0

I'm currently attempting to convert some PCL files into PDF using GhostPCL (PCL6).

For the most part this works. However, there is an odd problem with some of the conversion. For some reason, PCL6 is not converting some logos where are at the top of our documents. The logo is of the format:

 ^[(25XABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ^[(3@^M
 ^[(25X^[&a+1.49RRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`ab^[(3@^M
 ^[(25X^[&a+1.49Rcdefghijklmnopqrs^M

when viewing the PCL file in vim. When printing the file as a PCL file, the image prints out correctly, but when converting to pdf, the following takes it's place:

 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ
 RSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`ab
 cdefghijklmnopqrs

I recognize that the format is meant to be matched against some sort of embedded image or font, but it has been really difficult trying to find useful documentation on PCL (so I can actually figure out what these characters mean) or the conversion process.

Can anyone offer some insight on how to approach the conversion? We will need these images/logos in the converted documents since they often contain disclaimer information as part of the image.

EDIT1: I've also attempted converting to postscript and printing then and the same behavior occurs.

EDIT2: When rendering the PCL file in a viewer, the same text shows up instead of the image. But when printing, the logo does show up. Strange...

EDIT3: To clarify, sending the PCL file to a printer directly does not seem to cause the problem (i.e, the logo does print correctly). It's only when I attempt to convert it to another file format that the problem occurs.

K.Niemczyk
  • 1,130
  • 3
  • 12
  • 26

1 Answers1

0

What happens when you try rendering the PCL input with Ghostscript ? Eg to the display device. If it doesn't render its not going to end up in a PDF either.

Have you tried printing the file to a PCL printer ?

If it works to a PCL printer, but not when rendering you can open a bug against ghostpcl. If it renders but does not end up in the PDF then you can open a bug against ghostspcl with the 'pdf writer' component.

Its possible that the logo is shown using a rasterop, this is a part of the PCL imaging model which has no counterpart in PDF and so cannot be reproduced. The result of using a rasterop with the PDF device is variable, sometimes it will do what you expect, often it will not.

KenS
  • 30,202
  • 3
  • 34
  • 51
  • Do you know how to determine if the PCL file contains rasterops? Unfortunately, I'm not generating these PCL files, so I don't actually know how they were made or if the image/logo is a rasterop. – K.Niemczyk Apr 28 '14 at 17:59
  • Unfortunately that's not an easy question, the problem is that, unlike PDF, the only way to tell is to examine each and every operation executed by the PCL file to see if it is a rasterop. And there is more than one rasterop. In fact if memory serves there are technically 255 of them. Did you try rendering the file to the display device with Ghostscript ? – KenS Apr 29 '14 at 07:00
  • Unfortunately, I do not have a good way to really do that. I'm SSHing into a remote machine to do this via putty and have no xterm setup available. If I try copying the PCL file to windows and using a different PCL viewer to view the file (ghostpcl isn't working on my windows box for some reason), the same text is in the upper corner, but since this is now on a different machine, I don't think that it's even a reliable test anymore. I've tried converting the file into other formats and receive the same issue. – K.Niemczyk Apr 30 '14 at 11:48
  • Can you share the file ? I could look at it for you. – KenS May 01 '14 at 07:06
  • I will have to see if I can generate a customer-agnostic one. The ones I'm currently dealing with have customer information in them. – K.Niemczyk May 01 '14 at 22:16
  • Thanks for the assistance, but I believe I found a better way to do what we're trying to do by modifying the final pdf. – K.Niemczyk May 02 '14 at 13:26