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How can I save a PostScript with a PostScript printer?

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Jean-Pierre Coulon

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Apr 20, 2021, 2:47:34 PM4/20/21
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If I have a PostScript printer installed, with Acrobat Reader I can say
Print to a file when I print something with this printer, to obtain a
PostScript file.

But Word, Excel and Powerpoint do not offer the Print to file option.
How can I work around?

Bye,

--
Jean-Pierre Coulon

Eli the Bearded

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Apr 20, 2021, 3:48:55 PM4/20/21
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In comp.lang.postscript,
Jean-Pierre Coulon <cou...@cacas.pam.obs-nice.fr> wrote:
> If I have a PostScript printer installed, with Acrobat Reader I can say
> Print to a file when I print something with this printer, to obtain a
> PostScript file.
>
> But Word, Excel and Powerpoint do not offer the Print to file option.
> How can I work around?

What OS? On Unix (eg Linux and Mac) you can -- with difficulty -- "tee"
off a copy of the Postscript sent to the printer. On Windows, I do not
know.

I do know that on Windows you can install a "print to PDF" printer
driver, and very likely you could install a "print to PS" printer
driver. PS and PDF are very similar, so there's also the option of
converting a print to PDF file to PS.

I found this in ten seconds of searching:

https://www.file-extensions.org/article/how-to-install-a-virtual-postscript-printer-in-windows

Elijah
------
uses print to PDF on Windows extensively with taxes

ken

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Apr 21, 2021, 2:58:26 AM4/21/21
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In article <alpine.WNT.2.23.453.2104202042040.2880@DESKTOP-PDEAHLL>,
cou...@cacas.pam.obs-nice.fr says...
>
> If I have a PostScript printer installed, with Acrobat Reader I can say
> Print to a file when I print something with this printer, to obtain a
> PostScript file.
>
> But Word, Excel and Powerpoint do not offer the Print to file option.
> How can I work around?

In the Printer Properties (so that's the Printers and devices control
panel, right-cick the printer and select 'Printer Properties', not just
'Properties'), select the Ports tab; the printer will be on a Port.
Change the Port from whatever it currently is (eg LPT1: USB001 etc) to
FILE:

Whenever you print to that printer instance it will prompt for a
filename to save to.

This won't work for remote printers (ie those on another computer),
you'll have to set up a local instance of the printer to do the same
thing. When you create hte printer you can select FILE: as the Port.

As Eli suggested, if you Google for it there's probably a YouTube video
showing you how to do this.

Jean-Pierre Coulon

unread,
Apr 21, 2021, 5:02:51 AM4/21/21
to
On Wed, 21 Apr 2021, ken wrote:

> In the Printer Properties (so that's the Printers and devices control
> panel, right-cick the printer and select 'Printer Properties', not just
> 'Properties'), select the Ports tab; the printer will be on a Port.
> Change the Port from whatever it currently is (eg LPT1: USB001 etc) to
> FILE:
>
> Whenever you print to that printer instance it will prompt for a
> filename to save to.

Thanks. It worked with a Word document. I just had to rename the .prn output
file to .ps. I am with Windows 10.

--
Jean-Pierre Coulon

John Forkosh

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Apr 21, 2021, 7:09:36 AM4/21/21
to
Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
> In comp.lang.postscript,
> Jean-Pierre Coulon <cou...@cacas.pam.obs-nice.fr> wrote:
>> If I have a PostScript printer installed, with Acrobat Reader I can say
>> Print to a file when I print something with this printer, to obtain a
>> PostScript file.
>>
>> But Word, Excel and Powerpoint do not offer the Print to file option.
>> How can I work around?
>
> What OS? On Unix (eg Linux and Mac) you can -- with difficulty -- "tee"
> off a copy of the Postscript sent to the printer. On Windows, I do not
> know.
<<snip>>

On linux ("on windows, I do not know"), you can probably use
ImageMagick convert, https://imagemagick.org/script/convert.php
e.g., bash$ convert myfile.pdf myfile.ps
It also converts between many other formats, but you'll have
to check whether it works for your input file's format.
--
John Forkosh ( mailto: j...@f.com where j=john and f=forkosh )

Jean-Pierre Coulon

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Apr 22, 2021, 2:36:05 AM4/22/21
to
On Wed, 21 Apr 2021, John Forkosh wrote:

> On linux ("on windows, I do not know"), you can probably use
> ImageMagick convert, https://imagemagick.org/script/convert.php
> e.g., bash$ convert myfile.pdf myfile.ps
> It also converts between many other formats, but you'll have
> to check whether it works for your input file's format.

But ImageMagick "delegates" the treatment of .ps and .pdf files to
Ghostscript and Gsview. If you don't install them ImageMagick will prompt
you to install them.

Note that my post was about converting .doc, .xls or .ppt formats to
PostScript. Note that the TeX/LaTex distribution and linux also includes
ps2pdf and pdf2ps.


--
Jean-Pierre Coulon

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