PC Tips & Tricks

Portable Document Format is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993. Now PDF format became universally accepted format for document exchange.

While for reading PDFs Adobe’s Reader is the standard (also free) application on Windows systems, when it you want to create PDFs you have to choose between the expensive Adobe Acrobat and the few applications full of built in advertising.


But with a little work you can produce PDFs using only 2 free applications: GhostScript and RedMon.

Ghostscript is the name of a set of software that provides:

* An interpreter for the PostScript (TM) language, with the ability to convert PostScript language files to many raster formats, view them on displays, and print them on printers that don’t have PostScript language capability built in;
* An interpreter for Portable Document Format (PDF) files, with the same abilities;
* The ability to convert PostScript language files to PDF (with some limitations) and vice versa; and
* A set of C procedures (the Ghostscript library) that implement the graphics capabilities that appear as primitive operations in the PostScript language.
(From official homepage)

The RedMon port monitor redirects a special printer port to a program. RedMon is commonly used with Ghostscript and a non-PostScript printer to emulate a PostScript printer.
RedMon can be used with any program that accepts data on standard input.
Using RedMon you create a redirected printer port. If you connect a Windows printer driver to the redirected printer port, all data sent to the redirected port will be forwarded by RedMon to the standard input of a program. The output of this program can be sent to different printer port, or the program can generate whatever output it desires.
(From official homepage)

First you have to install Ghostscript and RedMon.
The default options for Ghostscript ore OK, you will only have to remember where it installs (default C:\Program Files\gs\GSxxx\). RedMon has no options at the install time, so there’s no worry about it.

Once you have the 2 programs installed, you have to add a printer.
Choose “Local printer attached to this computer”, uncheck “automatically detect and …” option. Click Next and you will move to next screen. On this screen choose “Create a new port” option, select “Redirected Port” from drop-down menu. A pop-up windows will appear asking you to give name for this port. You can leave default RPT1: and click OK:

Next you will be asked what printer to install. I usually install a HP Color LaserJet 4550. Next, name the printer PDF and Finish.

Now you have to modify some setting for the printer (well, for the port you created, to be more precise).

Right-click the PDF printer, choose Properties, select the Ports tab, select the RPT1: port and click Configure Port:

In the “Redirect this port to the program” field write: C:\Windows\pdf.bat
Don’t worry about the pdf.bat file, we will create it a little bit later.
In the “Arguments for this program are” field write: “%1″
From the “Output” list select: Prompt for filename

Now everything is configured, all you have to do is to create the pdf.bat file.
Open Notepad and paste this lines:

PATH=%PATH%;c:\program files\gs\gs8.xx\bin
gswin32c -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=%1 -f -


Change the gs8.xx with the version you installed.
Save the file as c:\windows\pdf.bat (if Notepad ads a .txt extension you can always rename the file from the command prompt)

Now you have a Printer that prints PDF files.
You can use it from any application that supports printing.

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