@VeryDOC SDK & COM & CLI

Intercepting data sent to a Windows printer

Posted on

I need to intercept data being sent to a ESC/POS printer on Windows and analyze it.

So I wanted to get the data in plain text, so that I can extract and make sense of information being sent to the printer.

Currently, I have tried using "VeryDOC Printer Port Monitor" to get the data stream being sent to the printer port. But the data being sent is in the form of raster graphics i.e. dots to be printed, embedded within ESC/POS commands.

So I was wondering if somebody can suggest me on how can I get the print data in text format so as to be able to extract some information from it.

Customer
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The data which is sent to a ESC/POS printer IS raster data embedded with ESC/POS commands. This is what the ESC/POS printer driver generates from its input. And that's what "VeryDOC Printer Port Monitor" catched for you.

Seems you want to see the input sent to the printer driver. That means you'll have to find out which applications do use the printer and you have to intercept what arrives at the printer driver.

You do not say if you want to set up your interception in a 'live' environment, or if it is for temporary testing only. If you want to test temporarily, you could alternatively do the following steps:

  1. Pause the print queue (upper screenshot, below).
  2. Optionally: change the driver away from ESC/POS to, say PostScript or Microsoft XPS. Do this on the same "Advanced" tab on the printer properties dialog as mentioned above. (lower screenshot on the right, below).
  3. Print.
  4. Retrieve the spool file waiting in the spool directory. On Windows 8 this is by default C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS. The spool file is named NNNNN.spl where NNNNN is the number of the current printjob.
  5. Analyze the PostScript or XPS data.

See these 3 screenshots:

clip_image002

clip_image004

clip_image006

However, it would be much easier (instead of using "VeryDOC Printer Port Monitor") if you...

  • ...simply enable the printer driver setting called "Keep printed documents": go to print queue properties => select "Advanced" tab => enable respective checkbox (see left screenshot, above);
  • ...fish spooled printjob from the windows print spool directory;
  • ...analyze your NNNNN.spl file:
    • on Windows 8 this will be an XPS file. Re-name it to NNNNN.xps and you can open it with the builtin XPS viewer.
    • on previous version of Windows, the NNNNN.spl will have the file format of the respective printer driver (PostScript for PostScript drivers, XPS for Microsoft XPS printer, ESC/POS for your printer, ...). Rename it accordingly and open it in XPS or PostScript viewer.

VeryDOC has a printer hook technology which can be used to hook ALL Windows Printers, this product's name is "VeryDOC Printer Capturer", it is use Windows Hook Technology to hook all Windows Printers, intercept and capture all print jobs and save them to PDF, PS, EPS, EMF, TIFF, PNG, JPG, etc. formats.

VeryDOC Printer Capturer is a desktop Print Driver and a Printer Hook, that allows you to save to PDF and TIFF electronic document formats from Any Windows application and Any Windows Printer.

VeryDOC Printer Capturer is a useful software to intercept and capture print data which sent to a printer.

If you wish to use VeryDOC Printer Capturer software, please feel free contact us, we will assist you asap,

http://support.verypdf.com/open.php

@VeryDOC SDK & COM & CLI, PDF Printer

How to intercept and capture a print job and convert it to PDF & Plain Text & Image files and then print?

Posted on

VeryDOC has a printer hook technology which can be used to hook ALL Windows Printers, this product's name is "VeryDOC Printer Capturer", it is use Windows Hook Technology to hook all Windows Printers, intercept and capture all print jobs and save to PDF, PS, EPS, EMF, TIFF, PNG, JPG, etc. formats.

VeryDOC Printer Capturer is a desktop Print Driver and a Printer Hook, that allows you to save to PDF and TIFF electronic document formats from Any Windows application and Any Windows Printer.

VeryDOC Printer Capturer is a useful software to intercept and capture print data which sent to a printer, the following are some questions from some users, VeryDOC Printer Capturer will able to solve the problems for all of these users.

If you wish to use VeryDOC Printer Capturer software, please feel free contact us, we will assist you asap,

http://support.verypdf.com/open.php
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Intercept data sent to printer & insert into DB

A legacy application (I don’t have the source code for the application) transmits reports to a printer. One of the reports that are sent to the printer needs to be inserted into a database. With VB.NET can I intercept items that are sent to the printer? Can I read what is being sent to the buffer with VB.NET and save to a file? Please let me know if this is possible with VB.NET. Should I be using a memorystream and window services? Please let know if you have any ideas. I could use all the help that I can get. Thanks
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how I retrieve data from printer spooler?

