These versions are only different from the full retail product in that Visual Software copyright watermarks are added to each page of the PDF (Portable Document Format) document output. The full versions of Visual PDF and Pcl2pdf do not contain or generate these copyright messages. There are no restrictions otherwise so you can test with your production documents to check the quality and performance of the conversions. Please see the Pcl2pdf V6.9 User Guide for full details of the command line switches and developer APIs
Pcl2pdf for Windows PC V6.9 (including Visual PDF) Evaluation
| pcl2pdfwindowspc69eval.zip |
Pcl2pdf for Windows Server V6.9 Evaluation
| pcl2pdfwindowsserver69eval.zip |
Pcl2pdf for Unix (including Linux, OpenVMS) Server V6.9 Evaluation
| pcl2pdfunixserver69eval.zip |
Pcl2pdf for Windows includes command line .EXE, Windows .DLL and ActiveX .OCX components. These components are available for use on Windows 7, 8, 10 and Windows 2008 and 2012 Server. If you wish to convert PCL print files to PDF at the Windows command prompt (console) you can use the Pcl2pdf 32-bit PC command line .EXE pcl2pdf32.exe, for example:-
C> Pcl2pdf32 test.pcl test.pdf
Please see the Pcl2pdf V6.9 User Guide for full details of the command line switches available. For developers wishing to use Pcl2pdf with their own applications and programming environments the following Pcl2pdf developer files can be downloaded and installed. These include the Pcl2pdf 32-bit Windows .DLL pcl2pdf32.dll, pcl2pdf32.lib, Pcl2pdfDevLib.ocx and Pcl2pdfDevLib.tlb. The Windows .DLL must be installed also for use with the .OCX. Please see the Pcl2pdf Developer API section of the User Guide for installation and usage instructions. The Pcl2pdf .DLL and .OCX developer components can be used with C, C++, Visual Basic, FoxPro and Delphi applications. They can also be used with web based Active Server Pages (ASP) applications on Microsoft Internet Information Server. Which Pcl2pdf component you use depends on the application you are developing, the development environment and language you prefer to work with. As simple as:
<%
Dim p2p
Set p2p = Server.CreateObject("PCL2PDFDEVLIB.Pcl2pdfDevLibCtrl.1")
p2p.DocInfoTitle = "South East Asia Sales Report"
p2p.OwnerPassword = "orange"
p2p.Permissions = "X"
Dim Err
Err = p2p.ConvertPcl2pdf("test.pcl","test.pdf")
Response.Write "<p>Pcl2pdf returned " + FormatNumber(Err,0) + "</p>"
Set p2p = Nothing
%>
Pcl2pdf for Windows PC now includes the Visual PDF Windows interactive "GUI" standalone application. It's a single file product with no installation required! Just save the Visual PDF executable to a suitable folder on your hard disk, for example your Desktop, and double-click to run. You can create a Windows shortcut if you wish. Visual PDF requires Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 installed in order to run
Pcl2pdf for Unix (including Linux, OpenVMS) Server
Pcl2pdf for Unix includes command line executables for AIX, HP-UX, Linux, OpenVMS, SCO, Sun and Tandem. The Unix, Linux, OpenVMS or Tandem platform is identified by the first few characters of the filename, for example hppcl2pdf696 denotes HP-UX and linuxpcl2pdf696 denotes Linux. Here the suffix 696 denotes a Pcl2pdf V6.9.6 executable
Copy the executable to a suitable location on your Unix host. If using FTP be sure to use a binary copy
Mark the executable with executable access rights (use "chmod 775 filename")
Run using a standard command line such as: ./pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf
You can use the -pages command line switch to see the progress of long conversions
Use the -lt:2 command line switch to have Pcl2pdf correctly process PCL print files using Unix style <0A> line endings
If there is more than one executable listed for a specific platform these may been built on different hosts. Each should operate identically
Please see the Pcl2pdf V6.9 User Guide for full details of the command line switches available
The document below shows which Pcl2pdf executables are available:
| pcl2pdfunixexecutables.pdf |
Pcl2pdf for Tandem
First download the Pcl2pdf for Tandem evaluation executable from above. The executable is not compressed or zipped in any way. Rename the executable to PCL2PDF and use binary FTP to upload it to your Tandem server. You should then be able to run PCL2PDF and pass arguments on the command line, for example:-
VISOFT 56> run pcl2pdf tpcl tpdf
VISOFT 56> run pcl2pdf tpcl tpdf -pages
First download the Pcl2pdf for Tandem evaluation executable from above. The executable is not compressed or zipped in any way. Rename the executable to PCL2PDF and use binary FTP to upload it to your Tandem server. You should then be able to run PCL2PDF and pass arguments on the command line, for example:-
VISOFT 56> run pcl2pdf tpcl tpdf
VISOFT 56> run pcl2pdf tpcl tpdf -pages
Pcl2pdf for OpenVMS
First download the Pcl2pdf for OpenVMS evaluation executable from above. The executable is not compressed or zipped in any way. Before you run Pcl2pdf you need to define a "foreign command" similar to this:
$ pcl2pdf :== $DKA200:[visual]OPENVMSPCL2PDF695E.EXE
Substitute the drive/directory DKA200:[visual] with your own. If you want to define Pcl2pdf as a system wide command, copy openvmspcl2pdf695e.exe to the sys$system directory. Then add to the sylogin.com file the line:
$ pcl2pdf :== $SYS$SYSTEM:OPENVMSPCL2PDF695E.EXE
This allows you to run "pcl2pdf" and pass arguments on the command line, for example:
$ pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf
$ pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -pages
Note: With this build both '-' and '/' are implemented as the lead in character for switches
We tested the output PDF documents by using binary FTP to transfer them back to a Windows PC and opening in Adobe® Acrobat®. We don't know how you intend to use the PDF files you'll be creating. Let us know whether they'll be accessed by a native OpenVMS version of Adobe® Acrobat®, via FTP, Kermit or some other method. We will be interested to know if you meet any record format file type issues. The same applies to how you will be creating your input LaserJet PCL print files. The input PCL print files should be stream files with no (or at least very long) records. Here's details of an example PCL print from one Pcl2pdf OpenVMS customer (using the DIR /FULL command):
HNPCR0100A028.PCL;1 File ID: (49246,56,0)
Size: 116/116 Owner: [FREIGHT,A_CROOKES]
Created: 6-JUL-2000 09:14:30.22
Revised: 6-JUL-2000 09:14:31.24 (2)
Expires: <None specified>
Backup: <No backup recorded>
Effective: <None specified>
Recording: <None specified>
File organization: Sequential
Shelved state: Online
Caching attribute: Writethrough
File attributes: Allocation: 116, Extend: 0, Global buffer count: 0
No version limit
Record format: Variable length, maximum 10000 bytes, longest 537
bytes
Record attributes: Carriage return carriage control
RMS attributes: None
Journaling enabled: None
File protection: System:RWED, Owner:RWED, Group:RWED, World:RWED
Access Cntrl List: None
Client attributes: None
Total of 1 file, 116/116 blocks.
You may also need to try using the Pcl2pdf -LT:# switch to change how the program interprets the PCL line ending commands hex <0d> and <0a>. Try the following in turn to see whether these make any difference:
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:0
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:1
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:2
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:3
One Pcl2pdf for OpenVMS customer suggested "the trick was that I had to convert my file's record format to be 'Stream_LF' by first creating a VMS file definition 'XXX.FDL' file with this characteristic on the RECORD qualifier, then using VMS command 'CONVERT/FDL=XXX.FDL inputfile.TXT outputfile.TXT'. This put the 0A linefeeds in. Then I used the -LT:2 switch on PCL2PDF to send outputfile.TXT ..."
First download the Pcl2pdf for OpenVMS evaluation executable from above. The executable is not compressed or zipped in any way. Before you run Pcl2pdf you need to define a "foreign command" similar to this:
$ pcl2pdf :== $DKA200:[visual]OPENVMSPCL2PDF695E.EXE
Substitute the drive/directory DKA200:[visual] with your own. If you want to define Pcl2pdf as a system wide command, copy openvmspcl2pdf695e.exe to the sys$system directory. Then add to the sylogin.com file the line:
$ pcl2pdf :== $SYS$SYSTEM:OPENVMSPCL2PDF695E.EXE
This allows you to run "pcl2pdf" and pass arguments on the command line, for example:
$ pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf
$ pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -pages
Note: With this build both '-' and '/' are implemented as the lead in character for switches
We tested the output PDF documents by using binary FTP to transfer them back to a Windows PC and opening in Adobe® Acrobat®. We don't know how you intend to use the PDF files you'll be creating. Let us know whether they'll be accessed by a native OpenVMS version of Adobe® Acrobat®, via FTP, Kermit or some other method. We will be interested to know if you meet any record format file type issues. The same applies to how you will be creating your input LaserJet PCL print files. The input PCL print files should be stream files with no (or at least very long) records. Here's details of an example PCL print from one Pcl2pdf OpenVMS customer (using the DIR /FULL command):
HNPCR0100A028.PCL;1 File ID: (49246,56,0)
Size: 116/116 Owner: [FREIGHT,A_CROOKES]
Created: 6-JUL-2000 09:14:30.22
Revised: 6-JUL-2000 09:14:31.24 (2)
Expires: <None specified>
Backup: <No backup recorded>
Effective: <None specified>
Recording: <None specified>
File organization: Sequential
Shelved state: Online
Caching attribute: Writethrough
File attributes: Allocation: 116, Extend: 0, Global buffer count: 0
No version limit
Record format: Variable length, maximum 10000 bytes, longest 537
bytes
Record attributes: Carriage return carriage control
RMS attributes: None
Journaling enabled: None
File protection: System:RWED, Owner:RWED, Group:RWED, World:RWED
Access Cntrl List: None
Client attributes: None
Total of 1 file, 116/116 blocks.
You may also need to try using the Pcl2pdf -LT:# switch to change how the program interprets the PCL line ending commands hex <0d> and <0a>. Try the following in turn to see whether these make any difference:
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:0
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:1
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:2
pcl2pdf test.pcl test.pdf -LT:3
One Pcl2pdf for OpenVMS customer suggested "the trick was that I had to convert my file's record format to be 'Stream_LF' by first creating a VMS file definition 'XXX.FDL' file with this characteristic on the RECORD qualifier, then using VMS command 'CONVERT/FDL=XXX.FDL inputfile.TXT outputfile.TXT'. This put the 0A linefeeds in. Then I used the -LT:2 switch on PCL2PDF to send outputfile.TXT ..."
