >> buying
> >> pre-printed letterhead paper.
>
> >> We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of
> >> printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable
> >> printers.
>
> > The Common UNIX Printing System can via PostScript convert PDF to PCL.
> > Pick a PCL printer driver and print a PDF to a file using the driver.
>
> > That may not be the best way, but it'll probably work.
>
> > There's also a PDF-to-PostScript utility based on Poppler. Then
> > Ghostscript can convert PostScript to PCL. Maybe those are pretty
> > much the tools CUPS uses under the hood, I don't know.
>
> > Basically, certainly if you go via PostScript, you should find that
> > there are plenty of free tools available.
>
> > Mark
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> Actually, I have managed to get a .bmp converted to .pcl but now I'm having
> a hard time using it.  Once I have the logo in PCL, I need to be able to
> just "write it out" directly to the printer.  Our s/w is opening the device,
> using it, and writing to it.  I imagine it is using the printer driver
> installed for that printer but I don't have any interaction with that.
>
> I can't seem to get the PCL that is in a file "out"...when I print the file
> directly, I just get the "garbage."  Thanks for the input!  JJ

Perhaps you're not printing it "directly enough".
You should be dropping a lot more details for anyone to be able
to offer anything more than the most casual advice.

When you print the file "directly", are you attaching the printer
directly to a parallel port and doing "copy file lpt1:" from a
command-line, or what? You're not clicking "print" in some kind
of PCL-previwer, right?

What's the nature of the target environment? How are you going
to dispatch this thing? Embedding directly in another file?
or concatenated with it?

I think all of this would be easier done in postscript.
For the highest quality, you want to scale it to maximum device
resolution. That means postscript.
You want to embed in another document: Encapsulated Postscript.

Then use ghostscript to convert to pcl on-the-fly.

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#110

On Apr 6, 12:57 am, luser- -droog <mijo...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Apr 4, 10:58 am, "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nos...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > "Mark T. B. Carroll" <m...@bcs.org> wrote in messagenews:87y63t35op.fsf@ixod.org...
>
> > > "JJ" <jeffersonjj.nos...@hotmail.com> writes:
>
> > >> We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even
> > >> be
> > >> able to get it in PDF format...
>
> > >> But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I have to store that
> > >> PCL
> > >> somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly.
> > >> Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs.
> > >> buying
> > >> pre-printed letterhead paper.
>
> > >> We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of
> > >> printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable
> > >> printers.
>
> > > The Common UNIX Printing System can via PostScript convert PDF to PCL.
> > > Pick a PCL printer driver and print a PDF to a file using the driver.
>
> > > That may not be the best way, but it'll probably work.
>
> > > There's also a PDF-to-PostScript utility based on Poppler. Then
> > > Ghostscript can convert PostScript to PCL. Maybe those are pretty
> > > much the tools CUPS uses under the hood, I don't know.
>
> > > Basically, certainly if you go via PostScript, you should find that
> > > there are plenty of free tools available.
>
> > > Mark
>
> > Hi Mark,
>
> > Actually, I have managed to get a .bmp converted to .pcl but now I'm having
> > a hard time using it.  Once I have the logo in PCL, I need to be able to
> > just "write it out" directly to the printer.  Our s/w is opening the device,
> > using it, and writing to it.  I imagine it is using the printer driver
> > installed for that printer but I don't have any interaction with that.
>
> > I can't seem to get the PCL that is in a file "out"...when I print the file
> > directly, I just get the "garbage."  Thanks for the input!  JJ
>
> Perhaps you're not printing it "directly enough".
> You should be dropping a lot more details for anyone to be able
> to offer anything more than the most casual advice.
>
> When you print the file "directly", are you attaching the printer
> directly to a parallel port and doing "copy file lpt1:" from a
> command-line, or what? You're not clicking "print" in some kind
> of PCL-previwer, right?
>
> What's the nature of the target environment? How are you going
> to dispatch this thing? Embedding directly in another file?
> or concatenated with it?
>
> I think all of this would be easier done in postscript.
> For the highest quality, you want to scale it to maximum device
> resolution. That means postscript.
> You want to embed in another document: Encapsulated Postscript.
>
> Then use ghostscript to convert to pcl on-the-fly.

Oh, yeah. And what version of PCL do the printers accept?
What version is the file? What tool did the conversion?

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#111

"luser- -droog" <mijoryx@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:70cc1625-d5b2-486d-b3ff-18459c908cf8@k9g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
>
> Perhaps you're not printing it "directly enough".
> You should be dropping a lot more details for anyone to be able
> to offer anything more than the most casual advice.
>
> When you print the file "directly", are you attaching the printer
> directly to a parallel port and doing "copy file lpt1:" from a
> command-line, or what? You're not clicking "print" in some kind
> of PCL-previwer, right?
>
> What's the nature of the target environment? How are you going
> to dispatch this thing? Embedding directly in another file?
> or concatenated with it?
>
> I think all of this would be easier done in postscript.
> For the highest quality, you want to scale it to maximum device
> resolution. That means postscript.
> You want to embed in another document: Encapsulated Postscript.
>
> Then use ghostscript to convert to pcl on-the-fly.