Please any body tell me that how I retrieve data from printer spooler. my qmain question is:

if any body click on print button in windows or Microsoft word in that time my application capture this data and save into another file. If print request occurred in that time again my application capture this data and save into different file. please send me a vb code using win32 api to capture data from printer spooler. please send me as early as possible.
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How Do I Intercept Data Sent From A Printer Attached To Retail POS In A Store?

Hello,

Please I need help from experts familiar with printer technology, I'm designing a loyalty solution that will capture transactions performed in a retail store, I'd like to fetch the records of the items and amount sent to the printer for receipt printing. Is there a way i can intercept that data and store in a location for later collation?

Appreciate any ideas on this.
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Intercepting printer output

How is it possible to intercept data going to the printer. This would allow for example to replace one font with another, or one string with another, and then continue sending the stream of data to the printer (whatever printer was selected by the user).

The changing of the printer output would be independent of the user, and would work on output to any port (parallel) or to a network printer.

Thanks very much for any ideas or code.
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printing order intercept with c#

I need to intercept a print order from a program like Core, Photoshop or Word and capture a series of data from it just like the print date, dimensions of impression etc. to save in a database and then release it to print.
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How to intercept a print job convert it to plain text and print?

Dear Experts,

I need some advice and tips for a new project i want to start.

I will be working with several bars and restaurants for a loyalty program.

Since all the customers already have a POS Software/Hardware from different vendors, I need to write a program to be able to capture in plain text the final invoice when the POS prints the final receipt.

The process should be something like:

1. The user send the command to the POS software to print the final check.
2. The program will intercept the printing job, and create a plain text file and store it into the local PC.
3. The check is printed automatically.
4. This should be done in silent mode, the user should not notice anything different.

My questions are:

1. Is this possible to do with POS printers like the ESPONS TM family printers?
2. First I want to build this for windows XP to windows 8.
3. Which programming language is more suitable for this task? I can use C# and Delphi.

I will give the max point available!!!

Thanks Experts!
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Need to intercept USB data stream going to printer

I have a label printer connected to a PC via standard USB 2.0 A to B cable. What I need in terms of functionality is a USB Y cable that would send the print data stream down both cables simultaneously. I know.... I know... these cables don't exist, and due to the characteristics of the USB com protocol, it's not as simple as splicing in another cable. However, I know there must be a way to create a redundant data stream.

REQUIREMENT: The printer must still generate a label and the 2nd data stream will be routed to a PC and captured for logging purposes and further processing.

Due to security issues, I wont be allowed to touch the computer or printer, therefore whatever solution I use must reside between the PC and Printer.
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Intercepting data sent to the printer

That printer uses ESC/POS language.  And, unless the application is selecting a printer's resident font (if available in the printer driver), or it is a text only driver (unlikely), you won't be able to actually read the text and edit it.  Usually, the driver will convert Windows fonts into pixel information (as Abdul mentions), so all that you will get is a graphics bitmap representation of the page being sent to the printer.  If you set your port to print to a file, and open it with a hex editor, you will probably see a several of 0x1B 0x2A commands followed by some data, which is the usual ESC/POS graphics command.  If you are lucky though, the application could be selecting the printer's resident fonts, in which case you should see the text the application wants printed somewhere in the file.
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How to Intercept the data that is being sent to an Epson POS printer, from a POS software?

The setup is simple. There is a desktop that has the Point of Sale software on it. It routes all the POS stations through itself and whenever a ticket is needed to be printed, the software sends the info to the printers through Ethernet cables to the printer's IP addresses.

I'm trying to figure out an easy way to capture that data in ASCII essentially and don't even have to modify it.

One of the answers to this question was to check off the box "keep printed documents" and then looking in the spool directory, but that only works with regular printers that are directly connected the computer and for which the computer has the drivers. In my case, the POS software itself has all the drivers I guess and there are no options to keep the data that is being printed.
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How to intercept data being sent to a printer?

I'm interfacing with an application that's sending a raw printer file to the default printer. This is the only thing it will do with the data.

I need to get this file somehow so I can store it elsewhere instead. What would be the best way to do this?

The best I've thought of is to write an app that listens to a specific port, and set the default printer to that port.

