SaveAs PDF not working

[Former Member]

On Windows 7 64bit I am having trouble with SaveAs PDF.

It works fine for PB9 but PB10 and higher fail. I have tried Ghostscript 8.71 and 9.00 32bit.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Roland,

we had all sorts of trouble with this and tried several versions of Ghostscript with our PB 12.1. The only one we found that would work was 8.70.

HTH, Paul

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

That did the trick! They must have changed something in PB 10 that tied it to version 8.70 of Ghostscript.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

NO ... that is the WRONG answer! 

You only got lucky with v8.70 because you installed the wrong bitness version of GS. I have GS 871 ... 9.10 working on W7, W8, W2008 & W2012 servers.

See my answer to Roland's original post.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Roland;

  This is completely incorrect .....  you must never use a 32 bit version of GS on a 64 bit version of the MS-Windows O/S!!!!!!  

1) Download and install GS 8.71 64 bit version.

2) Install GS 8.71 and make sure that you set the GS_DLL environment variable ...

   ie: GS_DLL=C:\Program Files\GS\gs8.71\bin

3) Install the "Sybase DataWindow PS" printer from the GS 8.71 64 bit .INF file located in the GS install's LIB sub-folder

4) Optional: Add the GS BIN folder to your system path

5) Reboot your PC.

Now, PDF support should be working in PB 10 and higher on your 64 bit MS-Windows machines.

Note: v8.71 of GS has some key fonts that are not included in later releases of GS and these fonts are also no longer included with newer MS-Windows versions either. So what ever you do ... never delete GS 8.71 from your machine.

You can now upgrade GS as follows:

a) Download and install the latest GS version 9.x or higher 64 bit version

  Do not uninstall GS 8.71

b) Install GS 9.x and make sure that you set the GS_DLL environment variable ...

   ie: GS_DLL=C:\Program Files\GS\gs9.01\bin  (for example)

c) Delete the old "Sybase DataWindow PS" printer definition

d) Install a new "Sybase DataWindow PS" printer from the GS 9.x 64 bit .INF file located in the GS install's LIB sub-folder.

e) Optional: replace the GS 8.71 BIN folder in your system path with the GS 9.x BIN location.

f) Reboot your PC.

FWIW: This procedure works for me and all my clients every time! Tested with PB 10.5 through all versions to PB 12.5.2

HTH

Regards ... Chris

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I just tried 9.14 64 bit and it doesn't work for me.

I think you are over complicating it. Version 8.70 32 bit works perfectly fine for all PB versions on 32 and 64 bit Windows and has the now missing fonts.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

PowerBuilder 12 or 12.5 will not work with GhostScript 9.X 64-bit  because the ghostscript executed is named gswin64c.exe.   PowerBuilder is looking for gswin32c.exe.

You can rename the gswin64c.exe to gswin32c.exe and Ghostscript 9.X should work ok.

This issue was fixed in PowerBuilder 12.5.2 (build 5006).

This information is also listed in KBA 1895292 (its a https link).

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

FWIW: The 32 bit versions of GS do not work for me at all on any 64 bit MS-Windows.  However,

I only use PB 12.1 and higher these days. 

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Beverly;

  I have no issues with GS 9.x with PB 12.1, 12.5.1 or 12.5.2. Just follow the installation procedure I outlined for Roland earlier in this thread.

HTH

Regards ... Chris

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I have some additional information. Windows 8 and 8.1 will not allow you to install unsigned drivers.

There is a startup setting to disable this restriction. Watch this video to see how it is done:

How to disable driver signature enforcement - Windows 8.1 & 8 - YouTube

[CobyKako · Accepted solution]

To complete your answer, I'm attaching a screenshot about the error message you may receive when the feature is not disabled

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

My experience was that the Add Printer window would reappear almost immediately with no error message at all.

I have found that Windows 8 has a lot of arbitrary changes that make things more difficult. For example, to change a wireless connection from Public to Private, you have to go through several screens to 'Forget' it and then reconnect. The option to rename a connection is completely removed. They are also doing an extremely poor job making sure things are compatible. This week they released an update to Excel & Word that causes an error in Windows Update. You have to download the update file and run it manually. Also, a change they made in November has broken Winhlp32.exe so old fashioned help files can no longer be used.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks guys for this thread. Just been bashing my head over Windows 8, needed to install 8.7 first. Everything worked after that

PB11 by the way.

[Former Member]

Hello Roland,

In the past I have done a search of the PowerBuilder DLL files to solve my GhostScript issues.  It has always worked for me to find out what GhostScript should work...

[Former Member]

Interesting that 12.6 has references to such old versions in it.

I just installed the latest version 9.19 32-bit and it works perfectly with PB 10.5 on Windows 7 64bit.

I think that you have to use the 32bit version since PowerBuilder is 32bit. Chris says it depends on the bitness of Windows. In my experience that hasn't been the case. Luckily Appeon is replacing Ghostscript with the PDF generation code they developed for their existing products.

[Former Member]

Hi Roland;

  I just tried the latest GhostScript release that you mentioned ...

1) GS 9.19 would only install / work with the 64 bit version on my W10 64 bit PC's. The 32 bit version would not install under W10.

2) For the 1st time, you no longer need GS version 8.71 to remain/be installed when using GS 9.19 to handle the font mappings properly! 

Note to All: You must install the "Sybase DataWindow PS" printer from the ghostpdf.inf provided in "C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.19\lib" folder!

Regards ... Chris

[Former Member]

Hi,

I'm facing an issue to print DW to PDF on PB11.5, Windows 7 (x64)..

1. I installed GhostScript 8.70. (x64)

2. Added a new Printer with Printer Name as "Sybase DataWindow PS" and Port: FILE

and mapped "C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.70\lib\ghostpdf.inf".

3. Print a Test Page as PDF. It is generated PDF but when I open getting following error message.

4. And when I do through PB code, got a PDF file with 0KB.

I much appreciated your assistance.

Thank you in advance.

[Former Member]

Hi Madhu;

  I would strongly recommend that you follow these steps exactly when configuring GhostScript for PB 11.5.x as well ...

Creating pdf files in powerbuilder 12.1 classic... | SCN

HTH

Regards ... Chris