Alternative Pages and Methods
Another version of this page is available
here. This version has the same content but
may be easier read as it is in black and white and has no frills
Here's a 7/10/00 197k PDF print of this
New "Configuration" page PDF
(right click on it and do
a "Save Target as") from the website which is FAR SUPERIOR to the one inside
the v0.95 Public Beta Download.
It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you Download this PDF, in addition
(as a supplemental download), and use it as your installation and
conguration guide INSTEAD of the configuration page contained in the
v0.95 Public Beta Download.
Here's an Alternative Method of Using Free PDF
which bypasses RedMon (and RedRun) but is not as slick or seamless, when
printing from Windows applications. It can be used as a supplemental way
to create PDF's.
Requirements
To use Free PDF, you will need (links
Current of 6/23/00):
-
A Windows 95/8 machine
-
Free PDF Currently v0.95 Public Beta (All these Free PDF webpages are included in the Free
PDF Download )
-
Ghostscript
look under the Windws section
gs601w32.exe
Aladdin Ghostscript 6.01 for Win32 5,232,640 bytes
You may also want to get GSview while you're there. It's a Windows GUI front-end
for Ghostscript and can be used like Acrobat Reader for PDFs or PostScript.
-
Redmon (a Printer
Port Redirection creation enabler and
Monitorer)
RedMon version 1.5 can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/ghostgum/redmon15.zip
-
Acrobat
Reader from Adobe (which you probably already have or you wouldn't be
interested in this program)
-
To do some "Non trivial" Installing and configuring
Its probably a good idea to start these Downloads
NOW, while you're reading, so they'll be there when you're done reading...
If you need a good Download manager, try Download Wonder. The ZipGuy likes
it better than GoZilla because it has a better database of Downloads. It
makes it easier to solve those what was that file? what does this do?
where did it come from problems.
DLWonder.
exe
 |
Download Wonder 1.55 FREE (adware).
Superb alternative to GOZilla. Lets you keep a database of Downloads
where you can put a description of the file when Downloading and see it later.
Can Resume broken Downloads and has keep-alive internet connection
(good for AOL).
Solves the "Download Amnesia" problem". |
Home |
821,666 |
9/30/99 |
Free PDF is a Windows 9x program only!
NT/2000
The ZipGuy can't test NT or Windows 2000. There may security issues with
these because of NT/2000's security model. The File created will be
owned by whomever started the printer spooler. So, if they have more
privileges than you do, you may not be able to access the output. If
you can log onto an Id which has high enough privileges it shouldn't be a
problem.
Installation and Configuration
The Setup is a pain but then again the price is right! Mostly the setup is
hard because you need to
-
get four programs (probably only three)
-
install them
-
configure them properly so they can work together
like this
If you don't understand this diagram, then read the
Background page
BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY TRY TO INSTALL AND CONFIGURE!
Make sure you have read these web pages and
understand what you are trying to do.
If you have, you should be able to get this version to work.
If you haven't, all bets are off, and you're on your own.
Once you do understand the above diagram you are ready.
-
You should have Downloaded
-
Free PDF Currently v0.95 Public Beta (These webpages are included in the Free PDF
Download )
-
Ghostscript
for Windows 9x.
-
Redmon for
Windows 9x
-
Acrobat
Reader (which you probably already have or you wou;dn't be interested
in this program)
-
Install
-
Ghostscript (put it in the default directory or Free
PDF will require more configuring! So just use the default. i.e.
C:\Aladdin\gs6.01 )
-
Install RedMon - Unzip ot into a directory under Ghostscript
like this C:\Aladdin\redmon. Of you put
it somewhere else then in the RPT1 port setup below you must diverge
from the directions and specify the new path where the redrun.exe
program lives.
-
Free PDF can be in any directory, but to be in sync with this doucmentation
use C:\FREEPDF\. This is easy because the installer
defaults to this directory. If you put Free PDF in another directory,
make sure to adjust the RPT1 properties accordingly in Step 4 below.
So under you C:\ drive things look like this:
-
-
If you install Ghostscript and Acrobat 4.0 in the default directories the
installation will go smoother. If you don't, you will have to do additional
configuration either by using the 'Configuration' button or by editting the
FREEPDF.INI in the FreePDF directory appropriately.
