Software Support
S01001 - PC-Travel DOS: Printing Postscript Quality Reports Without a Postscript Printer
The Problem:
PC-Travel supports two types of printers, called Dot-Matrix and Postscript in the program. Of these, the
Postscript option is by far the more desirable. Normally, you would need a special type of printer that supports
the Postscript printing language which are relatively uncommon (if you don’t know what Postscript means, don’t
worry about it. Just think of it as a way to print high quality reports). Today, the most common types of printers
are laser jet and ink jet printers which are not inherently Postscript ready. It would seem that if you don’t happen
to have a Postscript printer, you are forced to use the inferior Dot-Matrix reports.
The PC-Travel manual (which like the program was written in the late 80’s) discusses a solution to this problem.
The manual suggests you use a program called Go-Script to let you use your non-Postscript printer to print the
Postscript quality reports. PC-Travel has an option where you can generate a Postscript report file without
sending the information to your printer. Go-Script would take this report file and convert it into a graphic format
that would print on your particular printer. If Go-Script knew about your printer (it had a large list of supported
printers) then it would work, albeit, very slowly. In the late 80’s this was a reasonable option. However, the
program is hard to find now, and really isn’t a good option, especially in today’s Windows environments. There is
however, a good option that works great in Windows.
The Solution:
PC-Travel can produce a Postscript report file without sending the information to your printer. We need a
Windows based program that takes that report file and converts it to a format that can use the Windows printer
drivers in your computer. One program that does this is called Acrobat, from Adobe Systems. Acrobat has two
major components:
1- A program called Distiller that takes Postscript files and converts them to a format called PDF (Portable
Document File). Distiller normally is not free, however it often comes bundled with other programs (Adobe
PageMaker, for instance) so you may have it on your computer and not know it.
2- A program called Reader that takes PDF files produced by Distiller or other programs and allows you to view
them on your computer and print them on your printer. Reader is free and can be downloaded from many sites
on the Internet, including www.adobe.com.
The idea then is to use PC-Travel to create a Postscript file of the reports, then use Distiller to convert it into a
PDF file, and then use Reader to print it. Sounds messy, but it is really pretty easy to do.
The Trick --- You Need Adobe Distiller:
Check to see if you have Distiller installed on your computer. The easiest way is to search (Start button, then
Find, then Files) for a file called Acrodist.exe. If you don’t have it, then you can buy it at any computer store. To
save a few dollars we suggest you order it from www.buy.com on the Internet. On 6-10-99 version 4.0 was $188
(list is $249). Another option is go to www.Ebay.com and try to buy a version 3.0 for Windows (which works just
fine for PC-Travel) for $50 or $60.
Quick Directions --- To use Acrobat with PC-Travel:
1- Run the TRSETUP.EXE program in your PC-Travel directory. Select Ports from the Installation Menu. Set the
Postscript Reports option to NONE. This will prevent PC-Travel from sending the reports to your printer. You
only have to do this once.
2- Run PC-Travel as usual. Select either the Quick Postscript or Complete Postscript report when you are ready
to print your reports. You can then exit PC-Travel or minimize it on your desktop.
3- Run Acrobat Distiller. Select File from the main menu and then navigate to your PC-Travel directory. Select
EPS files (*.eps) from the Files of Type: option. You will see a file called Travel.eps. Open it.
4- Distiller asks for the name of the converted file and suggests Travel.pdf. You can change this if you want to
create several different pdf files before you do the final printing, otherwise click on Save.
5- Distiller does its thing. You’ll see ****End of Job**** in the Messages box. Close Distiller (click on the X in the
upper right hand corner).
6- Run Acrobat Reader. Select File from the Main Menu, select Open, and then navigate to the PC-Travel
directory. Select the file you want to print. Normally it will be Travel.pdf.
7- You will see the report on the screen. You can view the data in many different ways.
8- When you are ready to print, select File from the Main Menu, and then select Print.
To make this process simpler, you can create shortcuts on your desktop for Distiller and Reader. Then just drag
the Travel.eps file to Distiller to create the Travel.pdf file and then drag and drop the Travel.pdf file to Reader to
view and print the reports.
