What's new in Printfil 5.30
Aug 17, 2023
- Auto email as PDF with better background images
New in Printfil 5.29 (Nov 17, 2022)
- Now you can automatically create a PrintWin virtual printer that tries to capture the TEXT of Windows print jobs.
- This is useful to make Printfil capture data from legacy programs that need a Windows printer driver installed in the Control Panel but cannot drive the newest printers (some Terminal Emulator programs for example) or to extract the text from Windows print jobs (statements, invoices, etc.)
- If DOSBox is installed on the machine, now you can easily configure it to capture all ports (LPT and COM) through Printfil at once.
- You just have to right-click the Printfil trayed icon and choose Configuration -> DOSBox: Capture Port: All
- Added support for the latest GhostScript/GhostPCL 10 version, for faster creation of PDF files, and faster management of print jobs when the PCL printing engine is used
- Some other minor improvements
New in Printfil 5.28 (Feb 9, 2022)
- Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, improved print engines
New in Printfil 5.27 (Apr 29, 2021)
- Enhanced support for Windows Server 2016 and 2019 Terminal Server, therefore we've also updated the article at https://www.printfil.com/article/dos-print-windows-terminal-server.htm
- Added integration with the DOSBox-x emulator (the newest DOSBox variant you can find at https://dosbox-x.com), designed to run DOS programs on a 64-bit Windows OS without having to use virtual machines through software like XP Mode, VMWare or VirtualBox. Unlike the already supported DosBox MB6 and SVN-Daum variants, DOSBox-x does support up to 9 parallel ports and 9 serial ports, and unlike the vDos and vDosPlus variants, DOSBox-x does support even graphical DOS programs like AutoCAD or Orcad.
- When Printfil is running in evaluation mode and an LPT or COM port is selected for the capture at Configuration -> Standard, Printfil detects if DOSBox-x is present in the computer (provided it has been installed in the c:dosbox-x default path) and it asks if you want to automatically configure it to capture the same COM / LPT port
- Enhanced the recognition of captured print jobs containing HP-PCL escape sequences to be managed by the PCL printing engine
- When creating the "Printfil" virtual printer to export DOS prints as PDF file, or when selecting the PS, PDF, or PCL printing engine, Printfil now checks if GhostScript/GhostPCL is already installed in your system, and eventually, it guides you through the download and installation
- Added the aSwIt Mono Yuscii True Type PC8 font (including its ND variant) to support legacy programs that were used in Yugoslavia before the widespread use of later DOS OEM Code Page 852 for languages like Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian. Please see https://www.printfil.com/efaq22.htm
- Some other minor improvements
New in Printfil 5.26 (Aug 6, 2020)
- Automatically selects the printing engine (GDI, RAW, PDF, PCL, or PostScript)
New in Printfil 5.25 (Nov 14, 2019)
- Support PostScript prints. Enhanced PCL. Win10 drivers
New in Printfil 5.24 (Feb 14, 2019)
- New PCL graphics engine and PDF plugin
New in Printfil 5.23 (May 3, 2018)
- vDosPlus integration, Direct PDF Printing and Videos
New in Printfil 5.22 (Aug 31, 2017)
- vDos, DosPrint integration and Monthly licenses
New in Printfil 5.21 (Nov 20, 2016)
- Now you can capture DOS print jobs sent to COM1: ... COM9: (9 serial ports) in addition to print jobs sent to LPT1: ... LPT9: (9 parallel ports) in Windows NT/2000 and later versions (including Windows 10 and Terminal Servers)
- Those ports can be captured even when the DOS program is run through DOSBox (from COM1: to COM4: and from LPT1: to LPT3:)
- Improved the function that runs an external plugin through the optional CFG file to change the captured data flow before it's processed for printing. Now the external plugin can even change the size of the captured print job to end up with a longer (or shorter) resulting printout
- Improved the German and French user interface
- Some other minor improvements
New in Printfil 5.20 (Feb 3, 2016)
- PDF/A. E-mail attachments. Reprint archived DOS print jobs.
