Re: RE: [iText-questions] (no subject)

[Vineet Reynolds]

I'll tell you why it is problematic to achieve it in certain situations.

1) To print a PDF you will need to convert the PDF into the printer-understandable input [ tough, given the varieties of printers available ; and you will eventually reduce PDF to just a file storage mechanism]. Not recommended given the fact that PDF rasterizers are built with months of research and development and are usually expensive to buy.
2) You can get programs like Ghostscript or Acrobat Reader to do the printing for you. These come with their own restrictions.
For eg: Adobe Acrobat Reader is known to print the PDF, but is unable to terminate itself. In other words, you will see an empty acrobat reader window open, after you have commanded it to print [ via Inter Application Communication or DDE or AppletScript.....]. And when it comes to Ghostscript , I doubt if many novices would like to install such software.
3) You can embed _javascript_ code in the PDF file that will cause it to do an automatic print followed by closure of the PDF document. This can be subverted by disabling _javascript_ in Acrobat Reader / or any other PDF Viewer.
4) Printing a PDF file delivered via a webpage is something that must be forgotten altogether - it depends completely on how the user's browser in configured. If the browser has a PDF plugin / helper app, the PDF file will open in the browser window and you cant close the PDF document programatically  once it is opened. If the browser doesnt have the PDF plugin, then the user will be prompted on how the PDF document is to be handled [ open or save ].
5) You can writer your own browser helper application to automate the printing. But it must be done for every browser and your users must install the helper application.
6) You can display the PDF file within the browser using an applet, which brings problems like presence of the Sun JRE/ MS JVM. The applet must also be digitally signed so that it will have the security permission to print the PDF file.
Moreover the applet contain code to print the PDF file via Java Print Service - impossible considering that no one has written a PDF print service provider for Java. Or the applet must reference commercial Java libraries that can print the PDF file without any user intervention.
7) Open-source (yes I knew it would come to this) Java libraries may not be well tested or lack the required features. You can try JPedal or pdfbox.

I have given up trying to implement automated/silent printing after discovering all these issues. Please dont waste any more time trying to find out that extra bit that you feel might still be possible. If your boss still insists, it is time to move on.