S01001 - PC-Travel DOS: Printing Postscript Quality Reports Without a Postscript Printer
The Problem:
PC-Travel supports two types of printers, called Dot-Matrix and Postscript in the program. Of these, the
Postscript option is by far the more desirable. Normally, you would need a special type of printer that supports
the Postscript printing language which are relatively uncommon (if you don’t know what Postscript means, don’t
worry about it. Just think of it as a way to print high quality reports). Today, the most common types of printers
are laser jet and ink jet printers which are not inherently Postscript ready. It would seem that if you don’t happen
to have a Postscript printer, you are forced to use the inferior Dot-Matrix reports.
The PC-Travel manual (which like the program was written in the late 80’s) discusses a solution to this problem.
The manual suggests you use a program called Go-Script to let you use your non-Postscript printer to print the
Postscript quality reports. PC-Travel has an option where you can generate a Postscript report file without
sending the information to your printer. Go-Script would take this report file and convert it into a graphic format
that would print on your particular printer. If Go-Script knew about your printer (it had a large list of supported
printers) then it would work, albeit, very slowly. In the late 80’s this was a reasonable option. However, the
program is hard to find now, and really isn’t a good option, especially in today’s Windows environments. There is
however, a good option that works great in Windows.
The Solution:
PC-Travel can produce a Postscript report file without sending the information to your printer. We need a
Windows based program that takes that report file and converts it to a format that can use the Windows printer
drivers in your computer. One program that does this is called Acrobat, from Adobe Systems. Acrobat has two
major components:
1- A program called Distiller that takes Postscript files and converts them to a format called PDF (Portable
Document File). Distiller normally is not free, however it often comes bundled with other programs (Adobe
PageMaker, for instance) so you may have it on your computer and not know it.
2- A program called Reader that takes PDF files produced by Distiller or other programs and allows you to view
them on your computer and print them on your printer. Reader is free and can be downloaded from many sites
on the Internet, including www.adobe.com.
The idea then is to use PC-Travel to create a Postscript file of the reports, then use Distiller to convert it into a
PDF file, and then use Reader to print it. Sounds messy, but it is really pretty easy to do.
The Trick --- You Need Adobe Distiller:
Check to see if you have Distiller installed on your computer. The easiest way is to search (Start button, then
Find, then Files) for a file called Acrodist.exe. If you don’t have it, then you can buy it at any computer store. To
save a few dollars we suggest you order it from www.buy.com on the Internet. On 6-10-99 version 4.0 was $188
(list is $249). Another option is go to www.Ebay.com and try to buy a version 3.0 for Windows (which works just
fine for PC-Travel) for $50 or $60.
Quick Directions --- To use Acrobat with PC-Travel:
1- Run the TRSETUP.EXE program in your PC-Travel directory. Select Ports from the Installation Menu. Set the
Postscript Reports option to NONE. This will prevent PC-Travel from sending the reports to your printer. You
only have to do this once.
2- Run PC-Travel as usual. Select either the Quick Postscript or Complete Postscript report when you are ready
to print your reports. You can then exit PC-Travel or minimize it on your desktop.
3- Run Acrobat Distiller. Select File from the main menu and then navigate to your PC-Travel directory. Select
EPS files (*.eps) from the Files of Type: option. You will see a file called Travel.eps. Open it.
4- Distiller asks for the name of the converted file and suggests Travel.pdf. You can change this if you want to
create several different pdf files before you do the final printing, otherwise click on Save.
5- Distiller does its thing. You’ll see ****End of Job**** in the Messages box. Close Distiller (click on the X in the
upper right hand corner).
6- Run Acrobat Reader. Select File from the Main Menu, select Open, and then navigate to the PC-Travel
directory. Select the file you want to print. Normally it will be Travel.pdf.
7- You will see the report on the screen. You can view the data in many different ways.
8- When you are ready to print, select File from the Main Menu, and then select Print.
To make this process simpler, you can create shortcuts on your desktop for Distiller and Reader. Then just drag
the Travel.eps file to Distiller to create the Travel.pdf file and then drag and drop the Travel.pdf file to Reader to
view and print the reports.