Manual PDF24 Creator 10

Contents

• EXE installer
• MSI installer
• Registry Settings
  • Common registry settings
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 Assistant
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 Compress
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 Creator
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 Output Profile Manager
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 OCR
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 Toolbox
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 Tray Icon
  • Registry settings related to PDF24 Reader
• Translation of language files
• PDF Printers
  • Ports
• pdf24-Toolbox.exe
• pdf24-Ocr.exe
  • Command line
  • Local installation of all language file
• pdf24-DocTool.exe
• FAQ

Preamble

The PDF24 Creator is a free PDF solution even for companies with many features for Windows. A MAC version is not available. MAC users can use the PDF24 Online Tools. The software brings all PDF24 tools as offline version, so all files remain on your PC and GDPR is not an issue here. The software has been under continuous development since 2006 and pleases many people and companies in the world.

EXE installer

The EXE installer is based on Inno Setup. The installation process can be controlled via command line arguments. Besides the arguments Inno Setup supports, there are other PDF24 specific arguments.

• /SILENT

  Installs the PDF24 Creator without user interaction. The installation process is shown.

• /VERYSILENT

  Installs the PDF24 Creator without user interaction. The installation process is not shown.

• /NOUPDATE

  Installs the PDF24 Creator without update checking. No updates are searched and no updates are installed.

• /NoReaderReg

  This switch prevents PDF24 Reader from being registered for PDF files. This switch is useful if, for example, an alternative PDF reader is installed and should be used.

• /LANG=language

  Specifies the language to use. The placeholder language can be German, English, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese

• /SAVEINF="filename" Instructs setup to save installation settings to the specified file.

• /LOADINF="filename"

  Instructs Setup to load the settings from the specified file after having checked the command line. This file can be prepared using the '/SAVEINF=' command as explained below.

• /NORESTART

  Instructs Setup not to reboot even if it's necessary.

• /NOCANCEL

  Prevents the user from cancelling during the installation process, by disabling the Cancel button and ignoring clicks on the close button. Useful along with '/SILENT' or '/VERYSILENT'.

/SP- Disables the This will install... Do you wish to continue? prompt at the beginning of Setup.

/COMPONENTS="comma separated list of component names"

Overrides the default component settings. Using this command line parameter causes the setup to automatically select a custom type. Only the specified components will be selected; the rest will be deselected. If a component name is prefixed with a "!" character, the component will be deselected. This parameter does not change the state of components that include the fixed flag.

Currently, the setup contains the following components:

• pdfPrinter
• faxPrinter
• ghostscript
• qpdf
• ocr
• ocr/tesseract

Examples of use:

pdf24-creator.exe /VERYSILENT /NOUPDATE

Installs default components silently and disables updates

pdf24-creator.exe /SILENT /NOUPDATE

Installs default components without user interaction and disables updates

pdf24-creator.exe /VERYSILENT /NOUPDATE /COMPONENTS=pdfPrinter

Installs only PDF printer component silently and disables updates

MSI installer

PDF24 provides a MSI package of the PDF24 Creator which you can use to distribute the software on computers. The MSI installation can be customized via command line arguments. Currently, the following arguments are available:

AUTOUPDATE=Yes|No

Enables or disables the auto-update feature of the PDF24. Set the public property AUTOUPDATE=No for disabling the auto-update feature. The feature is disabled by default.

DESKTOPICONS=Yes|No

Creates or disables the Windows Desktop icons for PDF24-PDF and PDF24-Fax. Set the public property DESKTOPICONS=No for disabling the Windows Desktop icons. The Windows Desktop icons will be created by default.

FAXPRINTER=Yes|No

Enables or disables the Fax printer feature of PDF24. Set the public property FAXPRINTER=No for disabling the Fax printer feature. The feature is enabled by default.

REGISTERREADER=Yes|No Enables or disables PDF24 Reader registration. The feature is enabled by default.

Example usage of the MSI properties:

pdf24-creator.msi AUTOUPDATE=[Yes|No] DESKTOPICONS=[Yes|No] FAXPRINTER=[Yes|No] /[qr|qb|qn|...]

