PCX windows driver

This works well for me with prn.
See if it does for pcx. when you write to file, in the output.prn shows change to
output.pcx

Lemme know

Bud

How to Print [.PRN fILES] OR Eliminate The Need For PRN's
1. From a Dos Window, C:\>
In this exampe I'll use PRINT.PRN IN DIRECTORY 2 [C:\2]

YOU WOULD TYPE AT THE C:\>

C:\>PRINT C:\2\PRINT.PRN LPT1 [enter]

The lpt1 is my printer port. You would substitute LPT1 for you printer port.
It well may be the same.

 2. For making .prns to .txt, eliminating the prn altogeather..
Have you Windows 95 CD-ROM inserted.
If you are running Win95 (any version) go to start-settings-printers, click add printer
and add the printer Generic/Text Only (Manufacturer:Generic).
The next time you choose "Print to FILE" you can call the Filname.prn to Filname.txt.
Of course you do printer setup first and choose Generic/text Printer.
If you then "print" to this printer, it will create a text file.
Nice Huh!!

Files used by this printer Driver:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TTY.DRV
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\TTY.HLP
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\UNIDRV.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\UNIDRV.HLP
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ICONLIB.DLL

MORE OPTIONS CURTESY OF
Jon Eva  http://www.gallicrow.co.uk

1. From the Start menu, select Settings > Printers, the Printers window will
pop up, showing an icon for each of the printers you have at your disposal, plus
an icon called "Add Printer".
2. Double click on this icon.
3. The Add Printer Wizard window will pop up, click on Next.
4. Select the manufacturer and model of the printer you will eventually send the
.prn files to. Rather than scrolling through the entire list of manufacturers, just
press the first letter of their name (e.g. H for HP) on the keyboard
and the list will jump to the manufacturers starting with that letter.
5. Once the correct manufacturer / printer has been selected click on Next.
Keep the existing driver for this printer, click on Next.
You will be shown a list of ports, select the one which says:
"File: Creates a file on disk", click on Next.
6. Enter a name for this printer, e.g. "HP Laserjet (FILE)" and select whether to
use this printer as the default, click on Next.
Don't bother 'printing' a test page, click on Finish.
If you now 'print' to this printer a dialog asking you the name of the file to
print to will pop up.
=======
How can I print to the same file each time, without being prompted for a filename?

Short answer

Add a new local port named with a filename.
Long answer

Add a new printer that prints to the special "File:" port (see question 1).
From the printers' panel, right click on the printer you have just added
and select Properties.
A panel showing the properties for this printer will pop up, click on the
Details tab of this panel.
Click on the Add Port... button.
The Add Port panel will pop up, click on the Other radio button, and make
sure Local Port is highlighted, click on OK.
A small panel asking for the name of the port will pop up, enter the name of
a file in the edit box, for example C:\Output.prn.
Click on OK to dismiss the panel asking for the port name.
Click on OK to dismiss the printer properties panel.
If you now 'print' to this printer the output will be sent directly to
C:\Output.prn (or wherever), overwriting what was there before.
=========
How do I create a simple text file when "Printing to file"?
Short answer

Use the "Generic / Text" driver.
Long answer

From the Start menu, select Settings > Printers, the Printers window will
pop up, showing an icon for each of
the printers you have at your disposal, plus an icon called "Add Printer".
Double click on this icon.
The Add Printer Wizard window will pop up, click on Next.
Now select the "Generic / Text" printer driver - press the 'G' key, the list
of manufacturers should jump to
those beginning with G, highlight the one which says "Generic".
There should only be one model for the Generic manufacturer,
called "Generic / Text Only", make sure it is highlighted and click on Next.
Keep the existing driver for this printer, click on Next.
You will be shown a list of ports, select the one which says:
"File: Creates a file on disk", click on Next.
Enter a name for this printer, e.g. "Text File" and select whether to use
this printer as the default, click on Next.
Don't bother 'printing' a test page, click on Finish.
If you now 'print' to this printer a dialog asking you the name of the file
to print to will pop up.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to give you the answer huh:)

Bud

The apps I want to redirect to a .PCX file are generally graphics oriented, so using the "Generic/Text only" printer option doesn't work.  Also, I'm hoping for a Win95 solution that doesn't involve having to drop to the DOS prompt.  It would seem that the way Windows programs are device-independent, with the details handled by the device driver, it should be possible to write a driver that writes graphics to a file in a selected format.  That's really what I would like to find.

Do you mean you want to write to a file something like this,[this is from a .jpg]
----
É“(S.ú²â½BWúk§      c¨J—rör—HdÇ› ª˜â©ì¡ÑŒ#]|ÅP¥Ó§O†”÷pè'z3]RÂO$Ыìlj-©*™¦¬M-JJµ­
Û·þ‹j¶lõÐ+ÄŽ?·0Ãڏ“X»>›¥k)µ¢XDű…ë´ã|,“FJXž=°joò$ÊÉÞ叒ü²²›XÝØ[‹«^mz+iÉk©"½)44????????????

