"Text Only" print driver no longer working?

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For many years, I've used the Generic / Text Only virtual printer driver to convert Web pages and other files to plain text with minimal formatting, but the last time I used it, the resulting file was peppered with unnecessary spaces, making it close to indecipherable when viewed in a text editor. Has some recent update changed the way this driver works (or, in my case, doesn't work)?

I've attached two files to illustrate the problem: filler.html contains a few paragraphs of boilerplate text, and filler.prn is the result I get from loading filler.html into Firefox and printing it to the Text Only "printer". (Both files were renamed to filler.*.txt to conform to this forum's limitations for uploaded files.) Note that the output file is more than ten times the size of the input file; if you examine it with a hex editor, you'll see that the increased size of the output is due to many sequences of a carriage return (without a linefeed) and several spaces being unnecessarily inserted in the output stream every few characters. I imagine if this were sent to a 1970s-era printer, the defects in the output would be invisible on the page, but since the whole point of the Text Only driver is to bypass any physical printer, I don't understand this change in behavior. Is there any way to prevent this and get back to the output I'm used to?
 

Attachments

  • filler.html.txt
    2.1 KB · Views: 94
  • filler.prn.txt
    30.1 KB · Views: 89

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 (duh)
Are you trying to print from a command window, or from Notepad/wordpad. It helps to know what mfg & model of printer you have.
 

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Are you trying to print from a command window, or from Notepad/wordpad.
I'm not trying to print anything; the Generic print driver is intended to convert a program's output (in my example above, I'm using Firefox, but it's intended to be used with any program) into a minimally formatted text file.

It helps to know what mfg & model of printer you have.
Again, I'm not using any printer; the idea is to be able to use the "print" function to create text file output from programs that don't provide other means to produce text output.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 (duh)
Do you mean the old "Print to file" feature ? I don't think it exists any more. I started copy / paste to text editor first and than after eventual changes print it normally or save it as "filename.txt"
 

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    Windows 10 Pro X64
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Yes; this is exactly what I'm talking about.

Edit: Tried it and it works. Took your .txt as input, printed to the Generic Printer and got this as output:
"Printed" using what program? That is to say, you generated that output file by clicking Print on the File menu of Program X and selecting "Generic / Text Only" as the "printer" to print to, but which Program X did you use? From your output file, I suspect it was Notepad, but I was using Firefox. I tried myself using Notepad and got similar results to you, so maybe this is actually a Firefox problem? Then again, I've been getting crazy results from other programs, as well.

(Interestingly, I also tried to make a test "printout" from IE, but that resulted in an "access denied" error, and Google Chrome produced a mostly empty file.)
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 (duh)
Instead of printing directly I just saved this page as "Text only" and got this result printable conventional way.
 

Attachments

  • 'Text Only' print driver no longer working.txt
    23.7 KB · Views: 94

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I'll try it from Firefox tonight when I get home. I did print from Notepad as you thought.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Integrated HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP h2207
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050@59Hz
    Hard Drives
    250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD;
    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
    1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
    PSU
    500W
    Keyboard
    Wired USB
    Mouse
    Wired USB
    Internet Speed
    3GB Up, 30GB Down
    Browser
    SeaMonkey
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender; MBAM Pro
    Other Info
    UEFI/GPT
    PLDS DVD-RW DH16AERSH
... I was using Firefox. I tried myself using Notepad and got similar results to you, so maybe this is actually a Firefox problem? Then again, I've been getting crazy results from other programs, as well.

(Interestingly, I also tried to make a test "printout" from IE, but that resulted in an "access denied" error, and Google Chrome produced a mostly empty file.)

Actually, right now I'm most interested in getting this working with iTunes, so if you have that available, I'd also appreciate your testing using that as well. (I frequently make .txt file versions of playlists and app lists this way and transform them into spreadsheets, to which I add custom notes and info.)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 (duh)
Doesn't work from any web browser. Tried Firefox and Seamonkey. In both cases got an error message saying Generic printer driver no longer working.

Edit: Save as Text works fine though.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Integrated HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP h2207
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050@59Hz
    Hard Drives
    250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD;
    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
    1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
    PSU
    500W
    Keyboard
    Wired USB
    Mouse
    Wired USB
    Internet Speed
    3GB Up, 30GB Down
    Browser
    SeaMonkey
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender; MBAM Pro
    Other Info
    UEFI/GPT
    PLDS DVD-RW DH16AERSH
So I suppose I'm lucky to be getting any output at all (see the filler.prn.txt file attached to my original post). Unfortunately, iTunes is one of the many programs that doesn't have a "save as text" option - which is the shortcoming that caused me to start using the "Text Only" print driver in the first place. I guess I'll have to continue to hand-edit out the extra garbage that the "Text Only" driver generates - unless I (or someone) can come up with a way to automate that editing process.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 (duh)
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