[ale] Likely OT: print to usable file in WinXP

[Ken Cochran]

[Summarizing back to the list, sorry for top-post but quicker read]

Correct, here's the scenario:

Yes, I should have been more clear - I print very little but do
*view* such things as PDFs frequently and on different systems.

No printer at home (well, dot-matrix (remember those? :), unused)

Office/Windows machines have The Usuals for printing & documents
(e.g. Adobe reader, {Open,Libre}Office, WordPerfect), but NOT
network-connected (especially not the Internet).

How I Usually Print Stuff (from a Mac):  Print dialog ->
Save to PDF, copy to flash drive, WalkNet/AirGap to office,
use (view/print) with suitable supporting application...

<hair shirt>
But what about doing this from a Windows machine that doesn't
have any installed printers?  (Fwiw, thankfully don't need to
do often.)

Windows (XP) print dialog saves-to-file as .xps - need to either
save as Something Else More Portable (pdf? umm, ps/gs?) or to
convert that .xps output into that "externally."  Other OSes
make this easy, but nooooo, not Windows...
</hair shirt>

Consulting The Quasi-almighty Google before asking ALE
(likely a Higher Authority :) yields much commercial and/or
ad-infested-ware.

Thanks to Alex, too, for CutePDF writer and to Phil Turmel for
PDFcreator mentions/linkage.  Edited messages below.  Not sure
I want to install Yet More Stuff to a Win-box just yet, but
the LaserWrite driver idea is interesting.  :)

But Google did point to a nice way to do this, at least for one-offs:

Get that .xps file into Google Docs or GMail (e.g. email it
to yourself).

*Print* that document & use the *Google/web-browser* print
dialog to save that as pdf (don't just download it or you'll
just get the original .xps).  In other words, Make Google Do
The Work.  :)

Where is best to get a LaserWriter driver?  Just install it
a la Windows print config I guess?

Thanks for y'all's help & pointers, -kc

> Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 06:26:32 -0700
> From: Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net>
> To: ale at ale.org > Subject: Re: [ale] Likely OT: print to usable file in WinXP
>
> But that's printing to a printer.  Ken wants to print directly
> to a file (PDF or other suitable, transportable format) by
> utilizing the Windows printing subsystem and leave it as that
> transportable file without sending to a printer.
>
> There is one way to do it without installing any other software
> and that is to install an Apple LaserWriter printer driver, set
> it to print to file, and just print with that.  It will generate
> straight PostScript that can be used later for any conversion.
>
> On 2014-07-09 05:52, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> > When I'd researched this some time ago I did find things
> like the following for using Ghostscript to print to PDF.
> There were others as well.
> > https://www.stat.tamu.edu/~henrik/GSWriter/GSWriter.html
> >
[snip]
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Ken Cochran
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2014 10:22 PM
> > To: ale at ale.org
> > Subject: [ale] Likely OT: print to usable file in WinXP
> >
> > (Sorry for the OT but I don't really know where else to ask.  {sigh})
> >
> > Hey folks, how can I print-to-file (to something usable like
> > .pdf) in the WindowsXP print dialog?  Looks like what I need
> > is some kind of "virtual" printer driver/pgm.  Would prefer
> > something F/OSS of course (hopefully for safety's sake -
> > no mal/adware, etc.).  What do you folks recommend and/or
> > recommend against?
> >
> > Many thanks, -kc
> > _______________________________________________
>
> Date: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 20:02:28 -0700
> From: Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net>
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] Likely OT: print to usable file in WinXP
>
[snip]
>
> CutePDF writer.  Uses ghostscript as its backend.  There's another one,
> too, that's installed at work, I'll have to look it up when I can
> remember its name.
> _______________________________________________
>
> Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 06:48:02 -0400
> From: Phil Turmel <philip at turmel.org>
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] Likely OT: print to usable file in WinXP
>
[more snip]
>
> I've been a happy user of PDFcreator for many years (even if only in VMs
> lately).  The ability to hold multiple print jobs and then join them
> into one PDF is particularly useful.
>
> http://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator
>
> Phil
> _______________________________________________