Script as Virtual Printer

Hello,

I am looking for a way to send print jobs to some kind of virtual printer,
which is basically a script.
The exact problem is the following: In my workplace, we have Unix
workstations (from Sun), and the print server only accepts print jobs from
these workstations.
I have a Unix account, so every time I need to print from my WinXP laptop, I
have to:
1) print to a PS file
2) copy the PS file to my Unix home directory by scp
3) log in over ssh and run the print command
4) delete the PS files.
It would be nice to automate these steps, by defining a "Script Printer" of
sorts in WinXP which would execute steps 1) to 4) when printing to it.
In KDE, this is called a "virtual printer". Is there a way to do anything
similar in WinXP? Where can I read up on how to do this?

Thanks in advance,
Anna

Hi Anna,

you need a tool like "Redmon" or my own "PrintMulti".
Both allows you to print to a file and execute something on this file.
Redmon is a free tool (including source code). It is a port monitor and
often used to create pdf output with ghostscript by scripting.
PrintMulti is a print processor, which allows to output a print job to
multiple printers (even from different manufactures) with many options.
It is free for client OS but not free to use on servers.
One option is to save output to a file and call a script on it.
Additionally you can use the features to save the print output to a pdf
file or print to another printer.
I would recommend my own tool, but since there is no english manual
available (but a detailed example), you would probably prefer redmon

I'm sure there are more tools, which offers port monitor issues as
redmon. Search for "port monitor"

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/
http://www.lvbprint.de/bin/current/PrintMultiSetup.exe

Dieter

> Hello,
>
> I am looking for a way to send print jobs to some kind of virtual printer,
> which is basically a script.
> The exact problem is the following: In my workplace, we have Unix
> workstations (from Sun), and the print server only accepts print jobs from
> these workstations.
> I have a Unix account, so every time I need to print from my WinXP laptop, I
> have to:
> 1) print to a PS file
> 2) copy the PS file to my Unix home directory by scp
> 3) log in over ssh and run the print command
> 4) delete the PS files.
> It would be nice to automate these steps, by defining a "Script Printer" of
> sorts in WinXP which would execute steps 1) to 4) when printing to it.
> In KDE, this is called a "virtual printer". Is there a way to do anything
> similar in WinXP? Where can I read up on how to do this?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Anna