"Print to file" - not possible?

[Peter2]

Hello

I'm new to this forum - and to Irfanview

I looked at the print-command, searching for the option "print to file" - and could not found it. Is it possible in Irfanview - or not?

Thanks

Peter

[Lex-Mike]

Print to file

I have the ability to print to a file, but it is not a function of IV. I can print to TIFF (from Microsoft Office), or I can print to PDF (from Acrobat Professional).

What were you interested in doing?

[Thoskk]

print to file

The "print to file" option is mainly a function of your printer driver software and the operating system.
If you want to print an image to a file on your hard disc, do the necessary setup and choose printing, but before you choose a printer, check the "print to file" option, that should appear anywhere around the menu where you choose the printer to print on.

! This will generate a file somewhere on your hard disk, usually in *.prn format (dependent on your hard and software). Usually you wont be able to view this type of file!

But, as Lex-Mike already mentioned, that possibly is not what you want. It could help if you tell us what you intend to do.

[Sjef]

Well, I have installed MS Office 2003 and I have the 'printerdriver' Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. After printing I get a MSI file which is instantly viewed in the application MS Office Document Imaging (with which one e.g. can scan images too). Of course this MDI format is associated to MS Office Documtent Imaging. From there you can save this image only as TIF. So 'print to file' is indeed also depending on an application that puts this kind of printerdriver in Configuration\Printers when it is being installed. When you want to save to PDF you can use IrfanView's Save as...

[Peter2]

Hello

sorry for my late reply:

What I want to do:
I want to print multiple files with a batch process to "file". In most cases to a HPGL/2 plot-file, in other cases to PS-files or to something else.
It should work ...

• one picture makes one PLT-file
• the name of the picture is the name of the PLT-file
• is must work for its own; so the "set the printer-port to FILE" is not good because it takes name-typing for every file

Functions:
IMHO this is not a function of the driver but one of the software. I use my printer-device with many programs for "print to file" - and some programs do not offer this function, So it is a function of Software and not of printer device.

Peter

[Mij]

You are right that it is a function of the program. None of my free or low end graphics programs offer me "Print to file" but Adobe Photoshop and Corel PhotoPaint do. It probably implies there is a fairly heavy software overhead required to provide the feature.
...or it may be deemed unnecessary since you can do it instead by adding a virtual printer with output port as FILE. From your third bullet point you clearly already know about that.

[Peter2]

...or it may be deemed unnecessary since you can do it instead by adding a virtual printer with output port as FILE. ...

No, it is not unnecessary. Output port FILE is only an emergency solution, 10 times worse then "print to file", because for FILE I need every printer twice: One "print to paper - configuration" and one "print to file - configuration". This is very time- and resource-consuming and very inflexible, compared to a small click-option in print-menu of software.

Peter

[Thoskk]

I'm not sure I got that exactly, but for me it looks like you want to automatically process and save scanned images, using different formats - probably depending on the source of the scan.
Isn't the 'print to file', in this case, just a complicated way to save the generated and processed image?

Just an idea, but... what about good old 'pipe' in cmd shell? Should have the same effect as 'print to file', you can name the output by the input file, and you can do it from a batch. Maybe this helps.