Batch Printing

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   I'm using PDF templates to merge data from a database and generate documents to be printed.

So, say that I have 8.000 customers on my database and I need to print 8.000 invoices for them.

I wonder to do it like this : I design the invoice PDF template and then, read my database and for each row, I stuff data and generate the PDF invoice.

Now the question :

Is it better to generate a huge PDF with 8.000 pages and send it to print at the end or to generate 8.000 PDFs and send them to print one by one, that is, page per page ?

On the first case, of a huge PDF, I'm afraid that the print method can get too slow.

On the other hand, if I generate 8.000 separated print jobs, dont know how Windows Spooler will cope with it.

How do you PDF Professionals out there use to do it ? 

What's the best approach ? Is there another one ?

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jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Batch Printing Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 7:30AM
	I'm using PDF templates to merge data from a database and generate documents to be printed. So, say that I have 8.000 customers on my database and I need to print 8.000 invoices for them. I wonder to do it like this : I design the invoice PDF template and then, read my database and for each row, I stuff data and generate the PDF invoice. Now the question : Is it better to generate a huge PDF with 8.000 pages and send it to print at the end or to generate 8.000 PDFs and send them to print one by one, that is, page per page ? On the first case, of a huge PDF, I'm afraid that the print method can get too slow. On the other hand, if I generate 8.000 separated print jobs, dont know how Windows Spooler will cope with it. How do you PDF Professionals out there use to do it ? What's the best approach ? Is there another one ?

JanN Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 29 Oct 05 Location: Germany Status: Offline Points: 116	Post Options Post Reply Quote JanN Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 8:13AM
	Why not generate 80 jobs with 100 pages each? Would be a nice compromise.

jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 8:17AM
	Never thought about that. Seems awkward. I prefer some sort of 1 to 1 relation. 1 job = 1 pdf = 8.000 pages or 1 job = 1 page = 1 pdf (need 8.000 printing jobs) Am I forcing QuickPDF too much ? Isnt there someone else who uses it to print so many pages ?

DELBEKE Members Profile Find Members Posts Debenu Quick PDF Library Expert Joined: 31 Oct 05 Location: France Status: Offline Points: 151	Post Options Post Reply Quote DELBEKE Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 10:18AM
	For my own i prefer making one pdf for each document, because i am working on a filing system where each document is indexed. when a pdf contains several documents, it may be painful to extract the document to recreate a temporary pdf file containing only the document we want to show. (A given user can see only some documents in the Pdf for confidential reasons). An other reason: if the printer crash. one document for one pdf permits to restart on the last unprinted pdf. not only the whole job. A third one, opening (for viewing) a Pdf file greater than 500 pages may be time consuming. On the other hand, printing a 8000 pages document in a single job is faster than printing 8000 one-page documents. Have a try for each method. that's the best advertisment i can give

chicks Members Profile Find Members Posts Debenu Quick PDF Library Expert Joined: 29 Oct 05 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 251	Post Options Post Reply Quote chicks Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 11:18AM
	A couple of notes: If you will routinely be printing large batches of PDF files, you will want to seriously look into investing in a PostScript 3 printer. These printers can NATIVELY print PDF files - no need to render from PDF to the printer's language, which is always time- and memory-intensive. There are many expensive software tools available to facilitate batch printing, but a favorite of mine is the free PrintFile: http://www.lerup.com/printfile/ It was originally written to send PostScript files directly to PostScript printers, but will also do the same for PDF files to PostScript 3 printers. BTW, the process you are describing is called Variable Data Publishing (VDP), and there are many commerical VDP solutions available. One that has recently been reduced in price (for the desktop version) and looks quite interesting is here: http://www.printable.com/vdp/ Edited by chicks

jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 11:53AM
	I guess I dont need the suggested program PrintFile, as long as I have a PostScript3 capable printer. Say that I generate the PDF as a file. Then I load the whole file as a string. Then I send the string directly to the printer. Wouldn't that work ? Who needs PrintFile ?

Ingo Members Profile Find Members Posts Moderator Group Joined: 29 Oct 05 Status: Offline Points: 3524	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ingo Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 2:28PM
	Hi! Why you don't post your messages in the help-section ;-) Best regards, Ingo

jabaltie Members Profile Find Members Posts Senior Member Joined: 08 Nov 05 Location: Brazil Status: Offline Points: 138	Post Options Post Reply Quote jabaltie Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Mar 06 at 2:36PM
	OK. I'll do it.