downloading fonts on d3/nt.

Hi Brian -

Here is a really good discussion about printing binary files in Windows. I am not sure who wrote it - I don't want to take credit for it - but there is a lot of good info! Besides "imprint", you might check "FRP" from www.frogmorecs.com.

--------- newsgroup posting by Jason@yahoo.com ---------

Can anyone tell me how to print a file with a .PRN extension?

Printing From A File

Sounds simple, doesn't it? It's one of those things that you can ignore almost forever--- until you unexpectedly and urgently need to do it. Then, suddenly, what seemed like a simple task may turn out to be considerably more complicated.

The concept *is* simple: Most standard Print dialogs in Windows include a small checkbox called "Print to file." If you check this (say, when your printer is offline or if you're working on a laptop and are away from a printer), Windows will send to a file exactly the same stream of data that it would have sent to the printer. The file is given a PRN extension, such as "MyReport.Prn."

In theory, when you later have access to a printer, you send the PRN file to that printer, and it prints out.

But trouble is, in practice, Windows has no clue what to do with a PRN file, on its own. If you click on the file, you'll simply get the "Open With?" dialog. So what do you do?

Well, you can "copy" a PRN file to the printer port (usually LPT1 or LPT2, so called from the old days when printers were called "line printers"). One very simple way to do this is to drop to DOS or open a DOS box and type

     copy filename.prn lpt1 /b

Of course, you replace "filename" with the actual name of the file. The "/b" tells the system you're processing a "binary" (machine language) file, not text.

This works best with simple files that don't use any or many of modern printers' advanced capabilities. In fact, it works best with plain text files.

One easy way to create truly plain-vanilla text files is to add a special fake printer to your system by using Control Panel's "Add Printer" dialog, and lying: Tell Windows you want to install a new local printer, and select "Generic/Text Only" from the offered choices. When you're ready to print, select the Generic printer, and then click the "Print to file" box: Although you'll lose access to your printer's advanced capabilities, you'll create a simplified PRN file that may be easier to print out later than a more complex PRN file.

And there are other tricks of increasing complexity (desktop shortcuts, etc.), to get PRN files to print. But they may not work well, or at all. For example, many color and complex printers require their Windows drivers to be loaded and running at print time; any attempt to direct-print may fail. Some printers are designed actually to use the PC's own CPU to control the live printing process; trying a "back door" approach to printing will fail. Likewise, networked or shared printers add an additional layer of complexity that may thwart your attempts to print a PRN file.

Believe me, I know: I recently needed to print color output from an application on a machine I was testing. It's a long story, but I needed to do it via a PRN file. But nothing I did--- and I tried every trick I could think of or find in a lengthy online search--- *nothing* let me correctly print the PRN file. At best, my printer would print gibberish; at worst, it'd hiccup once and die.

Eventually, I found Gallicrow Software's "Imprint," a small trialware Windows app (you can try it free for 30 days) that lets you easily and controllably print binary and PostScript PRN files from within Windows. After downloading Imprint, I had the PRN file rolling out of the printer in less than a minute. (See http://www.gallicrow.co.uk/ ) Imprint is $30 if you decide to keep it. I wish I'd found it sooner--- I would have saved myself a couple of very frustrating hours.

BTW, along the way, in trying to get the *%$E%$# PRN files to print, I found "the Ultimate Windows 95 Spool32 FAQ on the Internet" at http://www.starkreality.com/~callen/spool32.htm . There's a ton of good (free) information there, should you ever need it.