The user interface, that installer displays, can be controlled with the /q options:

• /qn No interface
• /qb Basic interface - just a small progress dialog
• /qb! Like /qb, but hide the Cancel button
• /qr Reduced interface - display all dialogs that don't require user interaction (skip all modal dialogs)
• /qn+ Like /qn, but display "Completed" dialog at the end
• /qb+ Like /qb, but display "Completed" dialog at the end

Registry Settings

The PDF24 Creator stores settings into the Windows registry. Since version 10, the user settings are stored under HKCU\SOFTWARE\PDF24. The application settings and settings that apply to all users are stored under HKLM\SOFTWARE\PDF24. Older versions stored the settings under HKCU\SOFTWARE\PDFPrint and HKLM\SOFTWARE\PDFPrint.

The settings under HKCU overwrite the settings from the HKLM area. There is also an option to give more weight to the settings under HKLM. This can be achieved by putting a ! in front of the key name. Then the value from HKLM is always taken in any case, regardless of what is in HKCU.

Most of the settings can be manipulated by the PDF24 Settings GUI. If you make changes in the GUI then these changes will change the registry values.

Common registry settings

• DeletePrintJobsWithError (HKLM, DWORD)

  Setting to control whether print jobs with an error blocking the PDF printer should be deleted or not. This is disabled by default. The value can be 0 or 1.

• EmailInterface (HKCU, HKLM, SZ)

  Setting to specify the used mail interface when using the mail function. Supported values are mapi, outlook_ole, pdf24.

• InstallDir (HKLM, SZ)

  The file system path under which the PDF24 Creator is installed.

• InstallationID (HKLM, SZ)

  The ID of the installation generated by the installer.

• UpdateMode (HKLM, DWORD)

  The update mode. Can be 0 for automatic updates, 1 for notifying if an update is available or 2 to disable updates.

• Language (HKCU, HKLM, SZ)

  The language of the app. The value is the name of a language file, e.g. English or German. Language files are stored in the lang directory.

• LogoClickUrl (HKLM, SZ)

  URL which will be opened if someone clicks the banner.

• PdfSecurityTool (HKCU, HKLM, SZ)

  The app used to apply PDF security. Can be gs or qpdf. qpdf is used by default because 256 bit security is supported.

• Img2PDFJPEGQuality (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  JPEG image quality used when converting images to PDF. Default value is 100.

• Img2PDFDPI (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  DPI value used when convereting images to PDF. Default value is 144.

• Img2PDFPassThroughJPEGImages (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Boolean value to control whether to pass through JPEG images as is. Default value is 1 which means enabled. Set to 0 to disable this behavior. If disabled, JPEG images are re-encoded with the quality value found in Img2PDFJPEGQuality.

• NoCertManagerAccess (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable access to the cert manager app or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoDelayedToForegroundOnNewFile (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable this behavior or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoEmbeddedBrowser (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable embedded browsers or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoFax (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable PDF24 fax or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoFaxProfile (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the fax output profile or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoMail (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the mail function or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoOCR (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the OCR feature or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoOnlineConverter (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the usage of the online converter if no local converter is available or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoOnlinePdfTools (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the online PDF tools links in the app or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoPDF24MailInterface (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the PDF24 mail interface or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoScreenCapture (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the screen capture tool or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoSelfSignedCertCreation (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the creation of self signed certs or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoShellContextMenuExtension (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable shell context menu extensions or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoShellBackgroundContextMenuExtension (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable background shell context menu extensions or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoShellDirectoryContextMenuExtension (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable directory context menu extensions or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoShellFileContextMenuExtension (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable file context menu extensions or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoTrayIcon (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the tray icon or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoTwainImport (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the twain import feature or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoReader (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable the PDF24 Reader or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoCompress (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable PDF24 Compress or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoToolbox (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable PDF24 Toolbox or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0.

• NoUpdateCheckBtns (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to disable update check buttons or 0 to enable it. The default value is 0. Option is available since version 10.2.0.

Registry settings related to PDF24 Assistant

• assistant.closeAfterEmail (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to close the assistant after using the mail function or 0 to keep the app open. The default value is 1.

• assistant.closeAfterSave (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to close the assistant after using the save file function or 0 to keep the app open. The default value is 1.

