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What extension for a print to file?



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 14th 16, 02:35 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default What extension for a print to file?

I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.

It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.

Things were the same with my fully functioning Brother AIO, I don't
knolw what to name the file and the 200 page manual doesn't say a word
about that.

When I gave it a .jpg extension, it was described as damaged or
corrupted. I know it wouldn't take a bribe so it must be damaged, or
I named it wrong.

What extension for a print to file?
  #2  
Old January 14th 16, 03:11 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
Big Al[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7
Default What extension for a print to file?

On 01/14/2016 08:35 AM, Micky wrote:
I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.

It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.

Things were the same with my fully functioning Brother AIO, I don't
knolw what to name the file and the 200 page manual doesn't say a word
about that.

When I gave it a .jpg extension, it was described as damaged or
corrupted. I know it wouldn't take a bribe so it must be damaged, or
I named it wrong.

What extension for a print to file?

Normally one would do something like add a print to PDF driver. This
would then by default just print (save) to a .pdf extension without
asking you, it's the only option since it's a narrow minded program.

something like this
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
Once installed it makes a print driver you just pick from any print
dialog. The resulting PDF file can be printed later if you have your
printer working, or moved to another machine that prints and print from
there. Or just saved for later viewing and use. Paperless office!


  #3  
Old January 14th 16, 04:08 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
David H. Lipman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 408
Default What extension for a print to file?

From: "Micky"

I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.

It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.

Things were the same with my fully functioning Brother AIO, I don't
knolw what to name the file and the 200 page manual doesn't say a word
about that.

When I gave it a .jpg extension, it was described as damaged or
corrupted. I know it wouldn't take a bribe so it must be damaged, or
I named it wrong.

What extension for a print to file?


Standard practice is .PRN

However different printer drivers will generate different code that will be
in the PRN.

For example;
Printers using Printer Control Language ( PCL ) will be in the PCL format.
PostScript printers will be in PostScript format

The reason being whatever would have been sent for the Printer Driver is
redirected to a disk.

One could then send the file to the Printer Port
Example:

copy TEST.PRN /b LPT1:
or
copy TEST.PRN /b PRN:

When you assign an extension to a file the OS uses "File Association" to
load the file into an application, that application assumes the format of
the file is what the file extension indicates.

You can't just name any file as JPG ( JPEG -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG ) because a Graphics Program that; views,
renders, alters or edits a JPEG must be given a JPEG formatted file. Disk
Files often use a header which identifies when the contents of the file is
supposed to be.
A JPEG would have JFIF in the header.
A ZIP file would have PK in the header.
A 7zip file would have 7z in the header.
A RAR file would have RAR in the header.
A Windows Executable will have MZ in the header.

If you looked at a file and in the header was "%PDF" what do you think the
file is and what program could read it ?

If you put the contents of a MS Word DOC file in a file named with the
extension JPG, th Default Graphics Program associated with the JPG extension
will say the file is corrupt because it expected a JPEG and you gave it a MS
Word document.

You can't just blindly assign a file extension to any file and think that it
will be readable.

Between the Printer, NTFS and other questions... I am beginning to see a
pattern here.

--
Dave
Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk
http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

  #4  
Old January 14th 16, 04:35 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
Don Phillipson[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 320
Default What extension for a print to file?

On 01/14/2016 08:35 AM, Micky wrote:

I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.

It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.


This depends on what drivers print out the file or which
software you use to display and edit the file. One solution
may be to print to file in several standard formats (e.g.
TXT, PRN and RTF) and then see which best fits your
current system.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)


  #5  
Old January 14th 16, 05:39 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
Paul
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13,364
Default What extension for a print to file?

Micky wrote:
I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.

It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.

Things were the same with my fully functioning Brother AIO, I don't
knolw what to name the file and the 200 page manual doesn't say a word
about that.

When I gave it a .jpg extension, it was described as damaged or
corrupted. I know it wouldn't take a bribe so it must be damaged, or
I named it wrong.

What extension for a print to file?


As David says, try ".prn" as the extension.

Then, change the name like this after printing is complete

someprint.prn.txt

and open with a text editor. There should at least
be a few lines of "header" info at the beginning
and the end, that you can read.

The actual language inside the print job, could be
PCL5, PCL6, PostScript and so on. You will need to
expand your technicians toolkit to work with that stuff.

In this example, the encapsulation sections, you'd
remove those, and the resultant file is then
"standard PostScript". So the print file can consist
of more than one layer, which may be important
if post-processing with other tools, and they
cannot "tolerate" noise. I removed the non-ASCII characters
when copying this, so this isn't a verbatim copy of
what you'll see.

12345X@PJL JOB \___ encapsulation, remove
@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = POSTSCRIPT /
%!PS-Adobe-3.0
%%Title: f1040.pdf
....
Pscript_WinNT_Min dup /min_terminate get exec
%%EOF
12345X@PJL EOJ \___ encapsulation, remove
12345X /

In the case of a PostScript interpreter, it probably
manages to ignore the encapsulation, and I remove the
header and trailer as a matter of appearances.

But if you're the curious type, examination
with a text editor would be a start.

Paul
  #6  
Old January 15th 16, 04:24 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
Gernot Hassenpflug[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 44
Default What extension for a print to file?

Paul writes:

Micky wrote:
I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.


