How to make Printfil capturing prints in DOSBox (and vDosPlus, vDos)

How to redirect prints in DOSBox (and vDosPlus, vDos) to Printfil

Follow us on YouTube

Follow us on YouTube

Follow us on Facebook

Facebook Video about how to make Printfil capturing prints in DOSBox (and vDosPlus, vDos)

Follow us on Facebook

DOS programs usually send their prints to a parallel port (usually LPT1:), but the standard DOSBox 0.74 version doesn't support such ports, so they cannot print.

So, first of all, you need a DOSBox variant that does support LPT ports redirection (like DOSBox SVN Daum or vDosPlus) as described in the faq: How to print from DosBox

At that point, the faq above includes a video showing how to make Printfil capturing the LPT1: port (or LPT2:, LPT3:, COM1: ...) by its own standard configuration dialog.

This video instead shows how to capture LPT1: in vDosPlus (the DOSBox variant we installed for the test) by using the command line parameters from the Windows Command Prompt.

Preparation:

• We've installed the vDosPlus DOSBox variant
• We've created a C:\DOS directory containing the EDIT.EXE program and an Invoice.txt file to simulate a DOS print (you'll use your own DOS program instead)
• We've configured Printfil to merge a background image to the textual invoice as described in the article: Merge background images to DOS prints (optional)

Let's go:

• Open the Windows Command Prompt (not DOSBox)
• Move to the Printfil install folder:
  CD \"Program Files"\Printfil
  or
  CD \"Program Files (x86)"\Printfil
• Type the DOSBox configuration command:
  Printfil DOSBox LPT1
• Printfil detects vDosPlus like a DOSBox variant and autoconfigures it
• Now open vDosPlus
• Start a DOS program and print to LPT1:
• Printfil captures the print and adds the background, so that you can print it to any Windows printer, including PDF writers.

If you've questions, you can comment the Facebook video or the YouTube one in this page, or you can contact us at https://www.printfil.com/esupp.htm