Would this way work? Is there a better way?
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Saving a pending print job as PDF

I printed an important receipt and quit Safari, only to learn the job never printed because we no longer own the network printer the computer was expecting to find. Thus, the only remaining copy of this information is in the print queue.

How do I salvage the information waiting to be printed so I can use it again?

Note: Dragging the enquired item from the non-existent printer's queue to an existent printer's queue will print the item. I would like to know how to save the file waiting to be printed so it can be used again.
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how capture printer data before print ,parsing and edit the data then send it to printer? any c#sample would be great

hi everyone, I'm looking for source code or sample that get printer data before print (capture printer output) put it in variable and change some values then print it in form.

any idea how to get data and put it into variable for special purpose.
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Capturing print output as vector format (PDF,SVG,EMF,etc.)

BACKGROUND

  • I am using a commercial application on windows that creates a drawing
  • This application allows only two output options: (1) save as a bitmap file and (2) print to a printer
  • The bitmap is useless for my purposes - I want the vectors
  • Looking at the print output (I sent to the Windows XPS print driver) it seems clear based on the amount of zooming I can do without loss of detail that the underlying vectors are being send to the print driver
  • Once I get the vectors, I will be writing some code to transform them for some other use.

MY QUESTION

  • What are my options for getting the vectors from the print?

OPTIONS I HAVE THOUGHT OF SO FAR

  • Take the bitmap and use a program like VectorMagick to. I have tried this approach. It does not produce the fidelity I seek even when the original bitmap is large. Practically speaking I believe that using any tracing approach will not give me the quality vectors I need.
  • Print to the Adobe PDF driver. This technically works. I have Adobe CS4 so I can print to it save the resulting PDF and then import the PDF into Illustrator and then export as some other vector format. The problem with this approach is money/licensing. I own a personal copy of Adobe CS4 - so this is fine for me. But I need to capture the vectors at work for business purposes - and no I'm not going to install my personal copy of CS4 at work.
  • Is there a "print driver" that captures the print output directly into a vector format? I have seen some commercial ones via Google. If you've used them, I would like to hear about your experience with this technique. I could write my own and in that case do you have links to any existing code that I can start with.

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Capture data from printer port and save to file (Excel/PDF)

I have one mainframe application through which we can send command for document printing. As this application is LAN based and it directly connected to printer on LAN, even though I changed default printer as 'PDFCreater' print command goes to printer on LAN. I want to create one application through which i can read data from printer port and save it into soft copy (pdf or excel) as required.

can anyone help me with this??
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docPrint Professional

VeryPDF docPrint Professional is an all-in-one print capturing solution that allows you to capture the print output from ANY Windows application and ANY Windows Printer. Capture print jobs can be save to over 150 file types including PDF, DOC, HTML, TXT, Multi-page TIFF, JPG, GIF and PNG, and save to your computer, a file share on your network, Microsoft SharePoint server or email.

docPrint Professional includes four ways to print your files:

1. docPrint Printer - When you print to this printer you will be presented with the docPrint Save dialog which allows you to save your print job to over 150 file formats with options to OCR, email, upload to SharePoint and more.

2. docPrint Workstation - The docPrint Workstation is a print composing and print editing application that lets you preview and modify your print job(s) with features such as Annotations, combine and rearrange pages, watermarks, stationery and more. Once you have finished composing your print job you can save it with all of the same options available in the main docPrint printer.

3. docPrint Task Printer - These useful printers enhance your workflow automation and save time by allowing you to pre-configure common tasks such as saving your print job to a document archive.

4. docPrint Printer Capturer - Using a Hook technology to hook ALL Windows Printers, when you print a document to a Windows Printer, docPrint Print Job Capturer will intercept and capture this print job and save to a PDF file to the predefined folder, it will generate a print log file for detailed printing information.

Just click "Print" from within any application to choose any of docPrint's printing options for easy file conversion and document management.

Benefits:

1. Create PDF documents that are universally viewable no matter what application you are using. Specialized fonts, tables, grids, etc. from your software application are all converted to PDF, allowing anyone to view the file as you see it. Your accounting department can create a PDF file of a report from their accounting software and email it to your management team in one step! No need for multiple accounting software licenses.

