Windows NT 4.0 and PDF Documents.

Introduction.

The original idea for PDF goes way back to the early 1980s and the work of John Warnock, the founder of Adobe systems Inc. He created a new language used to describe how printed information should appear on a page of paper - a standard now commonly known as 'PostScript'. It initially only appeared as an option on high end printers aimed at the professional market. The private end-user was still stuck firmly in the era of rasterised printer operation.

A group of software writers realised that an application that could accept PostScript content and convert it to a rasterised form, for viewing on a computer display or printing on a standard printer, would be extremely useful. The project became known as 'GhostScript'.

Some time later (in the very early 1990s) Adobe realised that the PostScript standard could be expanded upon to create a truly cross-platform 'portable' file to describe a formatted page. Adobe created a programme called 'Acrobat' and PDF was born.

Adobe also started providing a free 'Acrobat Reader' for nearly every major OS. Access to this tool assured wide acceptance, and PDF rapidly grew to become the defacto industry standard for transmission of formatted documents. This expansion was also aided by Adobe having the good sense to make the PDF format an open standard, presumably in the hope of stimulating development of other applications based on PDF structures.

The GhostScript team followed suit and added the ability to process PDF to their project.

Over the years Adobe have continued to increase the performance and features of the Acrobat product. Unfortunately, a lot of this development has tended towards adding unnecessary 'bells and whistles' to an otherwise stable and very useful programme.

PDF Readers.

I personally prefer V5.1, it was smaller and less invasive and will work perfectly on 99% of .pdf content on the net.

UPDATE (16 May 2005):
I have discovered that the new V1.6 revision of the .pdf specification added a new compression option to the .pdf structure. Acrobat Reader V5.1 CANNOT read these compressed files and will report them as being 'corrupted and unable to repair'. Adobe Acrobat Reader V6.0+ can correctly open this new document format. If you want to stay with Acrobat Reader V5.1 I suggest you also install GhostScript Viewer as explained below. GhostScript V8.63 and GhostScript Viewer V4.9 (and later versions of these products of course) CAN read V1.6 compressed .pdf documents correctly.

FoxIt Reader.
FoxIt Reader V1.3 is another option for NT4 systems. Unfortunately, later releases of this programme (V2.0 and above), will only work on Windows 2000 or later. FoxIt Reader is a compact, self contained and simple programme which works well. There are some reported minor issues with it's inbuilt search function.

GhostScript Viewer.
If you prefer to work with a totally non-commercial approach, you can install GhostScript Viewer as detailed below, and use it instead to read and print .pdf and .ps documents, using the GhostScript engine to process them.

Editing PDF Documents.

1. Extract one page from a larger document.
2. Join a series of documents to create a single composite.
3. Selectively insert pages into or remove pages from an existing document.

Both PDF ToolKit and PDFTK Builder function perfectly on Windows NT 4.0

NT 4.0 and Creating PDF Content.

Commercial:

Other manufacturers also offer products with the ability to create .pdf content, either as a stand alone item, or as an inbuilt feature of their application. Most of these products are based on core technology sourced from Adobe or the GhostScript project. Depending on which '.pdf engine' is used, these products may or may not function on a NT 4.0 system. I suggest you test the programme for correct operation before purchasing.

Freeware:

Installing and Configuring GhostScript for PDF Output.

Required Components:

• GhostScript Package
• GhostScript Viewer Package (Optional)
• Adobe PostScript Printer Installer
• HP PostScript Printer Definitions Package
• RedMon Port Redirector
• PDFWrite.rsp (Customised to your installation - See Below)

Procedure:

