Auto printing PDF files

[dlscott56]

Is there a way to print PDF files within the .NET framework? I'd like to set up a directory to monitor and when files are copied there, the program prints the PDF file and deletes it. I just don't know how to handle the printing without using Adobe.

Thanks in advance for you help.

[nbrege]

To programatically print PDF's you are pretty much stuck to using a 3rd party product, such as Adobe Reader. PDF-Xchange & Foxit also allow printing from the command line if you dont like Adobe, but with any of them you need to have the product installed on the machine that will be doing the printing.

[Elfish]

This should work for you. Use this to call

Try
            Print.PrintPDF("C:\mypdffile.pdf")
        Catch ex As Exception
            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
        End Try

This

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
 
Public Class Print
    Private Const SW_SHOWNORMAL As Integer = 2
    <DllImport("shell32")> _
    Private Shared Function ShellExecute(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, _
                                        ByVal lpOperation As String, _
                                        ByVal lpFile As String, _
                                        ByVal lpParameters As String, _
                                        ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
                                        ByVal nShowCmd As Integer) As IntPtr
    End Function
 
    Public Shared Sub PrintPDF(ByVal FilePath As String)
        If IO.File.Exists(FilePath) Then
            If ShellExecute(CType(1, IntPtr), "Print", FilePath, "", _
            Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(FilePath), SW_SHOWNORMAL).ToInt32 <= 32 Then
                Throw New Exception("Error: The file did not print.")
            End If
        Else
            Throw New Exception("Error: The file does not exist.")
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

After reading nbrege's post I am wondering if I misunderstood the original request. Are you trying to do this without having Adobe (or equivalent) installed on the client machines?

[dlscott56]

Actually I was asking if it could be done without Adobe, or third party software, installed.

If I have to use third party software then Adobe is fine. Can I handle errors in the background? We have an older VB6 program that is used currently and it runs into problems if there is anything wrong with the PDF file. An Abobe message pops up waiting for user to respond and the program stops functioning.