2. Annotate, combine, compose, and edit your printed documents with ease using the docPrint Workstation.

3. Save time by converting, saving, printing, emailing and archiving your file in one easy process. docPrint can handle multi-tasking with ease! Also, eliminate repetitive printing/converting set-up time by creating multiple docPrint printers. If you print a specific report or document to PDF daily, just set up a new "docPrint PDF Driver" that will retain the settings you need for that daily print job.

4. Save money - docPrint costs only a fraction of the price of Adobe Acrobat but offers a full set of features and endless conversion possibilities. It's worth seeing for yourself!

If you wish to use VeryDOC Printer Capturer software, please feel free contact us, we will assist you asap,

http://support.verypdf.com/open.php

DOC to Any Converter

How to convert Office documents (Word, Excel, Outlook messages and PowerPoint, both old and new versions) to PDF/TIFF without MS Office components on our servers?

Posted on

Hi,

We need a component that will help us convert Office documents (Word, Excel, Outlook messages and PowerPoint, both old and new versions) to PDF/TIFF.

The primary restriction we have is that we cannot install MS Office components on our servers.

We are interested in using your component for our tasks, and have the following questions:

1. Does it convert all the file types mentioned above?

2. Does it require MS Office installation on the server?

3. Does it support multi-threaded access?

4. Do you have any load testing results?

Please let me know if you need any information from me.

Best Regards,
Customer
----------------------------------------------------
Thanks for your message, I assume you are using the DOC to Any Converter Command Line software on your server, the DOC to Any Converter Command Line can be downloaded from following web page,

https://www.verydoc.com/doc-to-any.html

I have answered your questions at below,

>>1. Does it convert all the file types mentioned above?

Yes.

>>2. Does it require MS Office installation on the server?

Yes and No.

DOC to Any Converter Command Line can convert office files to PDF files with/without MS Office, OpenOffice and NoOffice options.

Please look at following web pages for more information,

https://www.verydoc.com/blog/verydoc-doc-to-any-converter-command-line-v3-5-release-notes-convert-word-to-pdf-without-office-and-openoffice.html

https://www.verydoc.com/blog/doc2any-command-line-and-sdk-supported-document-formats.html

https://www.verydoc.com/blog/category/doc-to-any-converter

>>3. Does it support multi-threaded access?

Yes, DOC to Any Converter Command Line is support multi-threaded access.

>>4. Do you have any load testing results?

Do you meaning the "load balancing" testing results?

VeryPDF

DOC to Any Converter

How to call doc2any.exe from PHP source code to convert a xlsx file to pdf?

Posted on

Hello, I'm trying doc2any.exe to convert a xlsx file to pdf, so far is working fine on command line but when I use shell_exec on php i get the following response:

[Message] You have 299 time to evaluate 'VeryDOC DOC to Any Converter Command Line' product, you may purchase a full version from 'https://www.verydoc.com/doc-to-any.html' web page.
[Message] Conversion time = 0ms [Message] "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\generados\SMR47001000000009794437.xlsx" ==> "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\out.pdf", result=ERROR
[Warning] If the conversion is fail, it may caused by permission problem, please run a CMD window by administrator privilege, and run same command line to try again. doc2any.exe is only require administrator privilege at first time when you run it.

Customer
-----------------------------------------
Because MS Office can't be run from Local System user account directly, so you need arrange MS Office or doc2any.exe run inside an interactive user account, we have several solutions for you to solve this problem,

Solution 1: Use VeryPDFComRunCmd COM to call doc2any.exe from PHP code, please look at following web pages for more information,

https://www.verydoc.com/blog/how-to-call-doc2any-exe-from-php-source-code.html
https://www.verydoc.com/blog/how-to-call-doc2any-from-php.html
http://www.verypdf.com/wordpress/201502/how-to-convert-any-file-to-pdf-using-php-script-41447.html
https://www.verydoc.com/blog/verydoc-release-notes-verydoc-releases-an-exe-com-of-verypdfcomruncmd-exe-today-verypdf-exe-com-does-allow-you-to-call-ms-office-and-any-exe-application-from-asp-php-c-net-etc-program-languag.html

Solution 2: Set MS Office DCOM run inside an interactive user account instead of default Local System user account,

https://www.verydoc.com/blog/microsoft-excel-application-entry-missing-in-dcomcnfg.html
https://www.verydoc.com/others/configure-word-and-excel.htm
https://www.verydoc.com/others/configure%20office%20applications%20to%20run%20under%20the%20interactive%20user%20account.htm
https://www.verydoc.com/doc-to-any-faq.html
https://www.verydoc.com/blog/how-to-make-iis7-play-nice-with-office-interop.html
https://www.verydoc.com/blog/aspnet-account-dcom-permisson-for-ms-word.html

Solution 3: Run conversion via "docPrint_Service.exe" application, please look at Example #7 from this web page,

https://www.verydoc.com/doc-to-any-shell.html

Example #7 (Run conversion via "docPrint_Service.exe" application),

docPrint Service can be used to run a Command Line from current active user account or a special user account, this tool is useful to overcome permission restrictions in SYSTEM and Non-Interactive user accounts.

