Virtual printer
A virtual printer is a piece of computer software whose user interface and API resemble that of a printer driver, but which is not connected with a physical computer printer.
When a user requests that a document be "printed" by a virtual printer, then instead of having the document printed on paper or other material, the underlying software would process its contents in some other way, often resulting in a file being produced or the information being transmitted.
Typical uses of virtual printers include:
- Producing PDF files.
- Sending documents to a fax server.
- Converting documents to image files like JPEG or multipage TIFF for sharing in universal, platform-independent format, without any issues with missing fonts
- Allowing user to control certain aspects of printing not supported natively, such as printing multiple pages per sheet without border, print letterhead, watermarks etc. This output can either be saved in a file for future printing or passed to another printer.
Virtual PDF Printer
A virtual PDF printer enables to convert to Portable Document Format file (PDF) any file that has printing fucntionality, i.e. can be printed. It installs on a computer as a virtual printer, but actually doen't have any physical components. PDF file can be created practically from any Windows application. In other words, a virtual PDF printer converts to PDF almost all popular file formats that can be printed.
Packing Arrangement
Sometimes virtual PDF printers can be designed with some additonal features among PDF conversion. As an exmample, ReaSoft PDF Printer, released by ReaSoft Development includes some interesting features:
- fonts embedding
- PDF compression
- web link recognition
- stationary application (watermarks, letterheads, footers and headers)
- security control and encryption