Unknown Print Format

Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Messages
2
Hey guys,

I have a file containing a document or more likely a print job and I need to convert it into a PDF. It has a header section of about 60 lines which is formated in HP's "Printer Job Language" as Wikipedia tells me. The rest of the file is binary.

The header looks like this:

Code:
%-12345X@PJL JOB
@PJL COMMENT
@PJL SET USERNAME = "weyring"
@PJL SET KMCOETYPE = 2
@PJL SET DRIVERJOBID = "ACDE48000E7B091A08302001FB"
@PJL SET STRINGCODESET = UTF8
@PJL SET BITSPERPIXEL = 8
@PJL SET RESOLUTION = 600
@PJL SET JOBNAME = "SKMBT_C35312092510010.pdf"
@PJL SET KMDRIVER=ON
@PJL SET HOLD = OFF
@PJL SET BOXHOLDTYPE = PUBLIC
@PJL SET QTY = 1
@PJL SET PLANESINUSE = 1
@PJL SET MLT2COLOR = OFF
@PJL SET DRIVERCOLORSELECT = GRAYSCALE
@PJL SET QUALITYADJUSTMODE = SIMPLE
@PJL SET COLORMATCHING = AUTO
@PJL SET BRIGHTNESS = 0
@PJL SET CONTRAST = 0
@PJL SET CHROMA = 0
@PJL SET ADJUSTCYAN = 0
@PJL SET ADJUSTMAGENTA = 0
@PJL SET ADJUSTYELLOW = 0
@PJL SET ADJUSTBLACK = 0
@PJL SET NEUGRAY = AUTO
@PJL SET SCREEN = AUTO
@PJL SET SMOOTHING = AUTO
@PJL SET GLOSSYMODE = OFF
@PJL SET EXPOSURE = TYPE1
@PJL SET ORIENTATION = PORTRAIT
@PJL SET PAPER = A4
@PJL SET MEDIASOURCE = AUTO
@PJL SET MEDIATYPE = PAPER
[...]

I've played around with Virtual PDF Printer Drivers and batch copying the file straight to the virtual printers but it didn't get me anywhere. The Virtual Printers did respond to the batch "copy" but they returned errors (Bullzip PDF Printer) or empty documents (PDFCreator). So I suspect this might be the wrong way to extract that document.

I hope someone can help me on this.

Regards, janismac

EDIT: some more background: this file is from a server at university where it can be printed with the batch script "copy /b script \\printserver\printer".
but it contains hundreds of pages which makes it rather expensive to print so I just wanted to read it digital.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Messages
2
Solved

Problem solved.

The file format is called PCL (HP Printer Command Language)
and can be converted to PDF using "GhostPDL".

Code:
h t t p : / / stackoverflow.com/questions/4684261/use-ghostscript-to-convert-pcl-to-postscript

h t t p : / / code.google.com/p/ghostscript/downloads/detail?name=ghostpdl-8.71-win32.zip
 
Last edited:

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