News and Reviews > Mini-Reviews by Members
Mini-Review of Print2Flash (Virtual Printer - Prints anything to Flash)
Jimdoria:
Good review, thanks for the heads up.
I somehow got the impression that the entire app went for US$20. (I guess my eyes just gravitated to the word "Starbucks" :) ) When I found it it was actually $80 I was a bit surprised.
Adobe's own FlashPaper application is $79, which makes me wonder why you'd want this app over the one from the publishers of Flash. US$60 for a version with most of the functionality disabled is a bit of a wash for me, frankly.
Since this program really has only one competitor (FlashPaper) I'd have liked to see more of a head-to-head comparison. The whole PDF thing seems to me to be a bit of red herring. It's not really relevant to which app is better at creating Flash-based documents, the entire purpose of which is to avoid using PDF. PDF output is worth a mention maybe, as the two apps are almost identically priced and such a feature might tip the scales for one or the other, but it seems to have displaced any discussion of the real differences in the functionality between the two apps when used for their main intended purpose.
Also, the ability to remove a logo from my document is not really a feature or a benefit in this case. FlashPaper would let me create a document without logos to begin with! I see this more of a ding for Print2Flash than a benefit. Not letting you at least disable the company's logo spam in an app you've paid $60 for is really kind of inexcusable.
When I thought Print2Flash cost US$20, I was trying to figure out how soon I could afford to buy it. At $60, I might still be somewhat interested, if it weren't for the logo thing. But at $80, I'll probably just give it a pass.
Jimdoria:
Just had to chime in with one more thing. I struggled for about an hour to get Print2Flash working properly on my machine with MS Publisher. I got it to print correctly exactly once. Word and "Print Test Page" both worked fine with it, but it just ignored Publisher's print jobs.
Or so I thought.
As I monkeyed around trying to get it to print from Publisher, I kept tweaking settings, printing, tweaking settings, printing. I tried printing to the driver and printing directly from the Print2Flash app, even printing from the context menu. Every time, the print dialog would display the progress bar saying it was printing to the Print2Flash Printer on port "ne09:" (or something like that) but when the progress dialog disappeared, the Print2Flash app window would not come up, or if already up, would not respond. The Print2Flash Printer control panel never showed any jobs pending.
The infuriating part came later. I am on a network, and after I printed something else, I walked over to the network printer, and there were dozens of identical print jobs there! Print2Flash was somehow passing all the print jobs through to the default printer! Since I had been toying with custom page sizes, the print queue had stalled while the printer waited for someone to load the custom paper. More time and paper wasted while I straightened out the mess. Thankfully no one else was waiting for a critical print job.
It is off my hard drive now. No thanks. :down:
patteo:
Adobe's own FlashPaper application is $79, which makes me wonder why you'd want this app over the one from the publishers of Flash. US$60 for a version with most of the functionality disabled is a bit of a wash for me, frankly.
-Jimdoria (April 26, 2007, 12:21 PM)
--- End quote ---
Actually :
Print2Flash Basic (US$59.95) = Flashpaper 2 (US$79)
Print2Flash Pro (US$79) = Flashpaper 2 (on Steroids) But it does not exist
Perhaps another way to phrase it is :
Adobe's Flashpaper 2 is US$80; but I'm only getting functionality that I could get for only US$60 in Print2Flash.
It then makes me wonder why should I pay US$80 for Flashpaper2 when I can get "Flashpaper2 on Steroids" (in the form of Print2Flash Pro) for the same price.
Besides, Print2Flash provides Free Upgrades. Of course, no one can guarantee a constant stream of upgrades.
But in the time that I was reviewing Print2Flash and communicating with the authors, they have provided me with some insights of what is in the works and I know a newer version is in the works that could provide functionality that would interest a wider group of "regular" people.
Since this program really has only one competitor (FlashPaper) I'd have liked to see more of a head-to-head comparison.
-Jimdoria (April 26, 2007, 12:21 PM)
--- End quote ---
In a sense, you are right, but in the spirit of a Mini-Review, the main coverage is on the program being reviewed. In only a full review, one would cover a head-to-head comparison.
But a quick and dirty comparison for flash functionality is here :
Think Flashpaper 2 when you see Basic in this comparison.
