Converting One File | Converting Many Files | Beyond Basic Commands

This is a quick-start guide to converting files with SwiftView Pro Viewer or SwiftConvert.  You can perform manual conversions of single files through the SwiftView Pro graphical user interface (GUI).  With the SwiftConvert batch utility, you can use DOS or UNIX shell and ICS commands to convert multiple files.  The new Directory Monitor lets you use SwiftConvert by simply copying files to a directory that is pre-configured for the desired conversion. Customers licensed for SwiftConvert can also use the SwiftConvert Multi-File Windows GUI to manually convert many files at a time. 

To learn about general SwiftView Viewer use on Windows, please refer to the quick reference guide to standalone SwiftView Pro. 

Here is SwiftView Pro's toolbar on Windows:

You can interactively convert and export a document to a file with SwiftView Viewer's "Export" menu.  Select the Open button from the SwiftView toolbar to open and display a PCL, HPGL or TIFF file.  Once the file is open, click the Export button, and choose the following selections on the Save menu: 

1. Select the desired pages or area to convert, e.g. All Pages, or Pages to convert a page range.
2. Select your desired file type from the Type pulldown, e.g., PDF, TIFF or PCL.  NOTE: there are additional output formats available using batch conversion with ICS commands - see below.
3. If you want to output each page to a separate file, choose One .NNN file per page.  The files are named filename.001, filename.002 ...
4. Click OK.  The Save As menu pops up; enter the path and filename for the new file(s).

The Options button displays the following menu:

Options include:

• View saved file opens the output file with the "Edit" or "Open" application currently registered with Windows Explorer for the file's suffix.
• Enlarge/Reduce specifies whether to keep the original size or to try to fit to the output paper size.  This option is only available for TIFF FAX and HPGL output; all other save formats save at the original size.  The default is to fit to all of the paper, however if you find that the margins are getting cut off, try the just the printable area setting.
• Special Options control the rotation and position of the image on the paper, whether to export in color or monochrome (dithered bitonal), and whether markup, if present, will be exported. 
• Resolution sets the resolution.  You can save at the resolution of the original print/tiff file (300 DPI if the original lacks a resolution, e.g. HPGL), or at an arbitrary resolution, if the output format supports it

If you just need to convert one file at a time, you are ready to go to work!  If you need to automate batch conversions of multiple files, read on... 

SwiftPublish includes DirMon, an NT service that can be configured to automatically convert files copied to a directory with either SwiftPublish or SwiftConvert.  To try it with SwiftConvert, install DirMon for SwiftConvert (SwiftPublish no-printer) and the SwiftConvert free evaluation.  Then simply copy a PCL or TIFF file to c:\program files\swiftview\converttopdf and collect the converted PDF file in c:\program files\swiftview\convertout. 

Use of DirMon is included in a SwiftConvert or SwiftPublish license.  For more details on DirMon, including configuration, see the SwiftConvert DirMon Manual, or view the engineering application note.

SwiftConvert processes are controlled with ICS (Imaging Command Set) commands, SwiftView's API.  ICS commands can be issued on a shell or DOS command line and through other methods.  We start with the command line because it is easy to experiment with.  See the ICS Configuration Manual for a description of other methods of sending ICS commands.

NOTE: Programmable, automated conversion is only available with SwiftConvert licenses; it is not available with SwiftView Pro.  All of the conversion options in the SwiftView Pro menus are available as ICS commands in SwiftConvert. 

For Windows Users

The easiest way to use a command line in Windows is from the Start menu: choose Programs, then Accessories, then Command Prompt.  If you do not have Command Prompt under Accessories, select Run and type cmd into the Run box and hit OK. 

Type in the ICS commands or copy and paste commands from the examples below.  NOTE: Click the right mouse button inside the command prompt box to paste; in Windows 2000, the paste is automatic; in XP, right click opens a menu with paste as an option (see above).  Next, edit the filenames and directories for your input and output files.  Once filenames and directories are correct, press return to run the command.

Single Files
Below are two common examples of commands that you can cut, paste and edit.  Simply change the underlined areas to reflect your filenames and, if necesary, directories.

Example 1: Convert one PCL file to one PDF file
This example reads a PCL file, TEST.PCL, and converts it to a PDF file called DOC.PDF.

>sview -c"ldoc C:\archives\test.pcl | save PDF all doc.pdf onefile"


Example 2: Convert one PCL file to a TIFF Group 4 file
This example reads a PCL file, TEST.PCL, and converts it to a TIFF Group 4 file called TEST.TIF.

>sview -c"ldoc test.pcl | save TF_G4 all C:\tifffiles\test.tif onefile"

Batch Files
The following examples provide syntax for batch processing.  Underlines indicate the directories/filenames you must change.  NOTE: These commands can be executed in the command window or can be edited into a .bat file.

Example 1: Convert all PCL files in a directory to PDF

FOR %i IN (C:\legacyfiles\*.pcl) DO c:\progra~1\swiftview\sview -ics"ldoc %i|save PDF all %i.pdf onefile"


Example 2: Convert all PCL files in a directory to PNG

NOTE: In this example: the command is being run from the directory in which the files reside, but specifies a new directory for the PNG files.
FOR %i IN (*.pcl) DO c:\progra~1\swiftview\sview -ics"ldoc %i|save PNG_MONO all C:\pngfiles\%i.png"


Example 3: Convert all .pcl files in a directory to TIFF

FOR %i IN (C:\pclfiles\*.pcl) DO c:\progra~1\swiftview\sview -ics"ldoc %i|save TF_G4 all C:\tiffiles\%i.tif"


Example 4: Convert all .pcl files in a directory to TEXT

FOR %i IN (C:\archivefiles\*.pcl) DO c:\progra~1\swiftview\sview -ics"ldoc %i|save TEXT all %i.txt"

Notice the quotes around the ICS commands; these are required.  These examples use two ICS commands (ldoc and save) separated by the pipe | character.  Any number of ICS commands may be linked together in this fashion.  For example: >sview -c"cmd | cmd | cmd | cmd".  For more examples that you can easily cut, paste, and edit, check out the SwiftConvert Manual.

For UNIX Users

The following example shows how to use SwiftConvert to stream data directly to a UNIX printer.  Note that in UNIX, the svutil program is used instead of sview for SwiftConvert batch (no GUI) conversion.

Example: Convert a TIFF file to PCL and output to a UNIX printer

This is a simple example in which SwiftConvert writes each page to the system temp place (e.g., /usr/tmp) and immediately executes the print command specified by command.  Please see the SwiftView ICS Reference Manual for more information regarding print files.

>svutil -c"ldoc document.tif | printer number 1 type HPLJ3_ORIGINAL command ""lpr -r"" alias none | plot 1 all"

NOTE: This shell example is equivalent to the Windows Example 1 above.  Any of the Windows examples above can be adapted for Unix.

Once you are comfortable with the basic command line procedure, you may want to learn more about other ICS commands relevant to SwiftConvert.  The full set of ICS commands is extensive, providing SwiftConvert with a wide range of capabilities.  Start by looking at the SwiftConvert Manual.  Among the more popular functions are the ability to:

• Save a zoomed-in area of a TIFF or HPGL drawing as a smaller, more specific PDF or TIFF.
• Convert multiple TIFF files of a single page each into one TIFF file with many pages.
• Extract a subset of pages from a large PCL file and convert just those pages to PDF
• Automate any ICS command, for instance, to run overnight conversions of daily files.