Sometimes the hardest information to find is that what you want to do
isn't possible. So let me tell you what is and what isn't possible, in
printing PDFs in Windows.
1) You can OPEN a PDF based on its file extension. From the command line,
you can simply type type pathname of the PDF. From Windows Explorer, you
can double-click. These use a system in Windows called "file
associations". Specifically here, you're using the OPEN verb. In the
Windows registry there is a command associated with ".PDF" and "open";
typically it runs Adobe Reader. Once open, it is up to the user to print
the file.
2) You can also execute the command string yourself, if you know what EXE
to use. That is what you cited in a later email.
3) In Windows Explorer, you can also right-click on a PDF and select
"Print", to cause Windows to print the file on the default printer. This
is using the "print" verb in the file association. Behind the scenes, this
will run a command, typically running Adobe Reader with a "/p" parameter
(for "print").
4) There is NOT an equivalent way to do this from the command line.
5) You can create a shortcut to a specific printer on your desktop. Then
you can drag a PDF to this shortcut, and it MAY print on this
(non-default) printer. This uses the less-documented "printto" verb
in the system of file associations. Support in Reader for printing in this
way has varied by version.
6) There is NOT an equivalent way to do this from the command line.
7) You MIGHT be able to invoke Reader with some command line parameters to
cause it to print on a specific printer. Results may vary by version.
8) NONE of these will let you control various output options in Reader,
such as whether the report should be shrunk to fit the printable page.
9) All of these assume that the PDF file to be printed exists on the
Windows PC, or is accessible to it, such as via Samba. None will pull the
file from an HTTP or FTP server.
Bottom line is that there is not a good and convenient way to do this
using Windows commands.
However, we offer a solution, in the form of our Print Wizard product.
Consider the following command:
printwiz.exe http://somehost.com/somefile.pdf /p"My laserjet printer"
This will bring up printwiz.exe, which will fetch the PDF from the http
server into memory (never being stored on the local disk), and print it to
the specified printer. Printwiz is doing the PDF interpretation itself, it
is not using any Adobe or other products.
There are a huge number of other options, such as shrink-to-fit, page
range, multiple copies, password entry, preview, watermarking, form
overlaying, and more.
See www.anzio.com for more details and a free demo.
On Thu, 4 Apr 2013, Bruce Conway - Bamac LTD wrote:
I may have missed this discussion but if someone can help me that would be
great.
We have been executing a SB command to windows to open Adobe and print the
PDF document. We would like to either not have to open Adobe and print the
document or print the document from within our Unix box.
We have a hp7640 11iv3 running on an Itanium processor.
Here is the Unidata information:
Module Name Version Licensed
UniData RDBMS............ 7.2 Yes
Connection Pooling....... 7.2 No
Device License........... 7.2 No
NFA...................... 7.2 No
RFS...................... 7.2 No
EDA...................... 7.2 No
721
Oh, love this list, I have been using Pick since 1985 and still going
strong.
Bruce
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Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen, President, Rasmussen Software, Inc.
personal e-mail: r...@anzio.com
company e-mail: r...@anzio.com
voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
fax: (US) 503-624-0760
web: http://www.anzio.com
street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
Portland, OR 97223 USA
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