[attach=#1][/attach]
The whole PDF thing seems to me to be a bit of red herring. It's not really relevant to which app is better at creating Flash-based documents, the entire purpose of which is to avoid using PDF. PDF output is worth a mention maybe, as the two apps are almost identically priced and such a feature might tip the scales for one or the other, but it seems to have displaced any discussion of the real differences in the functionality between the two apps when used for their main intended purpose.
-Jimdoria (April 26, 2007, 12:21 PM)
--- End quote ---
Precisely ! PDF functionality (in Flashpaper 2) is mentioned simply because for Flash functionality :
Print2Flash Basic (US$59.95) = Flashpaper 2 (US$79)
Print2Flash Pro (US$79) = Flashpaper 2 (on Steroids)
Also, the ability to remove a logo from my document is not really a feature or a benefit in this case. FlashPaper would let me create a document without logos to begin with! I see this more of a ding for Print2Flash than a benefit. Not letting you at least disable the company's logo spam in an app you've paid $60 for is really kind of inexcusable.
-Jimdoria (April 26, 2007, 12:21 PM)
--- End quote ---
Interesting. Which version of Flashpaper2 are you using ? In every example of Flashpaper2 output I have seen, there is a Macromedia/Adobe logo near the top left of Flashpaper 2 document.
Try downloading a Flashpaper 2 output to take a look from http://www.gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/download.asp?file=DirectoryOpus8UpdateNotesSWF.exe
My trial period for Flashpaper 2 has expired so I cannot go back to see if it is possible to remove the logo.
I remembered that the logo could not be removed and I agree with you that it's Logo Spam which is why I would go for Print2Flash Pro.
When I thought Print2Flash cost US$20, I was trying to figure out how soon I could afford to buy it. At $60, I might still be somewhat interested, if it weren't for the logo thing. But at $80, I'll probably just give it a pass.
-Jimdoria (April 26, 2007, 12:21 PM)
--- End quote ---
Well, if there was enough interest, donationcoder could approach them or I could approach them for a discount for members.
Just had to chime in with one more thing. I struggled for about an hour to get Print2Flash working properly on my machine with MS Publisher. I got it to print correctly exactly once. Word and "Print Test Page" both worked fine with it, but it just ignored Publisher's print jobs.
Or so I thought.
As I monkeyed around trying to get it to print from Publisher, I kept tweaking settings, printing, tweaking settings, printing. I tried printing to the driver and printing directly from the Print2Flash app, even printing from the context menu. Every time, the print dialog would display the progress bar saying it was printing to the Print2Flash Printer on port "ne09:" (or something like that) but when the progress dialog disappeared, the Print2Flash app window would not come up, or if already up, would not respond. The Print2Flash Printer control panel never showed any jobs pending.
The infuriating part came later. I am on a network, and after I printed something else, I walked over to the network printer, and there were dozens of identical print jobs there! Print2Flash was somehow passing all the print jobs through to the default printer! Since I had been toying with custom page sizes, the print queue had stalled while the printer waited for someone to load the custom paper. More time and paper wasted while I straightened out the mess. Thankfully no one else was waiting for a critical print job.
It is off my hard drive now. No thanks. :down:
-Jimdoria (April 26, 2007, 04:18 PM)
--- End quote ---
I'm sorry to hear you are having so much problems.
What I did after reading your post was to try printing from a whole string of programs that I had, even from those that I would not normally print from.
I have had absolutely no problems at all except for Treepad which simpy refused to print to Print2Flash. I will probably have to reinstall Treepad to see if I could identify the problem.
Programs that I successfully printed to Print2Flash include:
Microsoft Powerpoint 2003, Excel 2003, Access 2003, Outlook Express 6. Others include Screenshot captor, Corel Draw, Corel Paint, Phatnotes, Listpro 3, Ewallet, Firefox 2, IE7, My Life Organized, Acrobat Reader 8, Windows Notepad, Ecco Pro. And that is virtually all the programs I could conceivably ever want to print from.
Please note that in all instances, I'm printing to a local printer, whether Print2Flash, a Canon printer, Fineprint etc although I'm in a local area network. I do not have a network printer.
Lann:
Update: since version 4.0 Print2Flash supports not only Flash but HTML5 format as well. This is a nice capability as Flash support has been declining over years. Now you can convert any printable document to both formats to be loaded and shown in any modern browser even without Flash installed or even without Flash support.
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