In my application, I need to convert PDF docs to PCL5 generic files to send to FTP PCL capable printers. Printing to file would be a last resort, I would prefer a small-footprint command line tool or API that will do the job.
I've seen some mention of doing this on Linux using Ghostscript, but I've got no idea how to replicate this on windows.
Many thanks
Ghostscript is available also for windows. You can test It with opening a command window and using the gswin32c command. You can build a shell script that send the "gswin32c" command with all the options needed.
This could help you find the right sequence of flag and otpions
It seems you are searching for a generic printer driver: maybe this hpijs-pcl5e could fit, or also you can try HPLIP
Hp universal could be another starting point.
OpenPrinting in general has a lot of material you can dig. I'm sorry but my knowledge about this subject arrive just here. :)
Here is an example command that would generate one color PCL/XL from three PDF input files in a single go:
gswin32c.exe ^
-dBATCH ^
-dNOPAUSE ^
-dSAFER ^
-sDEVICE=pxlcolor ^
-sOutputFile=c:/path/to/my.pcl ^
first.pdf ^
2nd.pdf ^
no3.pdf
(use -sDEVICE=pxlmono if you want black+White PCL output only). If you know your target printer in advance, you'd probably want to use some other -sDEVICE=... param.