*.prn files and linux

[Bounty]

I don't have a printer driver installed on my Windows partition. So when I had to use a particular applet with IE, I printed the resulting page to file, which gave me file.prn.

Now, is there any way I can print this on Linux? I can open it with Xarchiver, but that just gives me the separate resources and a few odtff or something files.

[phongn]

What driver did you use to print out the file? If you targetted it using a PostScript printer you can just open it with GhostScript.

[Pu-239]

And for future reference,
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

[Hugh]

Wait, .prn files are archives? Could you post the exact directory structure and file names? I'd ask for the files themselves, but I realize the content might be confidential.

As for the printer language, if the driver used to create the file was for a laser printer, there's a good chance it generated either Postscript, or (even more likely) PCL5. In the second case, you can send it directly to a compatible printer. If not the archive itself, one of the files in it should do the trick. We just need to figure out which is which.

[Bounty]

Xarchiver identifies it as a zip file. The contents are:

1.fpage
1.fpage.rels
1.png
287D3444-023B-4255-B453-80DBED529083.odttf
2.fpage
2.fpage.rels
2.jpg
3.png
4.png
5.png
BBCCFEFA-C51C-4513-8F25-B342306D48E2.odttf
CC7CD813-347C-44A5-8B2C-7CED42ADBD5D.odttf
[Content_Types].xml*
FixedDocument.fdoc
FixedDocument.fdoc.rels
FixedDocumentSequence.fdseq*
FixedDocumentSequence.fdseq.rels
Job_PT.xml
Page1_Thumbnail.JPG

They're sorted in three folders, Metadata, Documents and _rels. The files with a star are not in any of the folders.

It's a quote for a car, incidentally.

What driver did you use to print out the file? If you targetted it using a PostScript printer you can just open it with GhostScript.

Whatever XP uses as default.

[Hugh]

I don't suppose the png and jpg files contain the information you need? Try to determine the file types for the others. At first sight, I would guess the odttf files are fonts, and *.fpage are the pages in your document. Try the "file" command on them if you're familiar with the command line, or else try opening them in GIMP (it knows a lot of image formats). Alternatively, try sending them directly to the printer. Come to think of it, try that with the .prn file itself. At worst, you'll ruin a few sheets of paper.

Hope this helps.

[Bounty]

I don't suppose the png and jpg files contain the information you need?

Nope. They're just illustrations.

Try the "file" command on them if you're familiar with the command line

XML, text and images.

Alternatively, try sending them directly to the printer. Come to think of it, try that with the .prn file itself. At worst, you'll ruin a few sheets of paper.

It ruined a few sheets of paper.

[Hugh]

XML, text and images.

Hm, "file" will report type "text" for text-based formats it doesn't recognize. Several printer languages do qualify. Some file in that archive has to contain your document data, we just need to figure out which. Could you look at them with a text editor, if you didn't already? I know it's a hassle, but I'm out of ideas. Sorry.

It ruined a few sheets of paper.

Oops. Double sorry. At least it wasn't unexpected.

[Pumako]

The files listed in the archive indicate that it is an XPS file, which is Microsoft's new format that is meant to compete with PDF.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of a Linux app generally available which can read XPS files. I would suggest going with the previous ideas of using a driver which produces either PostScript or PDF output, which should allow you to use Ghostscript to view the files.