Free PDF Co

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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

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)

    • Free PDF

    • Aladdin's Ghostscript

    • GhostGum's RedMon

    • Adobe Acrobat (which you probably already have or you wouldn't be interested in this program)

  • 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.

  1. 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)

  2. 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:

  3. 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:

    C:\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

  4. 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 ,

      • Run RedRun

      • Have it call Free PDF passing the Temporary PS file

      • Create a log file when RedMon Runs (for troubleshooting)

    • Modify the PostScript settings of this printer (a little) to make Ghostscript happy

  5. 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  the printer is currently 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.

      • Do NOT print a "test page" even if the wizard recommends that your do!

      • 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 "Print Errors" check box
        It's probably  a good idea to double and triple check your fields
        THEY MUST BE PERFECT WITH NO EXTRA LEADING OR TRAILING SPACE!

      • 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.

        • Make sure that PostScript header is Download header with each print job.

        • Select the Advanced button to display the Advanced PostScript Options.

          • Data format should be ASCII data.

          • Deselect Send CTRL+D before job and

          • Deselect Send CTRL+D after job.

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.

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