Server side printing of PDF files over the network installed Printers

Question

Gone through the already existing posts on this topic, but my requirement is some what bit different.

Print jobs over the Network installed printers, upon a action in client side browser. Web server has got all printers in it, based on the client data, we need to print with client given configuration straight away, sending the job to printer(may be a different locations - but this is not a problem since the printers are in same network). I have seen printing architecture, Win32_print Class, SNMP, System.drawing.Printing, System.Printing.... but couldn't find the way to achieve this.. (Asp.net,C#)

-Files are been already existed in a server folder, just I need to pick up and send to a printer with client Selected Configuration...

update:I have to use JDF approach because all the files are PDF files. I am able to create JDF files with the selected configuration but sending this JDF to printer(JDF enabled) making me tough... There is JMF which post the JDF to printer, but not sure how to implement it.. still finding the ways, will be great if some one helps in this.

Answer 1

Something I can answer! 8-) I'm actually working on a project that uses this, right now.

Do not use Acrobat Reader as any sort of server application. It has a User Interface that will pop up on a screen that doesn't exist, at an unexpected time and freeze your app, waiting for a click that will never happen.

Use Ghostscript. Ghostscript is free, Open Source and will work perfectly for what you want. Out-of-the-box it consists of a DLL and a command line inhterface, however there is an API and a ton of different interfaces including .Net, and versions for both Windows and Linux.

On a more "overview" type of note, the reason you can drag a PDF into a printer on your workstation is because Acrobat Reader contains the code and hooks to allow this. Windows doesn't actually contain native functionality to print PDFs.