If you had PDFs, you could probably do it.
But if you have a bunch of different proprietary application files....
each one is different, and needs software that can interpret the file
and turn it into a print job (postscript, or whatever). Normally this
software is the 'full application' that owns it, say Microsoft Word.
The particular application may come with software to 'silently' print,
but most probably does not. The particular format may have a competitor
that can open it (say, OpenOffice for Microsoft Word), and an open
source competitor is perhaps more likely to have such 'silent printing'
ability -- but it would still need to be done on a format-by-format basis.
I don't know if anyone's selling software that can try to do what you're
talking about for a multitude of popular formats. But it's pretty much
impossible for there to be software that can do it for every/any format.
I think you're not going to have much luck.
Perhaps you could figure out a way to use some kind of Windows 'macro'
program to actually open up each document in the 'full application' and
choose File/Print, but to do this unattended. I am not familiar with
such software.
On 4/3/2012 2:48 PM, Kozlowski,Brendon wrote:
Not a dumb question at all. In this particular case, the receiving PC that is
to be storing/printing the documents will be taking jobs from multiple
networks, buildings, etc by either piping an email account, or downloading via
a user's upload from a webpage. We already have a solution for catching jobs in
the print spooler (not ours), but need to automate the sending of the documents
to the spooler itself.
The only way I've ever sent documents to the spooler was by opening up the full
application (ex: Microsoft Word), and using the GUI to send the print job.
Since the PC housing and releasing these files is expected to be un-manned and
sit in a back room, we just need to be able to silently print the jobs in the
background. Opening multiple applications over and over again would use up a
lot of resources, so a silent, no-GUI option would be the best from my very
little understanding - if it's even possible.
Brendon Kozlowski
Web Administrator
Saratoga Springs Public Library
49 Henry Street
Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866
[518] 584-7860 x217
________________________________________
From: Code for Libraries [CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] on behalf of Kyle Banerjee
[baner...@uoregon.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 1:25 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Silently print (no GUI) in Windows
At the risk of asking a dumb question, why wouldn't a print server meet
your use case if the print jobs come from elsewhere?
kyle
On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 9:15 AM, Kozlowski,Brendon<bkozlow...@sals.edu>wrote:
I'm curious to know if anyone has discovered ways of silently printing
documents from such Windows applications as:
- Acrobat Reader (current version)
- Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visio, etc...)
- Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
I unfortunately haven't had much luck finding any resources on this.
I'd like to be able to receive documents in a queue like fashion to a
single PC and simply print them off as they arrive. However, automating the
loading/exiting of the full-blown application each time, and on-demand,
seems a little too cumbersome and unnecessary.
I have not yet decided on whether I'd be scripting it (PHP, AutoIT, batch
files, VBS, Powershell, etc...) or learning and then writing a .NET
application. If .NET solutions use the COM object, the scripting becomes a
potential candidate. Unfortunately I need to know how, or even if, it's
even possible to do first.
Thank you for any and all feedback or assistance.
Brendon Kozlowski
Web Administrator
Saratoga Springs Public Library
49 Henry Street
Saratoga Springs, NY, 12866
[518] 584-7860 x217
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