Paperless printer

[Michael Laplante]

While trying to find myself a "virtual printer" to print to TIFF files, I
discovered this program:

http://www.rarefind.com/paperlessprinter/downloads.html

From the site:

"Paperless Printer® is a universal document exchange utility. You can use
Paperless Printer to publish virtually any document in Adobe Portable
Document Format (PDF), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Microsoft Word
Format (DOC), Microsoft Excel Format (XLS), JPEG or BMP, preserving the
exact look and content of the original document, complete with fonts and
graphics. . . . Paperless Printer appears like a normal printer on a Windows
PC. You can actually see the Paperless Printer object in the Printers folder
[Start -> Settings -> Printers]. Using an application's Print command you
can print anything to this printer. Instead of printing on paper, Paperless
Printer creates content in PDF, HTML, DOC, Excel, JPEG or BMP files."

Nothing at the above website indicates that it is freeware. However, when
you install and choose Buy & Register from the Start Menu group, the pop-up
registration screen informs you that is "free for noncommercial use or
benefit only."

I haven't tested it as of yet, but it looks very promising. . .

Enjoy.

M

 

[Michael Laplante]

While trying to find myself a "virtual printer" to print to TIFF files, I
discovered this program:

http://www.rarefind.com/paperlessprinter/downloads.html

Okay, I've tested it a few times. Looks good, but some caveats.
When you first use it, it tries to phone home. This is the "automatic
update" feature and it can be turned off via the Start Menu group Settings.

The other minor irritant is a registration screen pops up everytime you use
it. It reads that the program is freeware for noncommercial use and you can
click cancel to make it disappear. There doesn't appear to be a way to turn
this feature off, so I may look further into the "guts" of the program to
see if it can't be done that way. Or possibly I may have a go with PowerPro
to see if I can't use that to automatically shut it down as soon as it
appears.

M

 

[Dalziel]

Have you tried emailing them?
It certainly looks a good alternative to Acrobat but as you say not good if
it keeps requesting registration.

Dalziel

 

[Michael Laplante]

Have you tried emailing them?
It certainly looks a good alternative to Acrobat but as you say not good if
it keeps requesting registration.

No, it's not that big a deal to me to press a Cancel button. Certainly no
more of an irritant than those PDF creators that will run a sponsor ad in
your browser (a la PDF995) or those ones that put an advertising footer /
header in every page. Besides I think this version is no longer supported by
the company -- they have gone strictly to a trial version. If I can identify
a dll that runs the screen, perhaps I can disable it.

One nice feature of this program is that it will also print to HTML. So
what's the big deal you may ask? Well, oft times when I archive an HTML
file, they often have embedded scripts or references to off site images,
etc. When you go to view them again, they try to go online thus slowing down
their opening time. By printing from HTML to HTML, the new HTML is
reformated and scripts are stripped out of them since they are a
non-printable element. Very nice feature.

I also found another virtual printer that prints to EMF format.
Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark the site so I couldn't find it again. For
someone who cares to look for it though, I will post details in a separate
thread.

M