I'm not sure if I understand you fully. You want to send a file to a printer and use Perl for that?

I don't get why you want to put the data into a scalar in the first place? Why not send the file to the printer immediately? There several modules on CPAN to work with printers. Maybe Net::Printer? You didn't mention the platform you're on nor how your printing is setup. Maybe you should elaborate a bit.

Cheers

Harry