Bud

Is this anything like you would like to print;


     File: C:\INSTALL\mobius.jpg  4/28/98, 5:58:42PM

         1 00000000h: 47 49 46 38 37 61 50 01 EE 02 F6 00 00 FF FF FF ; GIF87aP.
         2 00000010h: 24 04 1C 04 24 1C 24 24 1C 24 24 5C 24 44 1C 24 ; $...$.$$
         3 00000020h: 44 5C 44 04 1C 44 24 1C 44 24 5C 64 04 1C 64 24 ; D\D..D$.
         4 00000030h: 1C 64 24 5C 84 24 1C A4 24 1C C4 24 1C DC 24 1C ; .d$\_$.*
         5 00000040h: A4 24 5C C4 24 5C DC 24 5C 64 44 5C A4 44 1C A4 ; *$\A$\U$
         6 00000050h: 44 5C C4 44 1C DC 44 1C C4 44 5C DC 44 5C 64 44 ; D\AD.UD.
         7 00000060h: 9C 84 44 9C 24 64 1C 44 64 1C 44 84 1C 44 64 5C ; __D_$d.D
         8 00000070h: 64 64 5C 84 64 1C 84 64 5C 84 84 1C 84 84 5C 44 ; dd\_d._d
         9 00000080h: 64 9C 64 64 9C 44 84 9C 64 84 9C 84 64 9C 84 84 ; d_dd_D__
        10 00000090h: 9C A4 64 1C A4 64 5C C4 64 1C C4 64 5C A4 84 1C ; _*d.*d\A
        11 000000a0h: A4 84 5C C4 84 5C A4 64 9C A4 84 9C A4 84 DC C4 ; *_\A_\*d
        12 000000b0h: 64 9C C4 84 9C 44 A4 5C 64 A4 5C 84 A4 5C 44 A4 ; d_A__D*\
        13 000000c0h: 9C 64 A4 9C 64 C4 9C 84 A4 9C 84 C4 9C A4 A4 5C ; _d*_dA__
        14 000000d0h: A4 C4 5C A4 A4 9C A4 C4 9C C4 A4 5C C4 A4 9C C4 ; *A\**_*A
        15 000000e0h: C4 5C C4 C4 9C 84 A4 DC A4 A4 DC C4 A4 DC A4 C4 ; A\AA__*U
        16 000000f0h: DC C4 C4 DC DC 64 1C DC 64 5C DC 84 5C DC 64 9C ; UAAUUd.U
        17 00000100h: DC 84 9C DC A4 5C DC A4 9C DC C4 5C DC C4 9C DC ; U__U*\U*
        18 00000110h: A4 DC DC C4 DC A4 DC 9C C4 DC 9C DC DC 5C DC DC ; *UUAU*U_
        19 00000120h: 9C A4 DC DC C4 DC DC 84 7E 50 48 1D 53 D0 86 56 ; _*UUAUU_
        20 00000130h: 3C 61 5A 99 B8 8A BB BD 5C 9A 34 55 00 00 00 00 ; <aZ_,_>/
        21 00000140h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ; ........
        22 00000150h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ; ........
        23 00000160h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ; ........
        24 00000170h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ; ........
        25 00000180h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2C 00 00 ; ........
        26 00000190h: 00 00 50 01 EE 02 00 07 FE 80 00 82 83 84 85 86

Bud

Microsofts powertoys (kerneltoys) have a gizmo to print to html, the graphics are save as jpgs. The text output was hopeless when I tried it (hundreds of pages 1 inch wide) but the graphics were OK.

Are the "powertoys" you mentioned available from the Microsoft web site (I'll take a look)?  What I want to be able to do is to take the output from an app that normally writes to a printer but does not have an Export or Save As function to .PCX, and write it to a PCX file that can then be edited with Paintbrush or other tools.  Naturally, more options (in addition to PCX) for the output would be even better.

Sorry I'm so dense.
You say you want to take the "Output" [what kind of output are you speaking about?]
Clipboard???.
If you have a graphic file and ALT+PRINTSCREEN you can capture that picture and paste it to [lets say Lview] and then Save as.
Do you want this file to be saved as a graphic or hex??

Bud

Suppose I have an application that typically sends a graphic to a  Windows printer device, and the printer or plotter or whatever prints the picture just fine.  But I want to tinker with the picture in some way that the application doesn't support. What I want to do is to select a "printer" driver that has been installed (this is the magic box I'm looking for).  Then when I select "Print" in my application, it will send the image to this driver.  But instead of formatting the picture coming from the app for a LaserJet printer (for example) the driver instead writes the image to a .PCX (or other format) file.  Then I can use PaintBrush or any other graphic editing program to do the tinkering I want.  

Thanks for your input on this.  It seems like there would be some use for such a "psuedo-printer" driver (I used to have one in DOS, but the company is no longer around).

I'm calling in an old friend and Graphics Designer [EXPERT]
Look fot magigraf.

Bud

Why don't you open the file in a graphics application that supports the file's type, manipulate the file however you want to, and then just save it as one of the file types supported by that application?
You can convert from one format to another with the right Windows program.
Regards,
Ralph