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Unattended printing to PDF file

Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:52 pm
by Hannes, Tech Support
The iMacros PRINT command can not only select "real" printers, but also those "pseudo" printers that save the pages as PDF instead of really printing them.

However, many of these print-to-PDF softwares asks you to enter a filename when the "PDF printer" is about to print. So full automation requires PDF printers that do not ask for a filename but allow for some generic naming of the generated PDF files.

Here's three pieces of software that we came across that allow for unattended "printing":

- eDocPrintPro (http://www.pdfprinter.at/en/home.html)
- eDocPrinter http://www.iteksoft.com
- PDF creator (http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator)

If you know of other suitable PDF printers, feel free to add them to this thread.

Re: Unattended printing to PDF file

Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 1:55 pm
by DariusK
I'm using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, and can print to an Adobe PDF printer. After clicking Print, I'm asked for a file name. However, there is a workaround for this. When the printer choices come up, select the Adobe PDF printer, then click on Properties. On the Printing Preferences dialog, see the "Adobe PDF Output Folder" dropdown. Change it from "Prompt for Adobe PDF filename" to some other folder (there is a My Documents\*.pdf, but others can be added by clicking on the adjacent Browse... button). With this setting, it is then possible to loop through multiple page prints (e.g., when printing pages for a variety of lookups).

iMacros 6.50 (iMacros for IE Add-On Build: 6)
Internet Explorer (IE) Version: 7.0.5730.13
WIndows XP (Build 2600) Service Pack 3

Re: Unattended printing to PDF file

Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 2:02 pm
by Hannes, Tech Support
Thanks for sharing, DariusK!

Re: Unattended printing to PDF file

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:17 am
by MuseOfLife
A lot of pdf creators do not support 64-bit OS. Month ago I have discovered [url=http://www.ronyasoft.com/products/pdf-printer/]Free PDF Converter[/url] in the net. It works perfectly on my 64-bit XP.

Re: Unattended printing to PDF file

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 6:34 am
by Hannes, Tech Support
Thanks a lot!

Re: Unattended printing to PDF file

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:53 pm
by davygrvy
Ghostscript with RedMon can do it too, I think. But like all things Ghostscript, much "hacking" is required for the uninitiated.

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/redmon/index.htm

Re: Unattended printing to PDF file

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:43 am
by Hannes, Tech Support
Thanks!