Ersatz Printing

Topic

New Reply

I would like to know if it is possible in WXP to set up a virtual printer that can send a document via e-mail. A number of programmes I use can only output their date to printer or fax. Therefore can I install a printer that sends the document to em ?

Reply | Quote

Replies

When you say ‘document’ do you mean document in the sense of a Word or Excel document?
Or any ‘document’ produced by any program, which could be text or graphics or some proprietary file format?

If the former, can you use the File > Send To > Mail recipient function?
If the latter, are you looking for a solution that would produce (e.g.) a .tif file for attaching?

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the comments, to explain further – this programme uses a proprietary format, holding a number of individual documents in one file. It is the selection of 1 of these documents that I want to “print”. It is easy to fax or print them, so I thought that I ought to be able to set up a “prinrter” – that I select from the Print command – to em the document.

Reply | Quote

OK, I think I understand, but what format do you want the ‘print’ to be?
Or are you expecting/hoping for an ‘image’ to be inserted within the email?

What about using Adobe Acrobat to produce a pdf and emailing that?

Reply | Quote

Thanks Leif. I hadn’t considered .pdf. On the face of it I have seen reviewer’s comments that state that multi-page documents can be outputted to .pdf. I suppose that there, then, would be something on the File menu, like export? I’ve never used pdf, apart from their reader.

Reply | Quote

It just comes up as another printer!
I frequently have to send documents from a range of programs (Word docs, CAD drawings etc.). There is an option to automatically view the file after it is created. With the reader open, you have a File > Send Mail option.
Incidentally, you can combine/insert already created pdf pages into one pdf file, creating a single document from multiple applications.

Reply | Quote

FYI I have now just installed a programme called pdffactory. I found this on a PC Pro magazine cover disk, and went to their web site to d/l the XP version. Having tried it now for three days I registered the product ($49.95). It is especially usefull for creating multipage scans in pdf format and I can scan straight to the pdf printer, and then store to HDD. The was I use it means that I no longer have to rely on tifs (the lamented Kodak Imaging) and find that the pdf format is a joy to email.

Reply | Quote

$50?
What a pity you didn’t visit my website first and read the info on producing PDF files. All you need is a (virtual) printer that will output PostScript (Windows has many such drivers). You then convert your txt or doc to PS by printing it with the PS printer to a file, then you visit the conversion site where they convert to PDF. All this is entirely free.
Ok, you can do it directly on your system, which is the bonus you pay for I suppose. Sorry I didn’t come in earlier, but your original problem seemed to be about e-mailing rather than conversion to PDF.
One of the ‘good reasons’ for visiting Woody’s is that my freeware site is available for your use. You should never pay for a virus scanner, firewall, or many other useful apps when they’re available as (ad-free) freeware.

Rgds

Reply | Quote

I followed your website and suggestion regarding using a PostScript driver (Adobe Generic PostScript driver) to print to file and convert it into a PDF. I am using GhostScript 7.04 (GhostView) to convert. It worked wonderfully for the first few documents. Then all of a sudden, the “prn” files could no longer be found when I printed to file. Do you have any suggestions? I have searched my drive trying to find them, with no luck. I am running a Gateway G6-350MHz with 192MB, WIN XP Home. Being able to convert the documents to PDF would be most desirable.
Look forward to a possible solution from someone.

Andrew

Reply | Quote