The adobe plugin will display a file correctly, and it will print correctly. However, selecting "print to file" generates, not a PDF, but a PCL type file: thufir@dur:~/Documents$ thufir@dur:~/Documents$ file mystery.pdf mystery.pdf: HP Printer Job Language data thufir@dur:~/Documents$ thufir@dur:~/Documents$ pdfinfo mystery.pdf Syntax Warning: May not be a PDF file (continuing anyway) Syntax Error: Couldn't find trailer dictionary Syntax Error: Couldn't read xref table thufir@dur:~/Documents$ thufir@dur:~/Documents$ head -n 2 mystery.pdf %-12345X@PJL @PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = HBP thufir@dur:~/Documents$ how do save this as a PDF? Was it a PDF when Adobe reader read it, or was that something else? Was it always a PJL file? HBP is "Host Based Printing" which makes me think that host is generating non-human readable data. Yet, if the Adobe Reader plug-in can read it, correctly, and send it to the printer, it must be, at some point, either postscript or something similar for fonts.... How do i get the text data? This is on Windows XP. I'm suspecting that even "print to pdf" with PDFCreator will still result in gibberish...