We are looking for a reference guide for PDF (Adobe) printing. Our goal is to generate PDF print files from scratch with native code (like we currently use ESC codes to format printouts in PCL). Any suggestions for books and/or web resources would be greatly appreciated.

In my A-Shell applications (which run under Linux), all of my programs already produce PCL reports and documents. So instead of modifying my code, I purchased a license to use an excellent product called "pcl2pdf". A simple command converts a proper PCL file into a proper PDF file which can then be viewed and printed in Acrobat Reader.

After reviewing a few similar programs, I chose this package because it was easy to work with, reasonably priced (although not cheap), and I could specify a directory containing PCL macros (which my documents use for logos and signatures.)

For more information about pcl2pdf see the VISUAL SOFTWARE web site: www.visual.co.uk

I spoke to Neil Geddes, the President of this English company and found him to be very responsive to my inquiries and problems. Good luck to you.