PageTech Announces Release of its New PCLMagic Printer Drivers

Posted on | November 30, 2011 | 1 Comment

San Diego, CA. – November 30, 2011 – PageTech, the leader in PCL print stream transformation, extraction, and re-engineering software, today announced the release of its new PCLMagic Printer Driver.  This new industry-exclusive PCL printer driver embeds searchable text into PCL print streams before the printer driver generates them, saving all the text in its natural unscrambled state.  Both the monochrome (PCL5e) and color (PCL5c) PCLMagic drivers call our custom programs to insert Unicode and UTF-8 text values into the print stream to circumvent the way in which Windows printer drivers “scramble” the text in PCL print streams.

“Our exclusive ability to extract text before it’s scrambled and use it to create text searchable PDF files from complex PCL is what truly sets us apart from the competition,” says Robert Pooley, president of PageTech. “The PCLMagic driver enables us to capture text in any language and extract it later downstream for file splitting, auto-indexing, converting to fully text searchable PDFs or re-purposing into TransPromo documents”.

PCLMagic Printer Driver Features:

  • Both monochrome (PCL5e) and color (PCL5c) versions available
  •  Installs automatically with the PCLTool SDK
  •  Uses the correct Unicode or UTF-8 character cell assignments when extracting text
  • Print Manager Data can also be captured by our Port Monitor and inserted into the PCL print stream as PJL comments to let our transformation tools know who generated the print file.
  • PCLMagic drivers and Port Monitor install and uninstall easily without affecting the core SDK installation.

Availability

Our PCLMagic printer drivers are included in PCL Tool SDK v11.61 and install as the PCL2PDF and PCLPrint drivers for demo purposes. PCLTool SDK v11.61 live evaluation is available from the pagetech.com website.

All PageTech products come with a 30-day refund guarantee. Single licenses for PCLTool SDK start at USD $425 for (32-bit) or $495 for (64-bit) with custom configuration/licensing options available.

About PageTech

Established in 1993, Page Technology Marketing, Inc. (www.pagetech.com), based in San Diego, CA, USA, is the leading consultancy firm specializing in print stream transformation, optimization, text extraction and manipulation products for developers, systems integrators and MIS departments.

 ###

Category: PCL Conversion, PCL to PDF, PCL to Text, PCLTool SDK, Print Capture / HotDirZ, Printer Driver
Tags: > > > > > > > > >

PageTech Announces the Release of PCLTool SDK V11.0

Posted on | June 2, 2011 | No Comments

San Diego, CA. – June 2, 2011:  PageTech, the developer of PCLTool SDK, today announced the release of PCLTool SDK v11.0.  As the recognized leader in the PCL transformation industry, PageTech continues to meet the evolving PCL transformation demands of developers and businesses worldwide.

With the release of PCLTool SDK v11.0, PageTech now offers its flagship product in two different flavors — PCLTool SDK 32-bit or PCLTool SDK 64-bit – plus .NET versions of its major programs for each platform. With these two new products, PageTech satisfies the growing needs of clients that are developing solutions for Windows 7, 64-bit and .NET environments, allowing them to take advantage of the different architectures and delivering solutions for a wider range of document imaging systems and platforms.

“We are extremely pleased to add PCLTool SDK 32-bit plus 32-bit .NET and PCLTool SDK 64-bit plus 64-bit .NET to our product line,” says Robert Pooley, president of PageTech. “PCL transformation technology changes so rapidly, that being able to stay on top of emerging technologies is critical for our clients and our business.”

With the addition of PCLTool SDK 32-bit plus 32-bit .NET and PCLTool SDK 64-bit plus 64-bit .NET, PageTech has made a number of enhancements in this latest release.

  • Product Line – PCLTool SDK is now available in 32-bit or 64-bit versions
  • Source Code – All program source code was ported over to MS Visual Studio
  • FastFonts – Replaced multiple, single-byte TrueTypes with single, double-byte fonts
  • PCLXForm – Added DataMatrix 2D and Intelligent Mail Barcoding functions
  • PCL to PDF – Added code creating smaller PDFs through embedded font optimization
  • Port Monitor – Added new 32-bit plus 32-bit .NET and 64-bit plus 64-bit .NET standalone versions
  • Text Extraction – Improved our exclusive ability to extract text from complex PCL5/PCL6 files
  • PCL Optimization – Added a standalone GUI program for font optimization in PCL files
  • API/.TPI Functions – Added many new functions for text extraction and stream editing of PCL
  • PCL to TransPromo – Improved the ability to de-construct bank statements for re-engineering

The PCLTool SDK v11.0 release note is available on our website at: http://www.pagetech.com/docs/ptrelnot.pdf

Availability

A fully functional evaluation copy of PCLTool SDK V11.0 for each platform is available for download from the PageTech web site.  Once product licensing is complete, the insertion of a final runcode allows for an uninterrupted evaluation-to-development process.

All PageTech products come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.  A single license for PCLTool SDK starts at $425 USD with additional configuration options available.

About PageTech

Established in 1993, Page Technology Marketing, Inc. (www.pagetech.com), based in San Diego, CA, USA, is the leading consultancy firm specializing in print stream transformation, optimization, text extraction and manipulation products for developers, PCL systems integrators and MIS departments. PageTech belongs to the independent developer programs from:  Adobe, Microsoft, Zumbox, and Lexmark.

###

Category: 64-bit, 64-bit .NET, Custom Programming, High Volume Applications, Optimize PCL, PCL Application Development, PCL Conversion, PCL to PDF, PCLTool SDK
Tags: > > > > > > > > > > >

Windows Printer Driver, Print Processor Data Types

Posted on | January 26, 2012 | No Comments

The print processor tells the spooler to alter a job according to the document data type. It works in conjunction with the printer driver to send the spooled print jobs from the hard drive to the printer.