>Oh, yeah. And what version of PCL do the printers accept?
>What version is the file? What tool did the conversion?

Sorry, they are Kyocera networked printers.  Our s/w is Intersystems Cache. 
We just issue a command to open the printer, use the printer, write out text 
and/or PCL commands as "esc" and the commands for example...then close the 
device/printer.

MKPCL created the PCL from a .bmp image I sent to them.  I've also used 
VeryPDF's DocPrint to print a .bmp to PCL file.

I don't know what version of PCL the printers can handle.  They are fairly 
new.  Sorry, I don't have much more to add.  I know it's cryptic.  Thx for 
the input, JJ 

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#99

JJ wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I'm new to this group.  I found a reference to it and just thought I'd try
> my question here.

Technically, PCL is off-topic here. But don't let that scare you away.
There are a lot of knowledgeable people who post here. And if you
decide to use postscript as an intermediate stage, then we'll really
be
rocking!
But if we can't help, comp.publish.prepress might be a good place
to try.

> We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even be
> able to get it in PDF format...

For this sort of thing, you want source data from as high up the food-
chain
as you can get. Jpg uses lossy compression, so you probably don't want
that
one. Bmp might get really large if it's hi-res. Pdf could be better if
it contains
the vector information so the image can be losslessly scaled to
device
resolution. But if the pdf is just a wrapped-up bitmap or jpg, then
it's not
going to give any better results than the unwrapped image.

By the way, for printing and other interchange uses, prefer TIFF to
BMP.
The internal format is much simpler so different programs can exchange
them with fewer surprises.

> But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I h
ave to store that PCL
> somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly.
> Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs. buying
> pre-printed letterhead paper.
>
> We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of
> printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable
> printers.
>
> We do currently use PCL to change font sizes, color, draw boxes, etc.  I
> just haven't been able to get a PCL version of our logo that will work.
> I've contacted VeryPDF and their s/w will make a PCL, but when I try to use
> it, I get errors from it.
>
> Has anyone done this or know how?  We only have one logo and it would be a
> one-time shot.  Is there a company or service that could do this for us for
> a reasonable fee?  Or any thing I can download that will allow me to do
> this?
>
> Any assistance is appreciated!  JJ

Overall, it sounds like doing a "print-to-file" through an appropriate
printer driver would be the easiest way to go. I'd recommend using the
driver for the most primitive of the PCL printers in question;
assuming
backward-compatibility to be more likely than forward-compatibility.

You probably should set the resolution by the same method: the best
that the least-capable device can do.

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#100

On 2011-04-02, luser- -droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> wrote:
> By the way, for printing and other interchange uses, prefer TIFF to
> BMP.
> The internal format is much simpler so different programs can exchange
> them with fewer surprises.

I think you got this in reverse.  (TIFF is majorly complicated and
practically nothing supports it in full; uncompressed BMP is a
breeze.)

Ilya

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#101

On Apr 2, 5:08 pm, Ilya Zakharevich <nospam-ab...@ilyaz.org> wrote:
> On 2011-04-02, luser- -droog <mijo...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > By the way, for printing and other interchange uses, prefer TIFF to
> > BMP.
> > The internal format is much simpler so different programs can exchange
> > them with fewer surprises.
>
> I think you got this in reverse.  (TIFF is majorly complicated and
> practically nothing supports it in full; uncompressed BMP is a
> breeze.)
>
> Ilya

Or maybe the situation has changed in the 10 years since I was
doing more of that kind of stuff. In circa 1998, TIFF was the only
output format from windows software that could be input for
pagemaker on a mac. Or maybe it was just the first one I tried that
worked!

But the differences between the two formats seem to stem from a
basic design difference. Whereas TIFF was created with extensibility
built-in, BMP has had to be specialized and reinvented because its
design reflected no such planning. I think /The Art of Unix
Programming/
has something to say about this. There's no such thing as an OS/2
variant of TIFF! [I thumbed through the /Encyclopedia of Graphics File
Formats/ while writing this. But I didn't read anything carefully.]

I suspect BMP is simple to implement if you stick to just a few
variants. Whereas if you can get a TIFF implementation to work
at all, it should work with anything.

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#102

On 2011-04-03, luser- -droog <mijoryx@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Or maybe the situation has changed in the 10 years since I was
> doing more of that kind of stuff. In circa 1998, TIFF was the only
> output format from windows software that could be input for
> pagemaker on a mac. Or maybe it was just the first one I tried that
> worked!
>
> But the differences between the two formats seem to stem from a
> basic design difference. Whereas TIFF was created with extensibility
> built-in, BMP has had to be specialized and reinvented because its
> design reflected no such planning. I think /The Art of Unix
> Programming/
> has something to say about this. There's no such thing as an OS/2
> variant of TIFF! [I thumbed through the /Encyclopedia of Graphics File
> Formats/ while writing this. But I didn't read anything carefully.]

