Evelands Dot Net

We're going to use Ghostscript, the Redmon port redirector and some batch-fu to create a printer that spits out PDF files.

Files we'll need...

• Adobe Universal PS Driver - currently named winsteng.exe
• Adobe PPD files - A PostScript printer description file... adobe.zip is the download
• Ghostscript... grab the latest version. The filename wil be gs???w32????.exe, currently gs854w32-gpl.exe for the GPL version.
• Redmon port redirector. - redmon17.zip

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First up is the Ghostscript install. It's a straight windows installer, so run the executable. The instructions below assume you install Ghostscript to c:\gs... if not adjust the paths to where you installed...

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Extract the files from the adobe.zip file to a temp directory. The file we'll need is ADIST5.PPD, a Postscript printer description file. The fact that the readme file is a .wri file gives you an idea how long this has been around.

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Next, install the Adobe Universal PS Printer driver. Run the winsteng.exe executable.

When it asks where the printer is attached attached, select local LPT1 (unless you've got a real one there... if so use LPT5 or something that doesn't really exist) We'll change this later on...

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In the 'Select Printer Model' screen click on the browse button and browse to the folder where we extracted ADIST5.PPD to above... It will show up as Acrobat Distiller.

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When asked about sharing, select 'Not Shared'. Click NO for both 'set as default' and 'print test page' when prompted.

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When done you'll have a printer named Acrobat Distiller. As is, it will create Postscript files just fine. To make them into PDF files, we need to run them through Ghostscript.

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RedMon is a port redirector. That means it creates a fake printer port that calls another program when printed to. Next run setup.exe from the redmon.zip file. It will install all it's stuff and you should be good to go. (we'll find out in a second...)

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Open up printers and faxes. Find the Acrobat Distiller printer, Right click on it and select Properties. Click on the Ports tab.

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Click on Add Port, then click on Redirected Port. Make sure it comes up as 'RPT1:' then click OK. You can then cancel the 'Printer Ports - Available port types:' dialog box.

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You should be back on the 'Ports' tab of the printer properties for the Acrobat Distiller printer. Check the box next to the Redirected port and then click on Configure port...

In 'Redirect this port to the program:' , browse to the directory you installed Ghostscript. The file will be be gswin32c.exe in C:\gs\gsXXXX\bin\ where XXXX is the version of Ghostscript installed.

For arguments use:

All on one line and again, replace \gs8.54\ with whatever version you've got...

Make sure output is set to 'Prompt for filename'...

Now give it a shot... Open up Firefox or pretty much anything you can print out of. Select the Acrobat Distiller printer and try to print to it... Make sure to add ".pdf" to the filename and you should have happy PDFs!

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