Zan Image Printer - a Windows print to file driver (TIFF,JPEG,BMP,GIF,PNG,PDF)

Print to File Tips

Zan Image Printer: a Windows print to file (TIFF/JPEG/JPEG 2000/BMP/GIF/PNG/PDF) virtual printer driver.

Follow the instructions below to correct any errors that occur during printing:

1. Close all printing applications and delete all pending print jobs in the queue.

2. Bring up the Task List by right-clicking on the Task Bar and selecting "Task Manager". Select zvprtsrv.exe and click the "End Process" button to close all running instances of zvprtsrv.exe.

3. Open the command prompt and type net stop spooler; this stops the print spooler service.
Then type net start spooler; this restarts the print spooler service.

4. Certain versions of some anti-virus software packages may misidentify Zan Image Printer as a virus. Temporarily disable or even uninstall the anti-virus software on your computer to identify the problem if Zan Image Printer creates an incomplete image file while printing.
For example, Kaspersky may block Zan Image Printer when you save as a TIFF. The TIFF file is created but the contents are not printed, as a result the TIFF file is only 1KB in file size or so. You can do the following to fix it:
a. Open the main application window of Kaspersky Anti-Virus
b. Go to Settings->Service, select Compatibility mode for programs using self-protection methods
c. Reboot your PC
Note: Zan Image Printer does not use any self protection methods in the program.

5. If you have configured Zan Image Printer to save to a network folder or mapped network drive, ensure that the current user has write privileges for the network folder.

6. If you want to bypass any pop-up dialogs when you print, configure Zan Image Printer to operate in silent mode:
On the Save tab of the Zan Image Printer Printing Preferences dialog box, set the "When File Exists:" setting to "Auto pick a unique name to prevent collision" or "Always overwrite" and set the "Before Printing Starts Show the:" setting to "No Dialogs".

7. If these troubleshooting suggestions do not solve your problem, you can create a detailed log file to send us for examination. For more details, see the Program Information page.

Restrict the supported DPI/paper size to those that will actually be used by your printing application. You can then print to a printer with only your desired paper size/DPI available. For example, if you need to print at 300 x 300 DPI on Letter paper size, during the setup, you can configure the selected printer to only support 300 x 300 DPI and Letter paper size. In this way, the printing application is forced (restricted) to use 300 x 300 DPI and Letter paper size, i.e., the printing application will not be able to switch from 300 x 300 DPI to 600 x 600 DPI and you will no longer have to worry about the printing application overriding or ignoring the Zan Image Printer settings.

If you have decided to create printer-friendly versions of images, choose a dpi resolution that is the same as the dpi of the printer that will be used. For example, if printing to a 300 dpi printer, use 300 dpi.

If you are creating images for on-screen viewing or web presentation, you might want to try setting your printer to a lower DPI (e.g., 100 x 100). You don't need the extra data in image that is required for printing. Also, a higher dpi image may not fit on the screen without scrolling.

The generated image file size can be reduced using the following methods:
1. Reduce the dpi resolution (e.g., from 300 dpi to 150 dpi).
2. Use a smaller paper size when possible.
3. Print in black and white if possible. If color output is required, lower the color depth (e.g., from true color to 256 or grayscale).
4. Enable scaling.
5. Try different compression related settings.

Enable the status dialog whenever possible, it is very helpful and will display and update the current printing information on screen automatically.

If you only want to print to monochrome images, always choose the "Black & White" mode from the printer property sheet's Paper/Quality tab. Black & White mode can be used to print monochrome images very quickly.

If you want to print color (256, true color) or grayscale images, choose the "Color" mode from the printer property sheet's Paper/Quality tab. Printing in Color mode can be time consuming if the paper size is large and/or the DPI is high.

Printing at a large paper size and high DPI requires a large amount of memory and will slow the printing process greatly, use a smaller paper and/or lower DPI resolution whenever possible. For normal usage, the paper size can be Letter (United States) or A4 (Europe and throughout much of the world), and the resolution can be 300 x 300 or 200 x 200 DPI.

JPEG file is lossy even with a QFactor of 100. A JPEG QFactor of around 75 is good for nearly all images.

The size of the uncompressed image file may be tremendously large. The generated image file size depends greatly on the compression method. When used correctly, compression can be extremely beneficial. For TIFF files, try different compression methods to reduce the overall file size. For JPEG files, apply different JPEG quality factors to adjust the file size. For 256/grayscale BMP files, use RLE8 compression to reduce the file size.

Use CCITT Group 4 compression for monochrome TIFF files.

Use Packbits (RLE) compression for Color/Grayscale/True Color TIFF files.

Some image applications or file viewers are unable to open TIFF files with Deflate, LZW, or JPEG compression.

Some image programs cannot open/import compressed TIFF files, use uncompressed TIFF method for these programs.

Some image applications can only open single-strip TIFF files.

Specify a fixed file name for PDF/TIFF appending mode.

Revisit folders you opened previously by selecting them from the history folder dropdown list, this will give you fast access to your favorite folders.

You can set up multiple copies of Zan Image Printer that are each configured to print files to a different folder.

The local system account doesn't have access to network resources, and if zvprtsrv.exe is started in the local system account (e.g., you print to Zan Image Printer from system account, or use Zan Image Printer as a shared network printer), you cannot save the image to shared folders (UNC paths or network drives). This is by design. To workaround this limitation, you can enable null session sharing on the computer hosting the shared folders. Do a Google search for the keyword phrase "null session share" for more information on how to do this.

Microsoft Internet Explorer truncates long directory and file names. Make sure your HTML file name is short or copy the HTML file you want to print into a folder with short name.

When Zan Image Printer is in text extraction only mode, we recommend that you use a low DPI like 100 x 100 and print in Black & White mode, these optimizations can speed up the printing process greatly without affecting the quality of the output.

You can install multiple Zan Image Printer instances for different Email addresses on one computer. This allows you to simply print to the appropriate printer to go to the correct Email address.

Return to top