Software vendors occasionally develop their own print processors to support custom data types. Normally, the print processor does not require any settings or intervention from administrators.

 Data Types

The Windows printing process normally supports five data types. The two most commonly used data types, enhanced metafile (EMF) and ready to print (RAW), affect performance in different ways on both the client computer and the print server computer.

EMF, or enhanced metafile, is the default datatype with most Windows-based programs. With EMF, the printed document is altered into a metafile format that is more portable than RAW files and usually can be printed on any printer. EMF files tend to be smaller than RAW files that contain the same print job. Regarding performance, only the first portion of a print job is altered, or rendered on the client computer, but most of the impact is on the print server computer, which also helps the application on the client computer to return control to the user faster.

RAW is the default data type for clients other than Windows-based programs. The RAW data type tells the spooler not to alter the print job at all prior to printing. With this data type, the entire process of preparing the print job is done on the client computer.

The five different data types supported by the default Windows print processor.

  1. RAW
    Directions to spooler:Print the document with no changes.Use: This is the data type for all clients not based on Windows.
  2. RAW [FF appended]
    Directions to spooler: Append a form-feed character (0x0C), but make no other changes. (A PCL printer omits the document’s last page if there is no trailing form-feed.)

    Use: Required for some applications. Windows does not assign it, but it can be set as the default in the Print Processor dialog box.

  3. RAW [FF auto]
    Directions to spooler: Check for a trailing form-feed and add one if it is not already there, but make no other changes.

    Use: Required for some applications. Windows does not assign it, but it can be set as the default in the Print Processor dialog box.

  4. NT EMF 1.00x
    Directions to spooler:Treat the document as an enhanced metafile (EMF) rather than the RAW data that the printer driver puts out.

    Use: EMF documents are created by Windows.

  5. TEXT
    Directions to spooler: Treat the entire job as ANSI text and add print specifications using the print device’s factory defaults.

    Use: This is useful when the print job is simple text and the target print device cannot interpret simple text.

You can see the print processors available for a printer, and the data types that each processor supports, through the properties of the printer in the control panel:

      CLJ4550 Control_Panel                                                             CLJ4550_Print Processor

 

Category: PCL to PDF

IMG to PCL Conversion

Posted on | December 14, 2011 | No Comments

I’m trying to use img2pcl on picture files, (both .jpg and .tif) which were created with the color format CMYK . It opens the .jpg but when I try and convert the .tif  it simply exits/bombs out and it states an error opening source.  Will img2pcl not convert these files?

Thanks

This post was submitted by valliinfo.

Category: IMG to PCL, PCL to TIFF
Tags: > > > > > >

What Can Affect the Nature and Composition of PCL Print Streams

Posted on | November 15, 2011 | No Comments

There are many variables that can affect the nature and composition of today’s PCL print streams. Once a PCL transformation process is up and running, please be aware of some of the many pitfalls that can break them.

The PCL generated from different HP printer drivers can vary in the following ways:

  • There are HP printers that do not generate PCL at all.  They are host-based/GDI printers.
  • There are HP printers that are new host-based and use a flawed, third party PCL5 interpreter.
  • There are HP printers that only support stripped-down versions of all raster PCL XL (PCL6).
  • There are HP printers that only support PCL XL with JetReady compression (HP will not provide the tech. spec. – we had to reverse engineer it)
  • There are HP printers that support both PCL XL and PCL5e – so which driver are they using?
  • There are 50+ HP inkjet printers that print undocumented variations of PCL3GUI.
  • PCL XL is extensible by the printer manufacturer.  So, there are new functions with every new release.
  • PCL5e is not supposed to be extensible, but Lexmark and other vendors add their own proprietary commands and compression methods.
  • The new HP Universal Printer Driver on WIN7/W2K8 is buggy even when printing.
  • There are print driver options that affect the way the PCL is output:
    • Graphics Mode – Auto, Raster, vector/HPGL2, el al.
    • TrueType Fonts – as graphics, download as bitmap, download as outline
    • Font Substitutions – remap Arial to XYZ font
    • Print Processor and data type (Raw, EMF, ?)
    • Color Mgmt – Auto, manual, many proprietary color profile
    • Driver added overlays, fonts or watermarks
  • Printer manufacturers have drivers that they provide to Windows and different drivers that come with their printers for the same printer model.  They generate different PCL.
  • Different releases of printer drivers generate different PCL.
  • Upgrading Windows can update the TrueType fonts that Microsoft supplies.  If they tweak a character, it can affect our OCR process to extract text.
  • Upgrading to a new version of Windows can mean having to use a driver from a different third party printer driver vendor.
  • Printer driver output may be captured by third party tools to insert or find/replace PCL on-the-fly.
  • Not all HP printers have the same resident font selections forcing font substitutions.

PCL generated from the same application can be affected in the following ways:

  • Different selection of fonts, point sizes, style, stroke weight, justification, kerning, etc.
  • Different margin settings.
  • The order, in which the columns are originally added, then deleted and inserted – changes the order in which the text is those columns is applied in the PCL.
  • Footers in Word can cause a full page graphic overlay.
  • A document with very dense and tightly-packed text can cause the printer driver (depending on the graphics mode and other settings) to arbitrarily rasterize certain portions of what was a text string.

Remember that PCL transformation is at the mercy of everything “up-stream” from it!

PageTech

Category: Fonts / Typeface Conversion, PCL Conversion, PCL Troubleshooting, Technical Support
Tags: > > > > > >
keep looking »