PrintCapture by F&F SoftTools

[syau]

Trying to do PCL printer emulation over GPIB. Downloaded a trial copy of PrintCapture by F&F SoftTools and found it works with the NI GPIB USB adaptor on Win10 and the price is reasonable $59.

The only issue is F&F SoftTools web site point to an unregistered domain 

Do anybody know if there is any similar tools available ?

[tedd]

Hey.

I tried PrintCapture a long time ago to get output from some test equipment that only had a simple serial printer output. It worked pretty well back then, but I either got an image file, or a text file which either stripped out the images or was garbled text (can't remember).

I've just been playing around with Printfil in an XP virtual machine, it seems to work even better (can get a PDF output, text, images and all). It is more complex to configure, but at least the developer still exists (at time of writing, anyhow).

I've attached my printfil.ini for reference (changed to .txt for attaching). To output as PDF, you also need to install the Printfil virtual printer (Right-click the icon in the system tray > Help > Install printer).

I've also emailed the registered owner of printcapture.com to see if they can help.

[audiog33k]

I have also used PrintCapture and it worked very well.  Even made some custom hardware to directly attach a printer output to USB.  I have been trying to track down printcapture author with no luck.  Have you had any success?

[Anguel]

Hi,

Here some feedback regarding PrintCapture. In the past I had used an old version of PrintCapture a long time ago. Then in July 2017 I tested the latest version 5.5 of PrintCapture and really liked it. At that time I also had a discussion via e-mail about some features. Then in August 2017 I decided to buy the software and paid via Paypal. But I did not receive any license. At that point their server also started returning e-mails with "Mailbox size limit exceeded" and after many attempts Paypal finally refunded the money. After some time the domain also disappeared.
Maybe something bad happened to the author of the software?

Anguel

[Anguel]

Hi,

Here some feedback regarding PrintCapture. In the past I had used an old version of PrintCapture a long time ago. Then in July 2017 I tested the latest version 5.5 of PrintCapture and really liked it. At that time I also had a discussion via e-mail about some features. Then in August 2017 I decided to buy the software and paid via Paypal. But I did not receive any license. At that point their server also started returning e-mails with "Mailbox size limit exceeded" and after many attempts Paypal finally refunded the money. After some time the domain also disappeared.
Maybe something bad happened to the author of the software?

Anguel

[Tony_G]

This is sad to hear and I hope that nothing bad happened to the author - I know the OP said they wanted to do PCL support but a lot of older instruments do both PCL and HPGL so you can get plotter support from John Miles's 7470 emulator. It really works great and I heartily recommend it (I actually have a 7470 and still use his software unless I want that plottery goodness) - Check out http://www.ke5fx.com/gpib/readme.htm

TonyG

[dick_freebird]

The really cool capability is that it can take parameter analyzer
numerical data and turn it into a text file for importing to Excel.
PRINT button on the front panel, and just wait for it. It's not just
a scren-shot / plotter tool.

I have also found no ffsoft or printcapture.com signs of life as
recent as this week. I get a mail bounce for the support address
I had from when I ordered.

If anyone here has the latest 4.x version (the last I have a key for)
I'd like to see what it holds relative to 4.0.0

[vmax]

Hey.

I tried PrintCapture a long time ago to get output from some test equipment that only had a simple serial printer output. It worked pretty well back then, but I either got an image file, or a text file which either stripped out the images or was garbled text (can't remember).

I've just been playing around with Printfil in an XP virtual machine, it seems to work even better (can get a PDF output, text, images and all). It is more complex to configure, but at least the developer still exists (at time of writing, anyhow).

I've attached my printfil.ini for reference (changed to .txt for attaching). To output as PDF, you also need to install the Printfil virtual printer (Right-click the icon in the system tray > Help > Install printer).

I've also emailed the registered owner of printcapture.com to see if they can help.

It seems that the PRINTFIL cannot capture the data that a instrument send to a PC serial/parallel port,it only capture the print data  from a DOS or any other application. right?

[texaspyro]

I know the OP said they wanted to do PCL support but a lot of older instruments do both PCL and HPGL so you can get plotter support from John Miles's 7470 emulator.

I wrote the rendering code that 7470 currently uses to draw the images.  It does have support for some PCL files.   PCL supports several different compression algorithms, but the code in 7470 only supports the simplest ones.  I've only really tested it with the HP16500 logic analyzers and a few other devices that don't use compression and a couple of files sent to me that use one of the other compression types.

[AndersJ]

Hi,

Here some feedback regarding PrintCapture. In the past I had used an old version of PrintCapture a long time ago. Then in July 2017 I tested the latest version 5.5 of PrintCapture and really liked it. At that time I also had a discussion via e-mail about some features. Then in August 2017 I decided to buy the software and paid via Paypal. But I did not receive any license. At that point their server also started returning e-mails with "Mailbox size limit exceeded" and after many attempts Paypal finally refunded the money. After some time the domain also disappeared.
Maybe something bad happened to the author of the software?

Anguel

I am in a similar situation,
and need the license file for version 5.

It seems the original author, Mike, is no longer on line.

Does anybody have a V5 license file?


/Anders