Printing a PDF Silently with Adobe Acrobat

Question

I'm having 2 issues when trying to print a pdf silently in C# using adobe acrobat. I'm printing the pdfs using Process.Start().

The first issue is that I cannot launch Adobe Acrobat without specifying the full path to the executable. I assume it doesn't add it to your path when you install it. Is there an easy way to launch the newest version of acrobat on a machine without specifying full path names? I'm worried that the client is going to do an update and break my code that launches this. I'm also concerned with them installing this on machines with different versions of windows (install paths are different in 64 bit environment vs. 32 bit).

My second problem is the fact that whenever I launch acrobat and print it still leaves the acrobat window open. I thought that the command line parameters I was using would suppress all of this but apparently not.

I'm trying to launch adobe acrobat from the command line with the following syntax:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader>AcroRd32.exe /t "Label.pdf" "HP4000" "HP LaserJet 4100 Series PCL6" "out.pdf"

It prints out fine but it still leaves the acrobat window up. Is there any other solution besides going out and killing the process programmatically?

Solution 1

I ended up bailing on Adobe Acrobat here and going with FoxIt Reader (Free pdf reader) to do my pdf printing. This is the code I'm using to print via FoxIt in C#:

Process pdfProcess = new Process();
pdfProcess.StartInfo.FileName = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\Foxit Reader.exe";
pdfProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = string.Format(@"-p {0}", fileNameToSave);
pdfProcess.Start();

The above code prints to the default printer but there are command line parameters you can use to specify file and printer. You can use the following syntax:

Foxit Reader.exe -t "pdf filename" "printer name"

Update:

Apparently earlier versions of acrobat do not have the problem outlined above either. If you use a much older version (4.x or something similar) it does not exhibit this problem.

Some printers do support native pdf printing as well so it's possible to send the raw pdf data to the printer and it might print it. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/322091 for sending raw data to the printer.

Update 2

In later versions of our software we ended up using a paid product:

http://www.pdfprinting.net/

Solution 2

Nick's answer looked good to me, so I translated it to c#. It works!

using System.Diagnostics;

namespace Whatever
{
static class pdfPrint
{
    public static void pdfTest(string pdfFileName)
    {
       string processFilename = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine
            .OpenSubKey("Software")
            .OpenSubKey("Microsoft")
            .OpenSubKey("Windows")
            .OpenSubKey("CurrentVersion")
            .OpenSubKey("App Paths")
            .OpenSubKey("AcroRd32.exe")
            .GetValue(String.Empty).ToString();

        ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo();
        info.Verb = "print";
        info.FileName = processFilename;
        info.Arguments = String.Format("/p /h {0}", pdfFileName);
        info.CreateNoWindow = true;
        info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden; 
        //(It won't be hidden anyway... thanks Adobe!)
        info.UseShellExecute = false;

        Process p = Process.Start(info);
        p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

        int counter = 0;
        while (!p.HasExited)
        {
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
            counter += 1;
            if (counter == 5) break;
        }
        if (!p.HasExited)
        {
            p.CloseMainWindow();
            p.Kill();
        }
    }
}

}

Solution 3

I've tried both Adobe Reader and Foxit without luck. The current versions of both are very fond of popping up windows and leaving processes running. Ended up using Sumatra PDF which is very unobtrusive. Here's the code I use. Not a trace of any windows and process exits nicely when it's done printing.

    public static void SumatraPrint(string pdfFile, string printer)
    {
        var exePath = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(
            @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion" +
            @"\App Paths\SumatraPDF.exe").GetValue("").ToString();

        var args = $"-print-to \"{printer}\" {pdfFile}";

        var process = Process.Start(exePath, args);
        process.WaitForExit();
    }

Solution 4

The following is tested in both Acrobat Reader 8.1.3 and Acrobat Pro 11.0.06, and the following functionality is confirmed:

1. Locates the default Acrobat executable on the system
2. Sends the file to the local printer
3. Closes Acrobat, regardless of version

string applicationPath;

var printApplicationRegistryPaths = new[]
{
    @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Acrobat.exe",
    @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\AcroRD32.exe"
};

foreach (var printApplicationRegistryPath in printApplicationRegistryPaths)
{
    using (var regKeyAppRoot = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(printApplicationRegistryPath))
    {
        if (regKeyAppRoot == null)
        {
            continue;
        }

        applicationPath = (string)regKeyAppRoot.GetValue(null); 

        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(applicationPath))
        {
            return applicationPath;
        }
    }
}

// Print to Acrobat
const string flagNoSplashScreen = "/s";
const string flagOpenMinimized = "/h";

var flagPrintFileToPrinter = string.Format("/t \"{0}\" \"{1}\"", printFileName, printerName); 

var args = string.Format("{0} {1} {2}", flagNoSplashScreen, flagOpenMinimized, flagPrintFileToPrinter);

var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
    FileName = printApplicationPath, 
    Arguments = args, 
    CreateNoWindow = true, 
    ErrorDialog = false, 
    UseShellExecute = false, 
    WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden
};

var process = Process.Start(startInfo);

// Close Acrobat regardless of version
if (process != null)
{
    process.WaitForInputIdle();
    process.CloseMainWindow();
}

Solution 5

got another solution .. its combination of other snippets from stackOverflow. When I call CloseMainWindow, and then call Kill .. adobe closes down

    Dim info As New ProcessStartInfo()
    info.Verb = "print"
    info.FileName = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("Software").OpenSubKey("Microsoft").OpenSubKey("Windows").OpenSubKey("CurrentVersion").OpenSubKey("App Paths").OpenSubKey("AcroRd32.exe").GetValue(String.Empty).ToString()
    info.Arguments = String.Format("/p /h {0}", "c:\log\test.pdf")
    info.CreateNoWindow = True
    info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden
    info.UseShellExecute = False

    Dim p As Process = Process.Start(info)
    p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden

    Dim counter As Integer = 0
    Do Until p.HasExited
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
        counter += 1
        If counter = 5 Then
            Exit Do
        End If
    Loop
    If p.HasExited = False Then
        p.CloseMainWindow()
        p.Kill()
    End If

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