Printing PDFs from Windows Command Line

Question

I'm trying to print all pdfs in current dir. When I call this bash script in cmd (singlepdf.sh): '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"' /t Gemeinde_348_BioID_842_alt.pdf everything's working fine.

When calling multiplepdfs.sh with this content:

declare -a pdfs=(*.pdf)

for pdf in ${pdfs[@]}; do
  echo -e "\nprinting **$pdf** with AcroRd32.exe...\n"
  '"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"' /t $pdf
  sleep 3
done

The echo shows that files are addressed correctly in the loop - but then I get the error "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe": No such file or directory

Can someone help out with this issue?

Edit: BTW, I have msys mingw installed

Solution 1

I know this is and old question, but i was faced with the same problem recently and none of the answers worked for me:

• Couldn't find an old Foxit Reader version
• As @pilkch said 2Printer adds a report page
• Adobe Reader opens a gui

After searching a little more i found this: http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/pdftoprinter.html.

It's a simple exe that you call with the filename and it prints to the default printer (or one that you specify). From the site:

PDFtoPrinter is a program for printing PDF files from the Windows command line. The program is designed generally for the Windows command line and also for use with the vDos DOS emulator.

To print a PDF file to the default Windows printer, use this command:

PDFtoPrinter.exe filename.pdf

To print to a specific printer, add the name of the printer in quotation marks:

PDFtoPrinter.exe filename.pdf "Name of Printer"

If you want to print to a network printer, use the name that appears in Windows print dialogs, like this (and be careful to note the two backslashes at the start of the name and the single backslash after the servername):

PDFtoPrinter.exe filename.pdf "\\SERVER\PrinterName"

Solution 2

I had two problems with using Acrobat Reader for this task.

1. The command line API is not officially supported, so it could change or be removed without warning.
2. Send a print command to Reader loads up the GUI, with seemingly no way to prevent it. I needed the process to be transparent to the user.

I stumbled across this blog, that suggests using Foxit Reader. Foxit Reader is free, the API is almost identical to Acrobat Reader, but crucially is documented and does not load the GUI for print jobs.

A word of warning, don't just click through the install process without paying attention, it tries to install unrelated software as well. Why are software vendors still doing this???

Solution 3

Looks like you are missing the printer name, driver, and port - in that order. Your final command should resemble:

AcroRd32.exe /t <file.pdf> <printer_name> <printer_driver> <printer_port>

For example:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /t "C:\Folder\File.pdf" "Brother MFC-7820N USB Printer" "Brother MFC-7820N USB Printer" "IP_192.168.10.110"

Note: To find the printer information, right click your printer and choose properties. In my case shown above, the printer name and driver name matched - but your information may differ.

Solution 4

The error message is telling you.

Try just

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /t "$pdf"

When you enclose the string in single-quotes, this makes everything inside a valid string, including the " chars. By removing the single-quotes, the shell will process the dbl-quotes as string "wrappers".

I would also wrap the filename variable in dbl-quotes so you can easily process files with spaces in their names, i.e.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /t "$pdf"

IHTH

Solution 5

I had the similar problem with printing multiple PDF files in a row and found only workaround by using 2Printer software. Command line example to print PDF files:

2Printer.exe -s "C:\In\*.PDF" -prn "HP LasetJet 1100"

It is free for non-commercial use at http://doc2prn.com/

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