Hi all. I'm looking for some advice about printing from emulators. First of all can it even be done? If so, which emulator would you reccomend? I am mainly looking to produce print outs from Protext, Advanced Art Studio and Stop Press, if that's any help. Also, if you can print from one, would you be able to do it using a modern printer, connected to the PC with a USB lead?
Sorry for all the questions. I just thought that I would ask, as I thought that it might be easier to do it this way, rarther than having to fork out for a second hand printer and trying to find a printer lead for my actual CPC 6128.
Mark
Hi Mark,
Never tried bitmaps... but I often use the 'Printer capture' feature of Caprice to print text in a file. This file can be printed on any printer like a regular text.
Best thing is to try out couple of emulators. Epson compatible printers may be an advantage. I wouldn't wonder if JavaCPC has a special feature for printing. ;)
Thanks for taking the time to reply TFM.
I will download Caprice and try a few things to see how I get on with it. I did download JavaCPC on my main windows 7 computer, but I couldn't get it to install for some strange reason. Maybe I should try it on my computer which runs windows xp pro and see if it works on there instead?
My printer is actually an Epson one, so hopefully that should give me full compatibility.
Hi! Well, I got Win7 too, and JavaCPC works. Devilmarkus can surely help you with installation. :)
Hmm... I wonder if JavaCPC won't install on my main computer, as it's running 64 bit windows 7, rather than 32 bit windows 7?
Got Win7 64 bit too. It's a bit slow, but my Laptop is nearly 6 years old. There are other emulators to check.
Does anybody here know the answer to the printing problem?
Quote from: TFM on 20:39, 02 November 14
Never tried bitmaps... but I often use the 'Printer capture' feature of Caprice to print text in a file. This file can be printed on any printer like a regular text.
Current version of caprice32 ( https://github.com/ColinPitrat/caprice32 ) indeed redirects printer output to a file, if enabled.
[file]
printer_file=./printer.dat
[system]
printer=1
@Arnoldemu I cannot get a similar behavior using current arnoldemu emulator. It is interesting because I need scripted behavior (autotype + automatically exit on next CPC reset ).
Quote from: cpcitor on 09:28, 28 December 17
@Arnoldemu I cannot get a similar behavior using current arnoldemu emulator. It is interesting because I need scripted behavior (autotype + automatically exit on next CPC reset ).
For printing:
Tools->Devices->Printer Port Devices...
Right click to show "Untested" (it should be marked as working that is my bug).
Select "to file" to enable it.
Settings->Devices->Printer->Set File...
enter a filename and ok to create a new file or pick an existing file.
Quote from: arnoldemu on 13:19, 29 December 17
For printing:
Tools->Devices->Printer Port Devices...
Right click to show "Untested" (it should be marked as working that is my bug).
Select "to file" to enable it.
Settings->Devices->Printer->Set File...
enter a filename and ok to create a new file or pick an existing file.
It works (print #8,"hello"). I understand why I could not find it without help.
After closing and reopening, the file has to be selected again manually (Settings->Devices->Printer->Set File...)
It seems I have to to this at every start? This would not be scalable, my goal is unattended unit testing (a script runs the emulator, autotype runs a program, programs resets CPC on exit which exits the emulator, caller script checks if output is correct -- caprice32 author does this with travis on github).
I've had minor success converting Epson 9-pin output to PDF using RWAP/PrinterToPDF (https://github.com/RWAP/PrinterToPDF), but not with Advanced Art Studio output. PrinterToPDF is a bit of a bear to build and use. I think it's intended to be part of a product, the Retro-Printer (http://www.retroprinter.com/).
Quote from: scruss on 16:49, 16 June 18
I've had minor success converting Epson 9-pin output to PDF using RWAP/PrinterToPDF (https://github.com/RWAP/PrinterToPDF), but not with Advanced Art Studio output. PrinterToPDF is a bit of a bear to build and use. I think it's intended to be part of a product, the Retro-Printer (http://www.retroprinter.com/).
Did you ever get any further with this - am interested to know what problems you have compiling the program as others have managed and it is now used with an odd on project for the TI99/4a computer
I haven't tried it for a couple of years. I see you've added some additional features, so I need to try it again.
I bet you had lots of "aargh! why did they do that?" moments in debugging random printer driver output. ESC/P seems to have many different ways of doing the same things.