How convert PCL generated by HP LaserJet 5 into PDF in C#?

Question

I need to retire 15 years old system and preserve all data. It can only print documents into specific printer HP LaserJet 5. I can print documents into PCL files and looking for ways to convert all this files into PDFs programmatically. Preferably in C#. Can anybody recommend good library or command line tool? Preferably free ;-)

Answer 1

The simplest solution I found is VeryPDF PCL Converter http://www.verypdf.com/pcltools/index.html. It has command line mode, GUI (for command line), batch mode and only cost $125. My company has been pay for it. Hope this will help somebody too.

Answer 2

I've used Visual Softwares pcl2pdf on several projects, it worked well for me.

Answer 3

We are currently using Lincoln's PCL to PDF converter. It was simple to call and provides embed into our C# application. It also provides good feedback in terms of Events when a page has been converted etc so you can even add progress bars etc.

Lincoln PCL to PDF Converter

Answer 4

There are several PCL Transformation products on the market that can handle simple PCL and meet simple requirements. PageTech's PCLTool SDK is the product you need when all the other products can't meet all your requirements like: extract the address text for mailing optimization, editing the PCL on-the-fly, splitting, merging, inserting barcodes/OMR marks, auto-indexing or optimizing the PCL. The demo is at www.pagetech.com. Two of the products previously mentioned are poorly supported products that are private labelled from the developers.

Answer 5

The commandline tool GhostPCL[1] (part of GhostPDL), by the same developers as Ghostscript, can convert PCL to PDF. Recent changes in their public source code repository[2] provide a fully integrated source tree encompassing Ghostscript, GhostPCL and GhostXPS. This includes MS Visual Studio *.sln and *.vcproj files to build all or part of their products. License is GPL or commercial (commercial licenses to be obtained from Artifex[3]):

• [1]: http://www.ghostscript.com/GhostPCL/
• [2]: http://svn.ghostscript.com/
• [3]: http://www.artifex.com/