Visual Software

Pcl2pdf for Windows PC and Server

Pcl2pdf for Windows includes command line .EXE, Windows .DLL and ActiveX .OCX components. These components are available for use on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Windows 2003 and 2008 Server.

Pcl2pdf for Windows PC also includes the Visual PDF Windows interactive "GUI" standalone application. There is 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 or 7 installed in order to run.

An easy way to download is to right click on the image and choose Save Target As... You may see a different option depending on the browser you are using, for example Copy To Folder...

You can check and verify the authenticity of the executable files above when downloading from this site by examining G-Futures Limited's publisher digital signature. Click above to see further information.

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. Pcl2pdf32.exe can be run direct from the Windows command prompt (console) like:-

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.

We are unable to supply 16 bit or true MS-DOS versions of Pcl2pdf due to 640Kb and 16 bit memory constraints.

Pcl2pdf for OpenVMS

First download the Pcl2pdf for OpenVMS evaluation executable here. The easiest way is to right click on the link and choose Save Target As... You may see a different option depending on the browser you are using, for example Copy To Folder... 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 openvmspcl2pdf600e.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 ..."

Pcl2pdf for Unix (including Linux, OpenVMS) Server

Pcl2pdf for Unix includes command line executables for AIX, HP-UX, Linux, OpenVMS, SCO, Sun and Tandem.

An easy way to download is to right click on the image and choose Save Target As... You may see a different option depending on the browser you are using, for example Copy To Folder...

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

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.

Sample PCL print files

Here are some small sample LaserJet PCL print files you can download and test using Pcl2pdf. The default Pcl2pdf PDF document output is also included. These files are all less than 30Kb:-

PCL sample1.pcl sample2.pcl

PDF sample1.pdf sample2.pdf

Pcl2pdf evaluations prior to V6.9

We have available versions of Pcl2pdf prior to the latest V6.9 releases. If you need any of these, perhaps for compatibility reasons, please contact us. Tell us the operating system platform you are using and, if possible, the Pcl2pdf filename you'd like to receive

Pcl2pdf for Tandem

First download the Pcl2pdf for Tandem evaluation executable here. The easiest way is to right click on the link and choose Save Target As... You may see a different option depending on the browser you are using, for example Copy To Folder... 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