Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Need help printing a print file

0 helpful
2 replies

by jzelinski

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Non-techy guy here who needs your help:

I have a print file ("file.prn") that was created by a Windows user who printed their document to a printer, but told it to "print to file" instead of to the printer. Of course, now they've gone and deleted the original document.

I'm trying to print that .prn file. I can open the file in WordPad and see all the jibberish code...and at the top, is a line that says:
@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE=PCL3GUI

So...I am assuming they printed this using a print driver for some sort of HP-like printer, using the PCL3GUI printer language.

I know how to use the 'copy' command to send the file to LPT1, for example.

But here's my question:
Is my only hope to send this to a printer that uses that exact language?...or is there any sort of tool or method that can help me convert this .prn file to something more conventional, like PCL 5 or 6 language, or even to plain text-- something that would let me view or print the info. with a wider range of the hardware.

Thanks for any insight.

2 replies

by retallic01

Probably have to print from MS-DOS
ensure that you have a printer connected to the parrallel port of your PC (lpt!1)
type the following

copy c:\file location and name.prn lpt1

With the file converting, you should be able to convert it to a .pdf format which is used by adobe acrobat. know anyone with acrobat 6.0 pro?

by jzelinski

Thanks for the reply, but as stated, I do know how to use the 'copy' command to send the file to LPT1, but all I am getting out of the printer is odd characters-- presumably because the printer I have connected to LPT1 isn't capable of interpreting the PCL3GUI language.

The question then: Is my only hope to use a printer that uses that exact language?...or is there any other way I might convert this .prn file to something where I can at least read the text.

This discussion is closed to new replies.