how do I can read an PRN file from vb.net

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Hi as simple as the subject state, I need to read a prn file that is tryied to be printed from a legacy application, also I can do the print to XPS or print to PDF, mut I need then to "understand" the file in order to populate a data grid. any codes? thanks in advance!

Posted 1-Feb-13 11:21am

topogigio1979

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BC @ CV · Answer 1 · 2013-02-01T11:33:00

Solution 1

The short answer is it depends on the formating. Here are some links that should help:

http://www.frogmorecs.com/arts/what-is-a-prn-file[^]

...if its a PostScript file you can use this:
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/[^]

Posted 1-Feb-13 11:33am

BC @ CV

Updated 1-Feb-13 11:34am

v2

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Feb-13 20:00pm

That's correct, a 5.
Generally, it's not designed for "reading". This is what is sent to a printer on a low level, and therefore is totally hardware-dependent.
—SA

topogigio1979 1-Feb-13 20:23pm

may be I misexplain the issue... I need to get a PRN file and READ it on VB and place the data into ms data grid or txtboxes.so I need something that can open the file read it parse it and place the information on the txts, got it? thanks anyway for the information provided

BC @ CV 4-Feb-13 9:08am

As SA explained above its totally hardware dependent. So the best you can do is to Google the name of your printer & PRN. If you need this to work for all printers you are looking at a near impossible feat, you might consider if there is a more reasonable way to accomplish whatever it is you are trying to accomplish. BTW what is the reason for your needing to read a PRN file in a form?

topogigio1979 4-Feb-13 10:04am

HI thanks a lot for the reply, I need to capture the information from a legacy system, so I can print as XPS, print as PDF or print to file ( PRN ) whatever is the file output, the issue is that I need to read the file ( like an Excel spreadsheet) got the idea? hope you can help

BC @ CV 4-Feb-13 12:11pm

If possible, I would try to get the data from the legacy system before it goes to the printer and then create a PDF by either using RDLCs or some third party library like itextsharp.

topogigio1979 4-Feb-13 12:38pm

no, the legacy system has no output than printer, so I was thinking to print to PDF or print ro XPS and then read and parse the information ( that is the code help I'm looking) is there any chance to read a PDF file from vb? or an XPS file?

BC @ CV 4-Feb-13 12:50pm

So you are trying to read the data from the legacy system by converting what it sends to the printer to a PDF and then reading the PDF? That sounds ridiculous, What is the legacy system? Even screen scraping sounds like a better idea.

topogigio1979 4-Feb-13 12:53pm

yep you got it... the system is custom SW for a dental applications. so there is no other way to get the data... what are your suggestions? and why do you think I cannot get the information from the PDF? do you know ir have some code to do that?

BC @ CV 4-Feb-13 12:56pm

Its not that you can't get data via PDF its just going to be a very brittle solution and give you many headaches down the road especially whenever the document/data gets modified. I would investigate iText

topogigio1979 4-Feb-13 12:58pm

ok, what is itext?