lairdkb@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Kyler Laird) (04/06/91)
Those of you who scan this newsgroup regularly have probably seen my requests for help in printing to a file under OS/2. Well, I didn't get any. But I poked around and found what I had been hoping for all along. It seems that the spooler saves the .SPL files in a format ready to be sent directly to the printer. I had assumed that a more generic format would be used so that multiple, different printers could service the same queue and each receive the file in their own format. I was wrong. I was wanting to bring DOS up on a machine with a laser printer so I could copy a .SPL file to floppy and copy it to the LPT: port of the DOS machine. I didn't want to simply run it back through OS/2 since I figured it would munge on it again and not give identical results as a DOS machine would. It took me awhile, but I finally decided that OS/2 doesn't do any (?) reformatting of print output from the DOS compat. box. So I simply 'type'd a .SPL file to LPT1:. It worked! What does this mean to you? My original desire was to be able to print to a file which would later be picked up by a FAX server on the network. I'm still thinking of ways to embed the FAX number in the .SPL or .SPD files. I'd like to be able to use the COMMENT field. Regardless, now I can print to a file which is later run through an Epson->DCX converter and FAXed. Many publishers (me!) resist spending $50K+ on typesetting equipment. Instead, for their final prints they use a service bureau. These businesses usually take Postscript data (from disk or dialup). Unfortunately, Ventura for OS/2 doesn't save to Postscript files. With Ventura for Gem, I could select a filename as my output device. By capturing the .SPL file, I can duplicate this function. Problem: I can't select NONE or any nonexistant physical port (LPT2:, LPT3: - haven't wanted to bother with COM?:) for output of the printer driver. This means that I am forced to send to LPT1: after taking the printer off line. If I do select one of these ports, the application using the printer crashes with an error. Any ideas? --kyler