1. Install GhostScript using the supplied installer package. Use Install Folder name of \GScript.
2. (Optional) Install GhostScript Viewer using the supplied installer package
   CAUTION: Specify ONLY the top level folder location for this installation. The installer for this package automatically creates a folder named '\GSView' under your nominated location, and places the programme contents within it.
3. (Optional) Run GhostScript Viewer. In the 'Options > Advanced Configure...' dialogue, ensure that the paths and settings are correct for the GhostScript installation completed in Step 1. GSView normally detects the presence of GhostScript automatically and will already have the correct paths set.
4. Customise the PDFWrite.rsp text file using Notepad to correctly point to the GhostScript Library and Fonts folders for the Ghostscript installation. (Cut and paste the text below into NotePad to make a .rsp file specific to your installation)
5. Copy PDFWrite.rsp to the \GScript folder.
6. Extract RedMon17.zip and run the supplied Installer to add port re-direction capabilities to the OS.
7. Select Start > Settings > Printers.
8. In the blank area of the 'Printers' listing Right Mouse Click and select 'Server Properties' > Port Tab.
9. Click 'Add Port' and select 'Redirected Port' and click 'New Port'. Accept the default value of RPT1:
10. Extract the HP Colour Laserjet 5 PS definition file (HP__CLJ1.PPD) from the HP PostScript Printer Definitions Package to a convenient location. This definition file will be used shortly. (Rather than execute this package and install ALL the printer definitions, it is easier to just extract the single definition we require by opening the .exe package with WinZip)
11. Run the AdobePS Printer Installer.
12. When asked about which printer to install (instead of the 'Generic PS Printer' default offered) supply the HP Colour Laserjet 5 definition file extracted in Step 10. The .ppd file will be copied into the Windows NT system. The copy of the .ppd you extracted to a temporary location for installation can be deleted afterwards.
13. Select RPT1: as the port to which this 'printer' will be attached. (RPT1: is the 'Redirected Port' we created in Step 9)
14. In the 'Configure Port' dialogue, fill in the configuration settings as follows:
    • 'Redirect this port to the program:'
      D:\GScript\gs8.63\bin\gswin32c.exe (Check path and folder names !)
    • 'Arguments for this program are:'
      @D:\GScript\pdfwrite.rsp -sOutputFile="%1" -c .setpdfwrite -f - (Check path !)
      CAUTIONS:
      • Make sure you include the trailing space and dash at the end of this line. Failure to do this could result in Ghostscript stalling the print queue.
      • Make sure the pdfwrite.rsp file is correctly located in the \GScript folder.
15. 'Output' Dropdown = Prompt for Filename
16. 'Run' Dropdown = Minimised
17. Click OK to dismiss the 'Configure Port' dialogue.
18. Click OK again to dismiss the Properties dialogue.
19. Rename the 'phantom' printer we have just completed making to 'PDF Writer (GhostScript)'.
20. Test to see that the installation functions as expected.

Content of PDFWrite.rsp

• Ensure the final .rsp file you create has the same structure as that above. (ie: Each line begins with a hyphen, each hyphen command on a new line.)
• Make sure the paths in this file are correct !
• Consult the supplied helpfiles in GhostScript and RedMon for more information on the structure of this .rsp file.

(ADVANCED) PDFWrite.rsp Options:

To change .pdf image resolution add the line as follows to PDFWrite.rsp:

• /screen selects low-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "Screen Optimized" setting.
• /ebook selects medium-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "eBook" setting.
• /printer selects output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "Print Optimized" setting.
• /prepress selects output similar to Acrobat Distiller "Prepress Optimized" setting.
• /default selects output intended to be useful across a wide variety of uses, possibly at the expense of a larger output file.

TROUBLESHOOTING.

• Failure to generate any .pdf output, and no reported error message.
• An error message indicating failure of GhostScript.
• The dialogue box which requests the filename for the .pdf document being 'frozen'.

Second - If operation is still incorrect the problem can usually be attributed to user privilege issues. Try the following steps to remedy the problem:

1. In the "RPT1: Properties" dialogue box, select the "Run as User" option and test to see if this allows operation.
2. Using 32 Bit Registry Editor (RegEdt32.exe) examine the user privileges for the keys:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors\Redirected Port\Ports\RPT1:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\PDF Writer (GhostScript)
3. Ensure that user "Everyone" has privileges of "Full Control" on these keys and ALL sub-keys.

• Examine the registry key:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Devices
  You should see a valuename of "PDF Writer (GhostScript)" with a valuedata of "winspool,RPT1:"
• Now examine the registry key:
  HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Devices
  If the valuename of "PDF Writer (GhostScript)" with a valuedata of "winspool,RPT1:" is not present, manually add it to match the entry found in HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

MAINTENANCE.

---

Acknowledgements:

---

Back to Index

---

All promotional photographs and advertising material, corporate names and logos, product names, trade names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners, and are acknowledged as such.

Last Update April 7, 2010 at 8:39 PMAEST.