• assistant.fixedSaveDir (HKCU, HKLM, SZ)

  The directory used to initialize the save file dialog box when saving a file.

• assistant.joinFilesUseFirstName (HKCU, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to use the name of the first file for the joined file or 0 to disable this. The default value is 0.

• assistant.mailNamePrompt (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to prompt for email file name or 0 to disable this. The default value is 1.

• assistant.openPDFAfterSave (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to open the PDF file after using the save function or 0 to disable this. The default value is 0.

• assistant.lastProfile (HKCU, SZ)

  The ID of the last used profile.

• assistant.lastSaveDir (HKCU, SZ)

  The last used directory into which a file has been saved.

Registry settings related to PDF24 Compress

• compress.colorModel (HKCU, SZ)

  The color model used to initialize the settings form.

• compress.dpi (HKCU, SZ)

  The DPI value used to initialize the settings form.

• compress.imageQuality (HKCU, SZ)

  The image quality value used to initialize the settings form.

• compress.saveFileSuffix (HKCU, SZ)

  The save file name suffix used to initialize the settings form.

Registry settings related to PDF24 Creator

• creator.explorerLastDir (HKCU, SZ)

  The last opened directory in the file explorer of the creator.

• creator.explorerListViewMode (HKCU, DWORD)

  The list view mode of the file list of the file explorer.

• creator.hasExplorer (HKCU, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to enable the file explorer or 0 to disable it. Default value is 1.

• creator.jobDlgDisplayMode (HKCU, DWORD)

  The mode job dialogs are disabled.

• creator.windowPlacement (HKCU, SZ)

  Stores the last window placement on the screen.

Registry settings related to PDF24 Output Profile Manager

• formatOptions.lastProfile (HKCU, SZ)

  The ID of the last used profile.

Registry settings related to PDF24 OCR

• ocr.dpi (HKCU, SZ)

  The DPI value used to initialize the settings form.

• ocr.jobs (HKCU, SZ)

  The number of jobs processed in parallel used to initialize the settings form.

• ocr.language (HKCU, SZ)

  The language code used to initialize the settings form.

• ocr.outputDir (HKCU, SZ)

  The output directory used to initialize the settings form.

• ocr.profile (HKCU, SZ)

  The ID of a profile used to initialize the settings form.

• ocr.saveFilesInPlace (HKCU, SZ)

  The save files in place option value used to initialize the settings form. Can be true or false.

• ocr.saveFileSuffix (HKCU, SZ)

  The save file name suffix used to initialize the settings form.

• ocr.skipFilesWithText (HKCU, SZ)

  The skip files with text value used to initialize the settings form. Can be true or false.

• ocr.skipPagesWithText (HKCU, SZ)

  The skip pages with text value used to initialize the settings form. Can be true or false.

Registry settings related to PDF24 Toolbox

• toolbox.showScriptErrors (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to show script errors if they occur or 0 to hide them. The default value is 1. Option is available since version 10.0.12.

Registry settings related to PDF24 Tray Icon

• trayIcon.openLauncher (HKCU, HKLM, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to open the Launcher instead of the Toolbox. The default value is 0. Option is available since version 10.0.12.

• trayIcon.openTool (HKCU, HKLM, SZ)

  Can be launcher, toolbox, creator. The default value is toolbox. Option is available since version 10.1.0.

Registry settings related to PDF24 Reader

The PDF24 Reader also stores settings into the Windows registry. The registry path is HKCU\SOFTWARE\PDF24\PDF24 Reader. The following entries are currently supported by the PDF24 Reader:

• OpenInExistingInstance (HKCU, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to open files in an existing reader instance if available. The default value is 1. If the value is 0, each file is opened in a seperate instance.

• ShowNavigation (HKCU, DWORD)

  Can be 1 to show the navigation pane of a file or 0 to hide it.

Translation of language files

The PDF24 Creator has language files to offer the PDF printer in languages other than German and English. The languages German and English are maintained by the PDF24 team and are made available to every version. If you can translate into another language, we would be pleased if you could translate an existing language file into this language so that we can offer the PDF24 Creator in this language as well.

If you notice an error in one of the existing language files when translating a language file, tell us and we will fix these mistakes.

