FEATURE: Insert Separator Pages During PRINTING

[djstracker]

I print workbook documents that need separator pages between sections.

I would like to load a 200 page document, tell the viewer where to insert separators and print it.

It seems only commercial printing software supports this feature.

I'm not sure if it is even possible to give a separator command to a printer WITHIN a PDF document, but if it is not, I would be willing to put up with the software breaking my document up into smaller documents as they were sent to the printer.

This would allow a "separator page insertion" function on consumer printers that have multiple drawers.

Haven't found this anywhere else.

Might be handy for small print and copy shops as well.

If anyone on these forums knows of something that does this already - I am very interested.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello djstracker,

I am not sure that's possible at all, but you can always insert empty (or from an existing file) pages to a PDF document using our Viewer, so you could have your separator page prepared and stored in a separate file, and then just include it where you need it before passing the file for printing.

The separator page (if with different dimensions) should be taken from the appropriate tray if you select the "Choose Paper Source by PDF Page Size" option and the printer drivers recognize that the different trays have differently sized sheets.

Best,
Stefan

[djstracker]

Stephan,
I was trying to indicate that this print functionality could be implemented by having your viewer product seamlessly break the PDF apart as part of the printing process.

Could you explain the method you suggest a little further with an example?

Would I insert A4 sized separators (for example) in a US Letter document and then tell the printer A4 size is in the alternate tray?

Thanks!

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello djstracker,

I do not think any such automatic splitting is planned or been worked on, but you can always only print portions of a document by manually specifying the page ranges needed.

As for my other idea - yes if you insert e.g. A4 pages, and in your printer you have letter sheets in Tray A and A4 sheets in Tray B, AND your printing drivers can recognize those - then inserting blank A4 pages inside your document can effectively simulate separator pages.

Also please excuse me if I am not fully aware of how separation pages are used in a print house routine, but I just had to familiarize myself with the idea today on the run from places like these:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 618AAkG56m
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102712

And by the look of it MS are recommending that this is done on the Printer Settings Level and not in a specific software product.

Best,
Stefan

[djstracker]

Stefan,
The pages you linked speak to the issue of separating entire jobs with separator pages.

Print / copy companies have special software that I believe only comes with the multi-thousand dollar toner based print / copy machines they buy. They can open a PDF and indicate a separator in between specific pages of the document WITHOUT having to actually split it on disk. It is a seamless process and the original files never have to be played with and the entire job can be sent many times after that.

The print job sent to the printer is in the proprietary language of such a machine.

When I need to print these manuals in-house or on-demand this is the one feature from their operation that I lack.

The trick is to make is less work than the current procedure of manually insert5ng slip sheets while binding (done by hand).

I was hoping your reader could emulate this functionality - but leave the original PDF intact.

I can actually easily break the PDF and send it as separate jobs, but then I can't "re-trigger" that entire job stream in proper order because it is a bunch of separate print jobs.

If done in the reader software, then I could simply have PDF X-change keep resending the job and if it dynamically broke up the job and I triggered separator pages (even a separate job if necessary).

I actually assemble the printed work book from individual modules (usually do this for commercial printer so they can't confuse the module order).

So there seem to be three possible ways to do this:

1) Dynamically break up the PDF during printing into separate jobs (maybe even separate jobs for the separator pages). Would work for any printer.

2) Insert different paper types in between modules (though I am not sure how to fake out the printer.)

3) Allow me to create a "Print Job" - saved in an INI or XML format maybe? So I specify individual PDFs and separator pages as a "print job" and the reader (or print job printer) simply sends them to the printer in that order. Some cool advantages to this possible approach: a) works with any printer, b) The underlying documents could change their number of pages and the saved print job would still work fine (no re-inserting), c) would rid me of the pain of making sure every subsection of the document has an even number of pages (inserting "Intentionally blank" pages) so that duplex printing always has the start of new chapters on the odd page side.

This last option would give me (and anyone creating workbooks with separated sections) the flexibility I need and even more than I was envisioning when making this request.

I would think that for many small shops this would be compelling functionality and I know that this feature alone would make me a paying customer.

By the way, I bragged you up on my blog with regard to your excellent 64-bit support: http://csi-windows.com/blog/all/27-csi- ... plwow64exe

[djstracker]

I'm not sure if I got my idea across.

Here is some spam-ware that kind of has the idea: http://www.hothotsoftware.com/print_mul ... _software/

But they do not allow:
1) Saving the print job definition
2) Inserting separator pages
3) Defining any per-pdf options.

So they are just thinking of queuing up a bunch of PDF files, not assembling individual PDFs into into a "Print Job".

This would really save me a lot of work beyond just separator pages when re-generating specific chapters of the overall book I print.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello djstracker,

And thanks for the detailed description. I have passed this as a feature request to our dev team:
#1070: Long Term FR: Insert Separator Pages During PRINTING

Please note that this is ust passing the request to them for consideration, and it is up to them to decide whether or not to implement it.
We will update you with any information on the ticket as it becomes available.

Best,
Stefan

[djstracker]

Thanks!

Yes I understand the nature of a feature request.

However, it is a little more than separator pages and a LOT more helpful than simple separator pages.

Maybe the FR should be titled "Saveable, Reprintable, Multi-PDF Print Jobs, incl. Separator Pages" ?

In any case, as long as they understand: a) How useful this would be to many of us, b) that there is nothing else that does it outside of proprietary printer software, I'll be happy.

Thanks.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

HI djstracker,

the contents of this forum thread are referenced in the Feature Request ticket so all that you have posted here will be taken into consideration.

hth

[djstracker]

I figured out a work around - but it would still be great to have a UI, savable jobs, automatic separator generation and the printer defaults for both job types configured in the software (since configuring two print queues against one printer is no something average user know can be done)!

1) Place chapters in a single folder - named in a way that causes them to sort in proper order
2) Use shell script FOR command to iterate through all PDFs
3) Issue pdfxview /printto:showui=no "DuplexDocSpecialPaperQueue" <document>
4) Then pdfxview /printto:showui=no "SeparatorPagePrintQueue" SEPARATOR.PDF

Both queues point to the exact same printer, but:

DuplexdocSpecialPaperQueue has all the defaults for the proper print tray, duplexing, etc.

SeparatorPagePrintQueue defaults to another tray that holds seperator paper, no duplex. SEPERATOR.PDF is a blank page.

[djstracker]

If someone does work on this, it would also be very nice if the software could take a FOLDER name and simply do all files in the folder in sorted order (as well as allowing the specification of individual files).

I wouldn't want a coded solution to be less flexible than my shell script

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Thanks djstracker,

For sharing the workaround you found!
And your additional comments are also noted and will be considered when the guys start working on this ticket.

Best,
Stefan