PICAXE PDF Printer

Many users have asked if they can print their BASIC program listings or Logicator flowcharts to PDF file.

Printing a BASIC program to PDF has several advantages:
1) Colour syntax highlighting is retained (print the PDF from a colour printer to get a colour print)
2) Tab spacing / font / layout is retained
3) Easily distributed via internet / forums

Printing a Logicator flowchart to PDF has several advantages:
1) Colour flowchart is retained (print from a colour printer to get a colour print)
2) Can be read by people who do not have Logicator installed
3) Easily distributed via internet / forums

We are therefore pleased to announce the free 'PICAXE PDF Printer' add-on, which is completely free to PICAXE users. This allows you to generate PDF files from any Windows application.

To download the add-on use this link
www.rev-ed.co.uk/software/picaxe_pdf_printer.exe

More details are available here:
www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/picaxe_pdf_printer.pdf

Enjoy!

Thanks T - useful.

I find that PrimoPDF also works well as a free virtual PDF printer....

Great effort Technical. Can we expect a *nix version in the near future as well?

Thank you very much. I see that it will make PDF's from my word processor pgm as well. Excellent!

It's DOWNLOAD time!

Additionally, one can embed images in the same document to illustrate the project....
goodbye ASCII schematics!! Yes!!

Technical said:

Printing a BASIC program to PDF has several advantages:
1) Colour syntax highlighting is retained (print the PDF from a colour printer to get a colour print)
2) Tab spacing / font / layout is retained
3) Easily distributed via internet / forums

Click to expand...

Fantastic! (Almost) all my dreams come true!

Technical,

Thanks for providing this utility. However would you please advise how this differs from the many other free and similar(?) PDF printers that many of us have been using and recommending for some time?

Thanks

Thanks Tarzan : We will investigate and see what the problem is. It seems to be related to Programming Editor not closing properly after printing.

Workround after checking you aren't already running Programming Editor, ( for XP ) is to Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager, select Programming Editor, click End Task. It should be similar for other versions of Windows.

Take care to select the right application and that Programming Editor isn't open intentionally as End Task may lose unsaved data.

BCJKiwi said:

Technical,

Thanks for providing this utility. However would you please advise how this differs from the many other free and similar(?) PDF printers that many of us have been using and recommending for some time?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Same thoughts here.

I use pdfcreator from SourceForge.
Of the many free and commercial versions of pdf creation tools I have worked with, pdfcreator produces some of the most compact colour pdf files.

Does pdfcreator save .bas pgms? If not - how do you save them with the color and formatting all correct as they are in the PICAXE Editor?

I've done PE cut and paste to Notepad but that loses some bits in the translation - color among them.

pdfcreator and example

John West said:

Does pdfcreator save .bas pgms? If not - how do you save them with the color and formatting all correct as they are in the PICAXE Editor?

I've done PE cut and paste to Notepad but that loses some bits in the translation - color among them.

Click to expand...

Yes.

pdfcreator works in exactly the same way as the newly released Rev Ed pdf Printer.
It is a installed and acts as a printer driver except instead of printing to a real printer the file with text colours intact is printed to a pdf file at a location you specify and with a name that you can also alter/specific. You can even insert/amend the author of the pdf which is then embedded into the pdf file.

Only thing that I can think that would be good within pdfcreator is that does/ may not support hyperlinks to other points in the document or to a website.

Not saying there is anything wrong with the new Rev Ed software.
Just considering what advantage does it give me.



EDIT: By way of example, attached is a longer .bas program file (one of my 1-Wire projects) as printed from the PE into pdfcreator showing retained colour scheme. Longer lines do wrap around. Only the PE generated pager header which the PE centres can flow off the page at both sides.

I'm getting quite a large font which results in line wrap.

Can the font size be changed for the output? I've looked in the options and there does not seem to be a suitable option.

Alternatively, can the page orientation be changed before the code is printed to the PDF? -Giving a wider page and less likelyhood of line wrap.

I guess for schools etc with a locked environment it makes it an easy install - "it's all part of the PE Mr IT Man", rather than having to download and install some 3rd party thing

BCJKiwi said:

Technical,
Thanks for providing this utility. However would you please advise how this differs from the many other free and similar(?) PDF printers that many of us have been using and recommending for some time?
Thanks

Click to expand...

There is no real difference, but we have lots of requests for this feature so obviously not everyone knows about the other available free options! However having a known virtual printer name will also allow us in the future to add 'Print to PDF' dedicated menus etc to Revolution software.

Technical said:

There is no real difference, but we have lots of requests for this feature so obviously not everyone knows about the other available free options! However having a known virtual printer name will also allow us in the future to add 'Print to PDF' dedicated menus etc to Revolution software.

Click to expand...

OK good to know.
When the print to pdf feature is added, presumably any already installed pdf printer could be renamed to implement that linkage.
However, wouldn't it be better to allow the pdf printer to be selected in the PE rather than requiring a specific printer to be installed?

thanks Technical, this will be very useful.