0.010/29/2019

HOWTO-1484: Producing EMF File for Print Converter

Description

What printers can produce an EMF file that is valid to be used within PlanetPress Workflow?

Contents

Not every Windows printer driver can produce a valid EMF (Enhanced Meta File) spool file. When they can however, you can use a WinQueue Input task configured with a Windows printer driver to produce one. Here is an non-exhaustive list of Windows printer drivers known to be capable of producing EMF spool files:

  • Any PSCRIPT driver (Microsoft PostScript Printer Driver)
  • Any Unidrv (Universal Printer Driver)-based driver
  • Apple LaserWriter
  • HP LaserJet (e.g. 4, 5)

If the Windows printer driver you want to use is not part of the above list, the following steps will allow you to test if your printer driver is capable of producing EMF spool files:

  1. Enable the printer's Advanced Printing Features:
    1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
    2. Right-click the Windows printer in question and then click Properties.
    3. Under the Advanced tab, enable Advanced Printing Features.
    4. Click Ok.
  2. Generate a spool file using the Windows printer driver and check if it is an EMF file:
    1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Printers.
    2. Right-click the printer in question and then click Pause Printing.
    3. Print a document using the selected Windows printer. As a test, you can print a test page directly from the Windows Printer under the General Tab (Print Test Page).
    4. In Windows XP, go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and look for the .SPL file generated by the printer driver.
    5. Open the .SPL file using a text editor.
      • If the string “EMF” can be found somewhere in the file's first lines of data, then the file is an EMF spool file, thus the selected printer can produce EMF spool files.
      • If the string “EMF” cannot be found anywhere in the file, then the file is not an EMF spool file, thus the selected printer cannot produce EMF spool files.

Using a Windows printer driver capable of producing EMF spool files (see above), the following procedure describes how to produce appropriate spool files for use with the Windows Print Converter plug-in in PlanetPress Watch/Server version 6:

  1. Create a process whose input task is a WinQueue Input.
  2. In the WinQueue Input properties, select the Windows print driver, enable Advanced Printing Features, enable Paused, and disable Spool File Pooling (in Windows XP).
  3. After the WinQueue Input, insert the Windows Print Converter plug-in. In most cases it is recommended to leave the default settings, however you can make reference to the Watch/Server documentation for more info.
  4. Save the new configuration.
  5. Reboot the system in order to restart the print spooler service. (** Recommended**)
  6. Send the configuration to PlanetPress Watch and start the service.
  7. Print a document using the selected Windows printer. As a test, you can print a test page directly from the Windows Printer under the General Tab (Print Test Page).
    • If the test works fine, meaning the Windows Print Converter converted it to text, it means that it should work fine with the application submitting the print job.
    • If the test page doesn't come out fine or if you get a PlanetPress Watch/Server error code, try selecting another driver for that paused printer or refer to the knowledge base page on our website and search for the error code to give you an indication of what the issue might be. http://www.objectiflune.com/OL/Services/Support/KB.aspx