The language files of the PDF24 Creator can be found in the lang folder in the PDF24 installation directory. The language files end with the extension .lang and can be edited with a text editor. The language files are to be encoded with UTF-8 with BOM. A text editor like Notepad++ recognizes this automatically.

A language file is structured line by line. Lines beginning with # are comments and do not need to be translated. Each line contains the key and the text of a language element. Key and text are separated by a =. Only the text may be translated, the key must remain as it is so that the PDF24 Creator can find a text element. Here is an example:

#
# PDF Quality
#
general/pdf-quality = Quality of PDF
general/quality/low = Low quality
general/quality/medium = Medium quality
general/quality/good = Good quality

In the example above, e.g. general/pdf-quality is a key and Quality of PDF is the text to that key. Only the text Quality of PDF may be translated.

Already translated language files can contain the two characters #! as first characters in a line. This indicates that this line still needs to be translated. If new language elements are added to the PDF24 Creator, we add the missing elements to all language files with the content from the English language file and mark these lines with the characters #!. These lines are not yet translated. Translators can use this method to find elements that have not yet been translated and translate them. After the translation, the #! string must be removed.

Please send your translated or updated language file to team@pdf24.org. We will then integrate your translation into the PDF24 Creator.

PDF Printers

The PDF24 Creator is able to manage multiple PDF printers. Each PDF printer can be configured differently. For example, if you want to save a file automatically, you can easily do this with a dedicated PDF printer. To manage PDF printers, use the settings utility. There you can add, remove or configure PDF printers.

Ports

PDF printers use special ports from the system to receive printer data. The default or first PDF printer created by the installer has the port \\.\pipe\PDFPrint. Additional PDF printers will have ports like \\.\pipe\PDFPrint-1, \\.\pipe\PDFPrint-2 and so on.

If you have problems with your default PDF printer, e.g. if print jobs get stuck in the printer queue, please check the port to which the PDF printer is connected to. Make sure, that the default PDF printer is connected to port \\.\pipe\PDFPrint. If this is not the case, change this manually in the printer properties via the control panel of Windows.

pdf24-Toolbox.exe

The PDF24 Toolbox currently uses the Internet Explorer 11 component to display the GUI. For the GUI to work correctly, certain features of IE11 must be enabled.

• Javascript must be enabled
• The URL range pdf24://* must be allowed, because this is how the UI communicates with the installed toolbox.

If Javascript is not active, then you will usually see inactive file boxes and you will not be able to interact with the GUI.

If the URL range pdf24://* is not allowed, then the UI cannot communicate with the app and thus the app will not work as it should.

pdf24-Ocr.exe

The pdf24-Ocr.exe is an app, that does optical character recognition on files. The app generates PDF files with text layer. Under the hood, the app uses Tesseract for text recognition. The result of tesseract is then combined with the actual file.

Command line

pdf24-Ocr.exe [OPTIONS] [FILES]

Invoking the application without arguments simply opens a GUI. Invoking the app with files, opens the GUI and loads the files specified on command line.

To apply OCR on a specific file and to save the resulting PDF file with a text layer, invoke the OCR tool like this:

pdf24-Ocr.exe -outputFile output.pdf [-language eng] [-dpi 300] [-applyProfile PROFILE] [-skipFilesWithText] [-skipPagesWithText] "input.pdf"

The -outputFile switch tells the app where to store the produced PDF file with recognized text.

The -language switch sets the language used by the OCR process. Open the list of available language codes to see all language codes you can use.

The -dpi switch sets the DPI value used by the OCR process. In common, 300 is the recommended value.

The -applyProfile switch can be used to apply an output profile to the generated PDF file that contains the recognized text.

-skipFilesWithText tells the app to not process files that already contains text.

-skipPagesWithText tells the app to not process pages of a file that already contains text.

-removeBackground tells the app to detect and remove the background of the page.

-deskew tells the app to deskew the pages. This greatly improves the OCR result if the pages are slightly skewed.

-autoRotatePages tells the app to rotate the pages automatically based on the recognized text.

In general, the app downloads language files on demand. Otherwise the installer would be very large and would consume a lot of disk space. If you prefer a local installation of all language files, the read the next chapter.

