how to print to both a physical printer and pdf at once

[farooq82]

I would like to thank all you who help when I am in deep trouble. Every time when I stuck to problem I love to post my problem here.

Now my new problem is very different. Can some help me to create following:

I want to create a application in C# 2008 that takes print in two places, one is on regular printer and second is in PDF file.

For example, If I send print to printer from word application, it also print in PDF file at same time. PDF file name could be any name. Dynamic like PDF20100111.pdf.

Actual requirement is "how to print to both a physical printer and pdf at once".

At this time I don't know where to start this project. I need some suggestion please help me

[sknake]

What are you attempting to print? Really if you have a raw canvas or whatever spooled up on a machine to print ... and take the same print job and create a PDF document ... you could wind up with two slightly different documents. There are some limitations to the PDF format, and depending what you are doing here, that might cause the PDF to not look exactly like the print job. You can work around this by creating the PDF as an image instead of Text but then you don't have a search-friendly PDF.

I would create a PDF then print the PDF so you have consistent printing.

[Steven_e_n]

I would like to thank all you who help when I am in deep trouble. Every time when I stuck to problem I love to post my problem here.

Now my new problem is very different. Can some help me to create following:

I want to create a application in C# 2008 that takes print in two places, one is on regular printer and second is in PDF file.

For example, If I send print to printer from word application, it also print in PDF file at same time. PDF file name could be any name. Dynamic like PDF20100111.pdf.

Actual requirement is "how to print to both a physical printer and pdf at once".

At this time I don't know where to start this project. I need some suggestion please help me

This seems that, within a company, would be a decent cost reduction for possibly a finance dept.(time saved)

I am not experienced in this field but and quite intrigued by the topic.

If this change was made, would they always do both?
If that were the case the whole idea should be re-thought.
BUT, if some way you could create a virtual printer which instructed the document to print to NP999 and to Adobe PDF and they could select this virtual printer from their printer select choices... I believe this would be a great idea.

Hope my imput was helpful.

Thanks,
Steven N.
Information Systems Engineer

[farooq82]

Dear sknake,

I would like to send print from winword or excel or Microsoft paint. It will print on both places printer and pdf. I like your idea. But please let me know how would I do this. I would create pdf image and sent to printer. Please tell about how to create pdf file please tell which dll file in need to add as a references.

[sknake]

Use a virtual printer. Office can output PDF documents directly but I tend to stay away from MS Office Automation as much as possible. Don't get me wrong it does work -- but when something fails it usually takes more time to run down.

You can install CutePDF:
http://www.cutepdf.com/

On a side note I would "submit" documents to a central server for processing (if possible). I don't know how your application/network is structured but it is usually easier to maintain a single document machine.

[jbennet]

Due to the way the windows print spooler works, im not sure if you can print to two devices simultaneously?