Hi,

I am developing a program in which i need to convert PCL (Printer Control Language) file to PDF format, I tried to search on the web but was not satisfied with the solutions. Is there a way through which i can do the conversion?

Or

Is there any piece of source code, dll, api, activeX etc. through which i can solve this problem?

I am using VB6.0.

Thanking You.

I don't think this can be done. PCL is output from a print operation. So is PDF.

So you would need to go back from PCL to the original that led to it, and then go from there to PDF.

Don't you have the source that was turned into this PCL? Is this some old program that you cannot get to behave properly?

Hi,
Thanks for your reply, I tried to convert the PCL file to PDF with some of the applications available on the internet, but the problem with the applications is the FONT, the fonts are not according to my requirements..
Is there any way to map fonts?
OR
Is there any way in which i can convert the PCL file to some intermediate file which can later be converted to PDF file?

Where is this PCL coming from?

Hi,

I am creating PCL file through programming.

Thanking You.

What do you mean? (It is easier to be helpful if yo are a little more forthcoming...)

You have control over this code that is creating the PCL file, and it is VB?

If that is right, then it seems the easiest thing to do is to stop creating PCL.

It is pretty easy to create output in ways that use Windows in a more integrated way. Under that way of doing things, you can create a .pdf pretty easily, by printing to a PDF “printer” driver.

My first choice would be to create an instance of Word, create a document in Word, then use Word’s means of printing, but specify a .pdf cretaor. An couple of added advantages are that you can save the document as a .doc, and that you can print to a real printer to check your output formatting during development.

But you might also be able to create a Rich-Text format textbox (either visible or not), create your output into that box (including font specifications), and use the print method(s) of the box to print to a PDF creator.

Is it possible to create a ps file as output through programming in VB6?

Ps?

PS is a Postscript file.

I believe that you can create anything with VB. With some output, you have to exert more "supervision..."

I believe that creating PS output would be just like creating a .PDF. The machine would have a driver on it for that format, and you would print to the driver.

As I understand it with PCL, you actually need to create the content of the file, sending the strings to print and the embedded codes through literal file input commands. That’s a lot of supervision!

Is there a reason you don’t want to just print to a .PDF driver? It seems like the easiest route, given what you have described so far...