Use IE, much easier, since it comes up with the OS browse GUI to decide
where to save the file.
In FF, you need to put in the full path to a directory FF has write
permissions to. Simplest would be to open explorer, go to a directory
where your user has write permissions, and then in the URI bar select
the string (this gets around differences in the display names such as
different languages and so on) and paste it into the single-line FF
print to file interface, appending your actual file name after the path.

of explorer
It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.

Things were the same with my fully functioning Brother AIO, I don't
knolw what to name the file and the 200 page manual doesn't say a word
about that.

When I gave it a .jpg extension, it was described as damaged or
corrupted. I know it wouldn't take a bribe so it must be damaged, or
I named it wrong.

What extension for a print to file?


As David says, try ".prn" as the extension.


Yes, ".prn" is the usual extension for a printjob, use that by all
means.

Regards,
Gernot Hassenpflug
--
NNTP on Emacs 24.3 from Windows 7
  #7  
Old January 23rd 16, 11:19 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default What extension for a print to file?

On Thu, 14 Jan 2016 09:11:17 -0500, Big Al wrote:

On 01/14/2016 08:35 AM, Micky wrote:
I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.

It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.

Things were the same with my fully functioning Brother AIO, I don't
knolw what to name the file and the 200 page manual doesn't say a word
about that.

When I gave it a .jpg extension, it was described as damaged or
corrupted. I know it wouldn't take a bribe so it must be damaged, or
I named it wrong.

What extension for a print to file?

Normally one would do something like add a print to PDF driver. This
would then by default just print (save) to a .pdf extension without
asking you, it's the only option since it's a narrow minded program.

something like this
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/


Installing it now. Thanks

Once installed it makes a print driver you just pick from any print
dialog. The resulting PDF file can be printed later if you have your
printer working, or moved to another machine that prints and print from
there. Or just saved for later viewing and use. Paperless office!

  #8  
Old January 23rd 16, 11:19 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default What extension for a print to file?

On Thu, 14 Jan 2016 10:08:14 -0500, "David H. Lipman"
wrote:

From: "Micky"

I'm not able to print to my newly installed Brother black and white
laser printer so I printed to a file instead. From Firefox.

It asks what the name of the file is, and I don't konw what extension
to give it.

Things were the same with my fully functioning Brother AIO, I don't
knolw what to name the file and the 200 page manual doesn't say a word
about that.

When I gave it a .jpg extension, it was described as damaged or
corrupted. I know it wouldn't take a bribe so it must be damaged, or
I named it wrong.

What extension for a print to file?


Standard practice is .PRN

However different printer drivers will generate different code that will be
in the PRN.

For example;
Printers using Printer Control Language ( PCL ) will be in the PCL format.
PostScript printers will be in PostScript format

The reason being whatever would have been sent for the Printer Driver is
redirected to a disk.

One could then send the file to the Printer Port
Example:

copy TEST.PRN /b LPT1:
or
copy TEST.PRN /b PRN:

When you assign an extension to a file the OS uses "File Association" to
load the file into an application, that application assumes the format of
the file is what the file extension indicates.

You can't just name any file as JPG ( JPEG -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG ) because a Graphics Program that; views,
renders, alters or edits a JPEG must be given a JPEG formatted file. Disk
Files often use a header which identifies when the contents of the file is
supposed to be.
A JPEG would have JFIF in the header.
A ZIP file would have PK in the header.
A 7zip file would have 7z in the header.
A RAR file would have RAR in the header.
A Windows Executable will have MZ in the header.

If you looked at a file and in the header was "%PDF" what do you think the
file is and what program could read it ?

If you put the contents of a MS Word DOC file in a file named with the
extension JPG, th Default Graphics Program associated with the JPG extension
will say the file is corrupt because it expected a JPEG and you gave it a MS
Word document.

You can't just blindly assign a file extension to any file and think that it
will be readable.


LOL. I actually knew that, but jpg was all I could think of.

Thanks for the answer, and thanks eveyrone.

Between the Printer, NTFS and other questions... I am beginning to see a
pattern here.

  #9  
Old January 24th 16, 01:37 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
Paul in Houston TX[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18
Default What extension for a print to file?

Micky wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2016 09:11:17 -0500, Big Al wrote:


something like this
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/


Installing it now. Thanks


btw, pdfcreator will allow saving/printing to about 10 different formats.


  #10  
Old January 24th 16, 02:53 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,comp.periphs.printers,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.comp.hardware
micky
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default What extension for a print to file?

On Sat, 23 Jan 2016 18:37:58 -0600, Paul in Houston TX
wrote:

Micky wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2016 09:11:17 -0500, Big Al wrote:


something like this
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/


Installing it now. Thanks


btw, pdfcreator will allow saving/printing to about 10 different formats.


I saw that it did 4. Ten is reallllly good. but I havent' had
occasion to use it yet.

I'm going to make an effort again to fix that Brother all-in-one laser
(which came with a spare tube of toner), and that will involve
printing to a file, which will use pdfcreator. But much of the
incentive is gone since I got the Samsung laser working and bought a
new drum/toner to go with it, which came in the mail yesterday. And
all of the impatience is gone since now I've been printing my xword
puzzles on the Samsung and not wasting inkjet ink, esp. color ink to
print black and white puzzles.
 




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