Please by following steps to use docPrint Service,

1. Download docPrint_Service.zip and unzip it to a folder,

2. Run docPrint_Service.exe application, you will see an icon appear in tray area,

3. You can run following command lines to test it first, "docPrint_client.exe" will deliver the Command Line to docPrint_Service.exe application, docPrint_Service.exe application will execute the Command Line from active user account automatically,

docPrint_client.exe nowait "C:\VeryDOC\doc2any.exe" C:\test.doc C:\out.pdf
docPrint_client.exe wait "C:\VeryDOC\doc2any.exe" C:\test.doc C:\out.pdf

4. You can call "docPrint_client.exe" from your code, please refer to a simple C# code at below,

public partial class rundoc2any: System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Process proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\\VeryDOC\\docPrint_client.exe";
string strArguments = "wait C:\\VeryDOC\\doc2any.exe C:\\test.doc C:\\test.pdf";
Console.WriteLine(strArguments);
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = @strArguments;
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
Response.Write("File has been successfully converted");
}
}

5. Close Remote Desktop and leave this user logged in.

*Please Notice: After you reboot the server, you need login your server via Remote Desktop with this user account ("doc2pdf_service.exe" was installed inside this user account), and close Remote Desktop, leave this user logged in, when you call docPrint_client.exe application, the conversion will be executed from this user account automatically.

VeryPDF

DOC to Any Converter

How to use doc2any SDK to convert HTML file to PDF file and break the pages?

Posted on

1) If the HTML required > then one page it would page break it for us in the PDF.
2) Are we able to do page 1 of X?
3) Are we able to use the header on the first page only and then change it to just a small text header? Sample attached.
4) Do you have any page break commands?

Please provide samples in VB.

First page has logo header and footer including page number
Second page has different header and same footer with page number.

Please provide samples in VB.

Thanks.
Customer
------------------------------------------

DOC to Any Converter SDK/COM Version,
https://www.verydoc.com/doc-to-any.html

>>1) If the HTML required > then one page it would page break it for us in the PDF.
>>2) Are we able to do page 1 of X?
>>3) Are we able to use the header on the first page only and then change it to just a small text header? Sample attached.
>>4) Do you have any page break commands?

Thanks for your message, doc2any SDK can't format the contents during conversion, we suggest you may format the contents in HTML file first, for example, you can include the text header or image header on the first page, and then change it to text header on the following pages, you can use following DIV CSS style to break the pages in PDF file properly,

<div style="page-break-before:always;"></div>

after you create the HTML file, you can use following ASP code to convert this HTML file to PDF file with page breaks properly,

--------------------------
strInFile = "D:\downloads\verypdf.html"
strOutFile = "D:\downloads\out.pdf"
strCmd = "-webkit -$ XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX -wtype 1 -wtext ""Watermark %PageNumber% of %PageCount%"" " & """" & strInFile & """ """ & strOutFile & """"

Set VeryPDFCom = Server.CreateObject("VeryPDF.doc2anyCom")
strReturn = VeryPDFCom.doc2any(strCmd)
Response.write "Processing finished."
--------------------------

>>First page has logo header and footer including page number
>>Second page has different header and same footer with page number.
>>Please provide samples in VB.

Thanks for your message, you can include different headers into HTML contents itself, and then convert this HTML file to PDF file using doc2any SDK product.

You can also convert a simple HTML file to PDF file first, and then use PDFStamp Command Line to stamp different header and footer contents to the PDF pages, you can control the everything to the text stamps, e.g., text position, color, font size, etc., you can also add image stamps using PDFStamp Command Line software. We hope this solution will useful to you.

PDFStamp Command Line can be downloaded from following web page,

http://www.verypdf.com/app/pdf-stamp/try-and-buy.html

VeryDOC