Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2018 18:00:07 +0700 From: Eugene Grosbein <eugen@grosbein.net> To: "Dan Mahoney (Gushi)" <freebsd@gushi.org>, ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Virtual Printer Port? Message-ID: <5B604137.6070304@grosbein.net> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.20.1807281305450.45143@prime.gushi.org> References: <alpine.BSF.2.20.1807281305450.45143@prime.gushi.org>
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On 29.07.2018 03:28, Dan Mahoney (Gushi) wrote: > Hey all, > > This may be off topic, but does anyone know a port or configuration for > FreeBSD that can listen on a serial port and spit out a PDF? I have a > piece of hardware (a hospital-grade pulse oximeter) that's able to talk to > an *original* HP Thinkjet with a serial port and produce graphical charts. > Like, the best 1993 has to offer. > > I'd rather simply hook up a BSD box via a serial port and translate those > control codes into a PDF (or TIFF/PNG/postscript document). The control > codes are pretty well documented, since you need them to make printer > drivers, but this is the reverse use. > > Is there anything in ports that can do this? Is there a better mailing > list to be asking on? They say, HP Thinkjet used PCL1 as incoming printing language. Basically, you need to *reverse* PCL1-render of original "document" back to a file containg original data. This is similar to disassembly of machine code back to program text and/or data. I highly doubt you'll find ready-to-use "decompiler" for PCL1 and you may need to write such software yourself. Or you can just toss received PCL1 to any modern PCL-compatible multi-functional device to print it and scan resulting sheet back to PDF file :-) PCL versions should be backward compatible.
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