> I suspect BMP is simple to implement if you stick to just a few
> variants. Whereas if you can get a TIFF implementation to work
> at all, it should work with anything.

Instead of 4 or 5 variants of uncompressed BMP (which, in essentail
details, differ ONLY by layout of fields, not by their meaning, so may
be supported by just choosing an appropriate "struct" in C parlance)
there is an almost infinite variety of TIFF flavors.

I do not know about any print mini-lab which would support TIFF
compressed in ANY way.  A lot of image viewers do not support
ZIP-compressed TIFF (in image magick or Hugin parlance).  Mac does not
support almost any flavor of TIFF (as shipped).  iPhones are cracked
using bugs in libTIFF.  Etc etc etc.

Ilya

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#104

"luser- -droog" <mijoryx@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:c8a66441-7c98-4680-96d2-b6b2d6d448af@q36g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
>
> Technically, PCL is off-topic here. But don't let that scare you away.

Thanks!  I was hoping to not "offend" anyone.  ;-)

> There are a lot of knowledgeable people who post here. And if you
> decide to use postscript as an intermediate stage, then we'll really
> be
> rocking!
> But if we can't help, comp.publish.prepress might be a good place
> to try.

Many thanks.

>> We have a company logo.  I can get it in jpg or bmp format.  I might even 
>> be
>> able to get it in PDF format...
>
> For this sort of thing, you want source data from as high up the food-
> chain
> as you can get. Jpg uses lossy compression, so you probably don't want
> that
> one. Bmp might get really large if it's hi-res. Pdf could be better if
> it contains
> the vector information so the image can be losslessly scaled to
> device
> resolution. But if the pdf is just a wrapped-up bitmap or jpg, then
> it's not
> going to give any better results than the unwrapped image.
>
> By the way, for printing and other interchange uses, prefer TIFF to
> BMP.
> The internal format is much simpler so different programs can exchange
> them with fewer surprises.
>
>> But what we need to do is convert it to PCL.  Then I h
> ave to store that PCL
>> somewhere so that later, it can be "sent" to the printer on the fly.
>> Basically, we'd like to print the logo from our internal system vs. 
>> buying
>> pre-printed letterhead paper.
>>
>> We cannot load "macros" to the printers themselves.  We have dozens of
>> printers that might be doing this printing.  They are all PCL capable
>> printers.
>>
>> We do currently use PCL to change font sizes, color, draw boxes, etc.  I
>> just haven't been able to get a PCL version of our logo that will work.
>> I've contacted VeryPDF and their s/w will make a PCL, but when I try to 
>> use
>> it, I get errors from it.
>>
>> Has anyone done this or know how?  We only have one logo and it would be 
>> a
>> one-time shot.  Is there a company or service that could do this for us 
>> for
>> a reasonable fee?  Or any thing I can download that will allow me to do
>> this?
>>
>> Any assistance is appreciated!  JJ
>
> Overall, it sounds like doing a "print-to-file" through an appropriate
> printer driver would be the easiest way to go. I'd recommend using the
> driver for the most primitive of the PCL printers in question;
> assuming
> backward-compatibility to be more likely than forward-compatibility.
>
> You probably should set the resolution by the same method: the best
> that the least-capable device can do.

Actually, I have a logo in PCL format now.  It's in a file.  But it either 
doesn't look that great OR I can't write out the file to get the logo on the 
page.  I basically just need "in-line" PCL to write out within other PCL to 
write the logo on the page where I need it.  Ugh!  This shouldn't be so 
hard.

;-)

Thx!  JJ 

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#105

Monday, April 04, 2011

As someone who never buys letterhead, I do understand what you are
trying to do - create a PCL file that can be set as overlay or
watermark, through your printer driver.  When doing this you need to
make sure that your settings for overlay/watermark printing are set
for quality printing, the defaults tend to be faint.  You could also
install as second copy of your printer driver, one with the overlay
and one without. The easiest way to create the overlay is to use the
printer's own overlay creation option.

While this sending the overlay as part of the print job is one option,
my preferred method is to create a template with the letterhead.

Phil

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#106

"PGAGA" <grifwood@glinx.com> wrote in message 
news:811b7665-2893-479a-91cf-250103b214d0@k15g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
> Monday, April 04, 2011
>
> As someone who never buys letterhead, I do understand what you are
> trying to do - create a PCL file that can be set as overlay or
> watermark, through your printer driver.  When doing this you need to
> make sure that your settings for overlay/watermark printing are set
> for quality printing, the defaults tend to be faint.  You could also
> install as second copy of your printer driver, one with the overlay
> and one without. The easiest way to create the overlay is to use the
> printer's own overlay creation option.
>
> While this sending the overlay as part of the print job is one option,
> my preferred method is to create a template with the letterhead.
>
> Phil

Thanks Phil.  Appreciate the input.  JJ 

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