geoff wrote: > Would creating a virtual print driver be possible with pywin32, > similiar to the windows pdf driver ? > WE have an old application that outputs data to a dotmatrix printer. > WE would like to extend this application and integrate it with another > application and the simplest way to do this would be to capture the > print output, extract some information from the print output and then > forward that information to a database application. > > Any suggestions. > > I have found a couple of websites about print drivers (google is my > friend !) but thought I might ask here for some advice and guidance. >
This is trickier than you might guess. Does the application actually write to the printer using a Windows printer driver? Some old applications that just used a printer for logging wrote directly to the parallel ports. That kind of thing is almost impossible to trap. If it does, how does it pick the printer? If it doesn't present you with a dialog, then it might be picking the printer by name. That means you can't just install your own driver, unless you use the same name. If it does present you with a dialog, can you use the Generic / Text-Only printer driver, and have it dump to a text file? (That's one of the standard printer drivers built-in to Windows.) If you really need a driver, you are not going to be able to do this from Python. There are a sample printer drivers in the WDK (Windows Driver Kit). It is not a project to be undertaken lightly. -- Tim Roberts, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc. _______________________________________________ python-win32 mailing list python-win32@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-win32