Local installation of all language file

To install language files locally and to stop downloading language files from the internet, do the following:

1. Download the language files list for local installation and put the file into the tesseract folder of the PDF24 installation directory. Rename the file to trainDataList.txt.

2. Then download the individual language files specified in the language files list for download on demand into the tessdata folder INSTALL_DIR/tesseract/tessdata.

You also have to download the osd.traineddata because this file is required for orientation detection. Without the file, the OCR process will fail with a data file error message.

Please make sure that you use the language files that are compatible with Tesseract 4.0. The language files can be downloaded from the tesseract project on GitHub.

Compared to the online list the local list does not contain URLs for download. Please note to rename the file name from local-list.txt to trainDataList.txt.

You can shorten the list if you like. In the list you can only specify the language files that should be displayed in the software.

pdf24-DocTool.exe

Basically, the pdf24-DocTool.exe is invoked like this:

pdf24-DocTool.exe [options] [file1] [file2] ...

[options]

Options are used to tell the DocTool what to do and to set parameters. See below for supported options of specific commands:

• -expandDirs

  If an input file is a directory then the DocTool replaces that input file with all the files inside that directory and processes all these files instead.

• -expandDirsRecursive

  Same as "-expandDirs" but also recurses down into subdirectories if there are subdirectories in the directory.

• -sort

  Sorts all input files by name.

• -deleteFiles

  Delete input files after being processed. Be careful when using this flag.

• -noProgress

  Tells the DocTool not to use progress windows. Currently, not all commands supports this flag.

[-outputDir dir]

Optional flag to specifiy an output folder where the DocTool should save generated files. The files are saved under the name of the file inside the specified directory.

[-outputFile file]

Optional flag to specifiy an output file under which the DocTool should save the generated file(s). If more than one file is specified on the command line to be processed then the DocTool modifies the file name and adds a number.

The output file can be the special "-" one. In that case the DocTool saves the processed files into the same directory like the input files.

[file1] [file2] ...

The DocTool is a file tool and you have to specify one or more files on the command line which are to be processed.

pdf24-DocTool.exe file1 [file2] ...

Converts the files on the command line to PDF and opens an PDF24 assistant to handle the converted files.

file1 [file2] ...

One or more files to process.

pdf24-DocTool.exe -webOptimize [-outputDir dir] [-outputFile file] file1 [file2] ...

Optimizes the files for web. Generates web optimized PDF files.

-webOptimize

The command to tell the DocTool to optimize the input files for web.

[-outputDir dir]

[-outputFile file]

file1 [file2] ...

pdf24-DocTool.exe -applyProfile [-profile profileId] [-outputDir dir] [-outputFile file] file1 [file2] ...

Applies a profile on the specified files. A profile can be specified on command line or can be selected via a profile select dialog.

-applyProfile

The command to tell the DocTool to apply a profile on the input files

[-profile profileId]

Optional flag to specify an ID of a profile to use. The ID of default profiles is like "default/xxx" where xxx is the name of a default profile, e.g. "good" or "best". The ID of user profiles is like "user/yyy" where yyy is the name of a user profile.

[-outputDir dir]

[-outputFile file]

file1 [file2] ...

pdf24-DocTool.exe -join [-sort] [-profile profileId] [-outputDir dir] [-outputFile file] file1 [file2] ...

Joins input files to one output file.

-join

Tells the DocTool to join the input files

[-sort]

Optional flag to sort the input files by name before joining.

[-profile profileId]

@see Documentation of "pdf24-DocTool.exe -applyProfile"

[-outputDir dir]

[-outputFile file]

file1 [file2] ...

pdf24-DocTool.exe -extractPages file1 [file2] ...

Opens a page extract dialog for the input files to extract pages from the documents.

-extractPages

Tells the DocTool to open the page extract dialog for the input files

file1 [file2] ...

The file(s) from which to extract

pdf24-DocTool.exe -splitByPage [-outputDir dir] [-outputFile file] file1 [file2] ...

Splits the documents page by page

-splitByPage

Tells the DocTool to split the input files page by page.

[-outputDir dir]

[-outputFile file]

file1 [file2] ...

pdf24-DocTool.exe -autoRotatePages [-outputDir dir] [-outputFile file] file1 [file2] ...