New in Printfil 5.19 (Apr 15, 2015)
- Windows 10, Enhanced DOS PDF export
New in Printfil 5.18 (Apr 15, 2015)
- Windows Server 2012 RC2, DOSBox SVN Daum, Include Images without CFG file
New in Printfil 5.17 (Nov 21, 2013)
- Merge JPG, GIF, PNG files to DOS print jobs
New in Printfil 5.16 (Feb 2, 2013)
- Now you can export the captured print jobs as TXT files without having to install a virtual printer and easily archive print jobs without having to physically print them
- Added the ability to call a third party program as soon as Printfil has captured a print job, but before it's processed, by the optional CFG file.
- This way for example a programmer can write a "plugin" that modifies the print job (or copies it somewhere) without having to modify the original program that created that job
- Solved an incompatibility with some third party software installed on some Terminal Servers
- New command-line parameter CONFMENU allows only the Configure and Close items in the Printfil's menu
- New command-line parameter /SILENT allows registering Printfil with a PFL file without the confirmation popup shown on screen
- Some other minor improvements
New in Printfil 5.15 (Apr 25, 2012)
- Added compatibility with the upcoming Windows 8 version (tested with the Win8 Developer Preview)
- Simplified installation and upgrades on peer-to-peer networks. Now you can install/upgrade Printfil on just the network server and the client computers will upgrade automatically the first time they'll run Printfil from the network shared directory
- Now you can use PDF files as background for your textual print jobs
- On some particularly slow machines/networks, when printing to some network printers, Windows could trigger the "Choose printer" dialog even if it's disabled in the Printfil's configuration. Printfil now detects this case and retry invoking the printer for a few more time. If the preselected printer is really unavailable, then the "Choose Printer" dialog is finally shown (as before)
- Some other minor improvements
New in Printfil 5.14 (Dec 5, 2011)
- Added integration with the DOSBox emulator. If Printfil is running in evaluation mode, when selecting a LPT port to capture at Configuration -> Standard, Printfil detects if DOSBox is installed on the system, and, if so, it asks if you want to automatically configure it to capture the same LPT port.
- This may be particularly useful to use a DOS program on a 64 bit Windows OS without having to install and configure the Microsoft "XP Mode" or other virtualization software.
- Added support for Epson Color escape sequences in GDI mode, and the single Ascii-14 that, on Epson capable printers, expands the font (Double Width), but just up to the end of the current line.
- To enable these new features you just have to select the Epson-Color.seq emulation in the top listbox at Configuration -> Standard -> Escape
- In addition to the aSwIt Mono 437 font, we've added 8 new True Type PC8 fonts for Windows, to emulate different DOS Code Pages for many international languages:
- aSwIt Mono 852 : cp852: Central Europe: Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak
- aSwIt Mono 862 : cp862: Hebrew
- aSwIt Mono 8859-8 : iso-8859-8: Hebrew (Latin)
- aSwIt Mono 850 : cp850: Western Europe: Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Finland
- aSwIt Mono 865 : cp865: Nordic languages: Danish, Norwegian
- aSwIt Mono 861 : cp861: Icelandic
- aSwIt Mono 860 : cp860: Portuguese
- aSwIt Mono 863 : cp863: Canadian-French
- New Printfil installations now defaults to the fonts above if the Windows OEM Codepage does match one of them.
