print to file format

[martinell]

I have just renewed my car insurance with an online company who provided the docs online to print myself.Knowing how touchy my printer can be i decided to use the option of "print to file" in the printer options box that comes up and managed to save them to my desktop(as well as printing them up) True to form my printer managed to leave lines on the document making it look untidy.
The site used flash to present the docs so no right click save as option on the page, and the files saved to my desktop do not seem to have any extension to give me a clue on the app to view them. I have access to a laser printer but not here, so once i get them on cd how can i print them on another machine?

[Xaccers]

Remember, the HP or whatever thing you have on your desk which spurts out paper is not a printer (now entering the microsoft zone) it is a print device.
The printer is the window that comes up when you double click the printer icon.
Now, all print devices are different, so they have different print drivers, which converts the document into a format that the print device understands and gives you the outcome you want.
So, if you do a print to file, it takes your document, converts it into a format specific for your model of print device and then saves it somewhere on your hard drive.

Open up your printers folder and drag the saved file to the printer.

Alas you aren't likely to be able to print them off a diferent printer.

See, what you should have done is installed the drivers for the laser print device at work, selected that printer and done print to file.
Then take the file into work and it'll be able to print on the laser print device.

[Jon M]

all you need to do is run a DOS window and type the following : "copy c:\windows\desktop\filename.prn lpt1"

obviously you'll need the appropriate file location in there rather than the c:\windows.. etc

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by s1lv3r

all you need to do is run a DOS window and type the following : "copy c:\windows\desktop\filename.prn lpt1"

obviously you'll need the appropriate file location in there rather than the c:\windows.. etc

And if you do that with the wrong printer on the port (lpt1 is generally your parellel port) you'll get a whole load of gibberish come out

[Jon M]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

And if you do that with the wrong printer on the port (lpt1 is generally your parellel port) you'll get a whole load of gibberish come out

i know.. but the actual command was the only thing missing from your post.. so i thought i'd chip in.. i thought you'd done a good enough job explaining the theory

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by s1lv3r

i know.. but the actual command was the only thing missing from your post.. so i thought i'd chip in.. i thought you'd done a good enough job explaining the theory

ah got you.
I said he can just drag the file to the printer

[martinell]

thx peeps, I tried the drag and drop approach first coz dos ain't 1 of my strong points but was told that "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action...create an association blah, folder options, blah.."
Tried notepad,wordpad,diz&nfo viewer even the hp viewer for the printer with no luck and still trying the dos way <smacks head on desk>

[martinell]

well that was easy when i finally got my head round it.I got the docs printed out again using the dos approach,new cartridge later i think.
is there any way to be able to view it,with the task of saving it in a common format? eg .doc, .jpeg, .tif etc so that i can transport it across print drivers?

[rdhw]

Originally Posted by martinell

is there any way to be able to view it,with the task of saving it in a common format? eg .doc, .jpeg, .tif etc so that i can transport it across print drivers?

The normal format to choose for such a purpose is PDF. But, without installing extras, you can't create PDF documents. However, the chances are that the originals your insureance company provided online were PDF, so you should just be able to download them and print them anywhere.

[martinell]

The images were supplied in a flash player screen with no right click or save as option in the menu.,(play,zoom,loop amongst others)could have done a prt scrn i suppose but i cant do image editing either Now that i've got the policy i can't acces the darn thing.
wait for them to email me back now to see if they will send me a diff format to print with(they want £5 for 8 pieces of paper robbers)
btw.. how do i go up a dir in dos?

[rdhw]

Originally Posted by martinell

how do i go up a dir in dos?

cd ..

[Xaccers]

Um, are insurace docs you print off yourself acceptable/legal?

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by martinell

well that was easy when i finally got my head round it.I got the docs printed out again using the dos approach,new cartridge later i think.
is there any way to be able to view it,with the task of saving it in a common format? eg .doc, .jpeg, .tif etc so that i can transport it across print drivers?

The file should be a postscript file (if your printer was postscript compatible, most are I think). Rename the file to have a .ps extension, then download Ghostscript and GSView from here: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
Hopefully you should be able to view your file in GSView, and you can use GhostScript to convert to pdf (bit complicated).

[Flubflow]

Originally Posted by martinell

well that was easy when i finally got my head round it.I got the docs printed out again using the dos approach,new cartridge later i think.
is there any way to be able to view it,with the task of saving it in a common format? eg .doc, .jpeg, .tif etc so that i can transport it across print drivers?

The easiest way to do that now is to put the documents you have just printed out (asuming they were OK) into a scanner then save as .tif or .jpg or whatever bitmap format you like so you can print it out on any printer. Then again, why would you want another copy?

If you still have access to the online forms then install a postscript pinter driver (e.g. from the HP laserjet family). When you print to file what you will have then is a file in EPS format (encapsulated postcript). If you use something like CorelDraw then you can import this EPS file as "postscript interpreted" and view it or print to any printer. I've done this before and it works a treat.

[Flubflow]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Um, are insurace docs you print off yourself acceptable/legal?

I've wondered that. However, when I look at my insurance certificate is is just a sheet of plain A4 printed in b/w with their laser printer. There's no special stationary with anti-counterfiet/watermarking or anything. I'm sure anyone with a decent graphics program could make one up based on that which would fool the police after getting a "producer" or the post office when getting your road tax but you'd be up the spout if they checked up on it. I don't think you actually need the actual certificate to be legally insured. I think you just need it to conveniently prove it to others when asked.