Something about Print to File
Most of those who use printers would have observed a small check box stating Print to file (Ptf) in the print dialog box. It’s an inbuilt functionality in Windows that allows you to save your documents into printer readable (binary) format.
Advantage? If you would like to send a file to your friend for printing and if he/she does not have the application to open it, the output of Ptf will be your friend. Alternately, if you want to take print outs at a later point of time without opening the actual application, Ptf is ideal.
How to Print to a file? Open the document that you want to print. Check Print to file checkbox in the print dialog window. This will open a Save As dialog box. Provide a file name with .prn extension and hit OK; that’s it.
How to Print .prn file? The specialty of Windows is the ease at which one could just double click on the actual file and get the job done. Printing a .prn file is as simple as double clicking the file and following the instructions.
If you would like to have Ptf option as one of your installed printers, this is how you do it:
1. Click the Start button -> Settings -> Printers and Faxes
2. Click Add Printer -> Next -> Local Printer -> Next
3. Select create new port (type of port) -> local port -> Next
4. A dialog box pops up with an empty field. Enter this: FILE: (Print to File) and click OK
5. Printer manufacturer: Generic
6. Printer Type: Generic / Text Only
7. Select No for default printer
8. Do not share the printer
9. Select Yes to print a test page
10. Click Finish to complete the process of adding a Ptf printer to your list
Remember that Ptf works only on printers that are connected to the traditional printer ports and not the USB ports.
Let us know if you have more tricks up your sleeve regarding Ptf, we would love to share it with others.
About the author:
Abhinav has been blogging about printing and related technologies on CreativeCloud for several years. He is also a project manager for a large technology company.
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