Rotates pages of input pdf files automatically based on page contents. Since version 10.7.2.

-autoRotatePages

Tells the DocTool to rotate pages

[-outputDir dir]

[-outputFile file]

file1 [file2] ...

pdf24-DocTool.exe -convertTo [-outputDir dir] [-outputFile file] file1 [file2] ...

Converts the input files. Opens the Save As dialog where the user can select a file type and where the user can specify specific output file options.

-convertTo

Tells the DoctTool to convert the input files

[-outputDir dir]

[-outputFile file]

file1 [file2] ...

pdf24-DocTool.exe -convertToPDF [-profile profileId] [-outputDir dir] [-outputFile file] file1 [file2] ...

Converts the input files to PDF. The user can select a profile which is used to save the output file.

-convertToPDF

Tells the DoctTool to convert the input files to PDF

[-profile profileId]

@see Documentation of "pdf24-DocTool.exe -applyProfile"

[-outputDir dir]

[-outputFile file]

file1 [file2] ...

pdf24-DocTool.exe -upload -url url file1 [file2] ...

Upload the input files to a web service, extracts the location header of the response and opens a browser window with the URL from the location header.

-upload

Tells the DocTool to upload the input files to a web service.

-url url

Specifies the URL of a web service to which to upload the input files.

file1 [file2] ...

The files to upload.

pdf24-DocTool.exe -sendAsMail file1 [file2] ...

Opens the send email dialog and attaches the input files so that the user can send the files as an email.

-sendAsMail

Tells the DocTool to send the input files as an email.

file1 [file2] ...

The files to send.

pdf24-DocTool.exe -sendAsFax file1 [file2] ...

Sends the input files as a fax.

-sendAsFax

Tells th DocTool to send the input files as a fax.

file1 [file2] ...

The files to send.

pdf24-DocTool.exe -shellPrint [-printerName nameOfPrinter] file1 [file2] ...

Prints the input files on a printer. Uses the files print command of the windows shell.

-shellPrint

Tells the DocTool to print the files with the windows shell print command.

[-printerName nameOfPrinter]

Optional flag to print on a specific printer.

file1 [file2] ...

The files to print.

pdf24-DocTool.exe "<clipboard>"

Extract files from the windows clipboard and opens a PDF24 assistant to handle the files.

<clipboard>

Special file to tell the DocTool to import from windows clipboard.

pdf24-DocTool.exe "<twain>"

Imports files from the TWAIN interface (scanner or camery) and opens a PDF24 assistant to handle the files.

<twain>

Special file to tell the DocTool to import from TWAN interface

pdf24-DocTool.exe [-mode MODE] [-target TARGET] "<screen>"

Captures the screen. The capture mode and the target can be specified.

[-mode MODE]

Optional flag to set the capture mode. The mode can be one of the following:

• screen To capture the whole screen. This is the default.
• screenClient To capture the screen client area (excludes the windows taskbar)
• activeWindow To capture the active window
• activeWindowClient To capture the client area of the active window
• userDefinedArea To capture a user defined area
• clipboard To process a captured image copied to the windows clipboard

[-target TARGET]

Optional flag to specify the target of the capture image. The target can be one of the following options:

• default Opens a PDF24 assistant to handle the capture
• clipboard Copies the capture image into the clipboard
• file To store the image into a file

FAQ

The PDF printer is not working properly. Print jobs are stuck in the print queue.

Sometimes it can happen, that the PDF printer is not working well. Most of the time it can be fixed by checking the following:

• Ensure, that the PDF24 Windows service is running. This service is required in order to receive print jobs. The service is provided by the pdf24.exe and runs as Local System user. The service can be started via command line: net start pdf24.

• Ensure, that there is no bad print job which blocks the printer. Kill these jobs or clear the queue.

• Ensure, that the PDF printer is connected to the correct port. The default PDF printer is connected to the port \\.\pipe\PDFPrint. If this is not the case, then change it manually. You can see and change the port and in the printer properties of the printer.

  • Open the control panel of Windows
  • Open Printers
  • Right click the PDF24 printer
  • Cick printer properties
  • Click the ports tab
  • Check the printer port there