- For each "aSwIt Mono xxx" we've included even the "aSwIt Mono xxx ND" variant, that's different because:
- Zeroes are non-dotted (ND = No Dots: even if it's harder recognizing Zeroes and Oh)
- In the Ascii code 128 there's the Euro sign (€ - even if it wasn't present at the DOS age)
- Restored backward compatibility with Windows NT 4.0. Some recent enhancements made new Printfil installations failing due to some missing standard Windows DLL on such old system. If you haven't already done it, you still have to install the latest Microsoft Service Pack 6 for Windows NT 4.0 however
- Some other minor improvements
New in Printfil 5.13 (Jun 2, 2011)
- Delete pages in print preview. Send PDF via smtp even in Cc and Bcc
New in Printfil 5.12 (Dec 2, 2010)
- Now you can change the destination printer even directly from within the print Preview window, without having to enable the "Choose" (printer) option and/or using the "Redo Last Print" Printfil's menu option. For example, you can preview and print an invoice on your physical printer, then you can click the "Change Printer" button in the preview window and reprint the same invoice with a PDF writer/e-mailer
- Now Printfil can merge different background images (BMP, WMF, EMF) on different copies of the same print job through the optional CFG file. For example, a single invoice can be printed in 2 copies with 2 different backgrounds (customer copy / accounting copy); something frequent in the DOS age, when printing on carbon copy preprinted stationery.
- Either the locally installed manual, or the online version at http://www.printfil.com/manualen can now be automatically traslated by Google on more than 50 different languages
- Better handling of the WTSnoSes parameter in Windows 2008 Terminal Server, to ignore the RDP session name in the name of the remote printer
- Better recognition of 64 bit Windows systems and automatic advices shown on screen, if needed, like http://www.printfil.com/efaq30.htm
- Some other minor improvements
New in Printfil 5.11 (Jul 15, 2010)
- WTS printers without RDP session. SMTP with SSL authentication
New in Printfil 5.10 (Mar 19, 2010)
- Windows 7. Easily print PRN files
New in Printfil 5.91 (Oct 5, 2009)
- Send print jobs via mail by using a SMTP server, without using any mail client
- Fixed a bug with some Outlook versions
- Search and highlight text in Preview
- Several enhancements to the "choose printer" option
- Many common misconfigurations automatically detected/troubleshooted
New in Printfil 5.7 (Oct 8, 2008)
- Improved Windows 2008 Server management, including Terminal Server installations.
- On some Windows systems, the Windows OEM Code Page used to convert DOS (OEM) characters into their Windows (Ansi) counterparts does not match the codepage used by your own source DOS program, making accented letters and other national symbols being misinterpreted. Now you can easily select which OEM Code Page Windows should use to convert the source text, simply by the Configuration -> Standard Printfil's dialog. Please find more info in the FAQ: Can I print characters in my DOS Code Page ?
- Better recognition of the Copies control codes when using HP-PCL escape sequences to drive a generic Windows printer in GDI mode. On some particular cases before, Printfil could print more unwanted copies of the same document.
- Improved management of the Ascii-8 (backspace) control code when printing in GDI mode. Now it correctly works even if a legacy program embeds a chr(8) to move the printhead backward after sending other printer control codes in the same row.
- Now the Configuration -> Guided Printfil's function is automatically run each time you'll install a new Printfil version in evaluation mode. Registered Clients upgrading their Printfil installation can still run it manually by the Printfil's menu if they want.
- Some other minor improvements.
New in Printfil 5.5 (Jan 24, 2008)
- capture up to 9 parallel ports (from LPT1: to LPT9:) faster and easier;
- The Choose (printer) option now works even when Printfil is setup to print in RAW mode. This is particularly useful on Terminal Server environments;
- Added ability to setup the number of copies by escape sequences
New in Printfil 5.4 (Oct 6, 2007)
- Multiple print jobs can be previewed simultaneously, each one on a different window, allowing you to visually compare them side by side
- A new PrevZoom option in Printfil.ini (and in the Standard GUI configuration dialog) allows you to preview the print jobs already zoomed at startup (without having to click the page or the zoom icon)
- Added the ability to capture multiple LPT ports simultaneously on the same machine (LPT1: , LPT2: and LPT3:), each one by using a different virtual printer. This way the jobs coming to the different ports can be redirected to different Windows printers ev
- Some new warning messages has been added to avoid common mistakes (like using the "Printfil" virtual printer to create a PDF file in RAW mode)
- Added user interface in Turkish and Urdu languages
- Some other minor improvements