EXP Systems Forum: Printing via Utility_Print_PDF

Message

   I figured out how to change the BatchPDF printer settings via Activex using VB8 Express. The only setting 

that I orignally changed was the password info. This part of the program worked great. I printed a pdf file using the Utility_Print_PDF and the output was not as good as the original file. The letters were not as crisp as the original.

I understand that the Utility_Print_PDF is only used to print pdf files. And that is all I need for now. Do I need to list all of the settings in my VB program(Ie fonts etc) I tried changing the print quality to very_good via my program. The letters were darker but still not as crisp as the original. 

My next step was to use Windows API comands to send the print job. I just want to make sure that I am not missing something with the Utility_Print_PDF before I follow that path. 

Author	Message
JackR Newbie Joined: 06 Jan 08 Posts: 13	Topic: Printing via Utility_Print_PDF Posted: 04 Feb 08 at 8:41PM
	I figured out how to change the BatchPDF printer settings via Activex using VB8 Express. The only setting that I orignally changed was the password info. This part of the program worked great. I printed a pdf file using the Utility_Print_PDF and the output was not as good as the original file. The letters were not as crisp as the original. I understand that the Utility_Print_PDF is only used to print pdf files. And that is all I need for now. Do I need to list all of the settings in my VB program(Ie fonts etc) I tried changing the print quality to very_good via my program. The letters were darker but still not as crisp as the original. My next step was to use Windows API comands to send the print job. I just want to make sure that I am not missing something with the Utility_Print_PDF before I follow that path.
	IP Logged

Michel_K17 Moderator Group Forum Administrator Joined: 25 Jan 03 Posts: 1673	Posted: 05 Feb 08 at 1:29AM
	Hi, The print quality setting is only used when you remotely print a file (like a Word document or a picture) to a new PDF file. So. this setting would only apply if you use the Windows API. The "Utility_Print_PDF" command prints an already existing PDF file to a physical printer (or you can try re-printing to a new PDF - but usually the PDF will get larger, and may lose quality as pictures get re-compressed again) - which is why you are noticing a loss in quality. Often the original "object-based" PDF gets converted to a bitmap, which is why they do not look quite as good when zoomed in. Things are made worse by the fact that the PDF reader allows you to zoom in closer than what can be seen by the naked eye on a printed page. Therefore, what may look "bad" on the screen might actually print to a sheet of paper quite nicely. So, to answer your question, no, you are not missing anything. That command has no quality settings, and generally, should print to a physically attached printer and look identical to the original PDF file. I am looking at improving the rendering engine that does the printing to better handle PDF files that contain Type3 and Ascii85 encoded fonts. So, if your output appears with text messing, this update will fix this problem (which is thankfully rare). If you are truly taking already existing PDF files, and trying to re-print them to new PDF files, and you decide to use the Windows API commands, please make sure that you have Adobe's Reader v8.0 or v8.1 installed as they have fixed problems that exist with v5, v6 and v7 which were causing the PDF not to re-print at all, and resulted in blank pages. Cheers!
	Michel Korwin-Szymanowski EXP Systems LLC
	IP Logged

Programming
EXP Systems Forum : PDF reDirect : Programming