[Info-vax] Direct print of PDF files on PDF compatible printers.

[chris]

On 03/02/22 18:37, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-03-02, chris<chris-nospam at tridac.net>  wrote:
>>
>> The reader is an application, either the free acrobat from Adobe, or in
>> use here, the Foxit reader, also free. They do paid for apps that
>> will edit exiting pdf files. Found that very useful where a pdf based
>> form is to be filled in. Similar utils exist for unix, linux etc. The
>> formatting for the printer is done within the app, and just talks to
>> the printer via the os printer driver...
>>
>
> Everyone here knows about those utilities Chris, but what you are
> missing is that you are assuming some manual process where people
> manually open every PDF on a PC before manually printing it.

Wasn't really assuming much at all and using the apps as an
example, but also that scripts could be used to convert and format
data form one format to another.

For corporate workflows, that varies widely, with pdf used as a
standard exchange format, but other file formats could be just as
relevant for an automated process. It's easy to fix on a single solution 
to a problem, but casting the net a bit wider might get
a better result overall.

As for PCL, yes, in the early days of Laserjets, but modern processes
tend to work at a much higher level of abstraction now, thankfully...

Chris


>
> That is simply not how it works in many corporate workflows.
>
> In many business cases, complex documents are created automatically by
> a program (invoicing/statements, etc) and then printed automatically as
> part of a batch run without any human ever been involved in the process.
>
> I've actually generated barcodes in the distant past on VMS as part
> of generating batches of documents automatically. IIRC, I did it by
> generating PCL to draw the boxes on the documents and the documents
> were sent to laser printers controlled by DCPS.
>
> No third party utilities were involved. Code 39 (for example) is very
> well documented:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_39
>
> There are other encoding standards which are also well documented.
> All you need now is to dust off your PCL programming skills. :-)
>
> (Or these days, just use a printer with a barcode font. :-))
>
> Simon.
>