The default directories and file location are:
xC:\Aladdin\gs6.01
for Ghostscript |
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Reader
for Acrobat Reader |
Free PDF will call
C:\Aladdin\gs6.01\gswin32c.exe
to convert to PDF |
Free PDF will call
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe
to display the output file
|
and Free PDF wants to be installed as a directory under the root C: drive,
though it can be anywhere. The Free PDF installer does this just take the
deault. (If you put Free PDF in another directory, make sure to adjust the
RPT1 properties accordingly in step 4 above)
These directions assume that you've used the default folders
-
OverView: Install and configure RedMon and RedRun
-
Install Redmon (setup.exe) in the redmon folder
-
Add a magic redirected printer port (Using the
properties of any existing printer)
-
Add a PS printer
-
Map it to the redirected RPT1 port
-
Configure that port to ,
-
Modify the PostScript settings of this printer (a
little) to make Ghostscript happy
-
Detail: Install and configure RedMon and RedRun
-
Install Redmon (run Setup in the RedMon
Directory)
Click "Yes" and now you can create "Redirected Ports". All you see is
-
Create the New RPT1 printer port, Add the "Apple LaserWriter II NT" Driver
-
View the printer properties of any existing printer, select the Details tab.
-
Take note of the port to which port it
is printing, because you will have to change it back to this later.
Adding a port changes this value without asking. Nice huh?
-
Select the Add Port button. Select Other, Redirected Port then OK
-
The RedMon Add Port dialog will appear. Accept the defaults.
-
After doing this, remember that this is an existing printer! So
make sure to change the"Print to the following port"
back to LPT1 of what ever it was before you started to add a port.
or you will screw up your existing working printer! You were told to take
note of it's orginal setting above.
-
Using the Add Printer wizard, create a new printer object for a PostScript
printer. A suitable one is Apple LaserWriter II NT.
-
Note that while in the "Add Printer" Wizard you may want to name this printer
"Create PDF"
-
From your new Printer's "Properties", Click on the "Details" tab.
Then change the Click on the "Print to the following port" and select "RPT1"
to make it use the magic redirected port
-
Next click on the "Port Settings" button and set up the "RPT1
Properties" dialog the way that Free PDF wants it.Fill in the RPT1 Properties
dialog with:
-
Enter the "Redirect this port to the program" as
C:\Aladdin\redmon\redrun.exe
-
Set the "Arguments for this program:" as
C:\freepdf\frpdf095.EXE "%1"
-
Set "Output" to:
Program Handles Output
-
Set "Run" as:
Minimized
-
Check the "Log File" check box
-
Then hit the "Log File" Button
-
When you do this the the "RPT1: Log File Properties Box" appears. Configure
this as follows:
-
Check the "Use Log File" checkbox
-
Set the "Write standard Ouput to the file" to
C:\freepdf\freepdf.log
-
Check the "Debug" checkbox on as this will give
you more information (even though it may be too much)
.
Configure it as above and a log file will get written each time you print
a file to the "Create PDF" printer.
You can look in this file to see what happenned rather than having to guess.
The good information for debugging is at the top, and way down at the
bottom
-
After you have done correctly configured these two dialog boxes, double check
them and then click "Ok" to accept them
-
Next, resume in the RedMon Help until just after where he describes the log
file settings.... and do the following:
-
"From the printer properties of this PostScript printer, select the Details
tab, then select the Spool Settings button.
-
Change the Spool data format to RAW.
-
Select Disable bi-directional support for this
printer
This last change is most important.
If you do not "DISABLE BI-DIRECTIONAL SUPPORT"
REDMON (and therefore Free PDF) WILL NOT WORK.
-
From the printer properties of this PostScript printer, select the PostScript
tab.
Optional, but strongly Recommend further
steps
Once you get Free PDF working you may want to add another printer just like
your "Create PDF" printer, but instead use a the "HP
Color LaserJet PS" printer driver to get
JPG's in your created PDFs to come out in color instead of greyscale
(mix of black and white). Thanks go out to
Eric Santos, a happy Free PDF Customer (see
his 7/5/00 post in the message board) who found that using the "HP Color
LaserJet PS" printer driver yeilds PDFs which have the jpg's in color! Well,
he did have some help from the ZipGuy, but he's the one who found the
printer driver that works in making color for jpg's.
It is now recommend that once you get Free PDF working you create
another printer which uses this driver if you want
to do color jpgs in your PDFs. Make sure to leave the "Use
PostScript Level 2 features" option turned on in the "Advanced Postscript
Options" which you get to by hitting the "Advanced" button from
the "Postscript" tab of the printer's properties.
PDF (Portable Document Format) is
Copyright ©2000 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Brought to you by Courtesy of The 
some
