Can a PDF file's print dialog be opened with Javascript?

I know how to open a webpage in a new window and add javascript so the print dialog pops up. Is there a way to do a similar thing with a PDF file?

Solution 1:

Yes you can...

PDFs have Javascript support. I needed to have auto print capabilities when a PHP-generated PDF was created and I was able to use FPDF to get it to work:

http://www.fpdf.org/en/script/script36.php

Solution 2:

I usually do something similar to the approach given by How to Use JavaScript to Print a PDF (eHow.com), using an iframe.

a function to house the print trigger...

function printTrigger(elementId) {
    var getMyFrame = document.getElementById(elementId);
    getMyFrame.focus();
    getMyFrame.contentWindow.print();
}

an button to give the user access...

(an onClick on an a or button or input or whatever you wish)
```
<input type="button" value="Print" onclick="printTrigger('iFramePdf');" />
```

an iframe pointing to your PDF...

<iframe id="iFramePdf" src="myPdfUrl.pdf" style="display:none;"></iframe>

Bonus Idea #1 - Create the iframe and add it to your page within the printTrigger(); so that the PDF isn't loaded until the user clicks your "Print" button, then the javascript can attack! the iframe and trigger the print dialog.

Bonus Idea #2 - Extra credit if you disable your "Print" button and give the user a little loading spinner or something after they click it, so that they know something's in process instead of clicking it repeatedly!

Solution 3:

Just figured out how to do this within the PDF itself - if you have acrobat pro, go to your pages tab, right click on the thumbnail for the first page, and click page properties. Click on the actions tab at the top of the window and under select trigger choose page open. Under select action choose "run a javascript". Then in the javascript window, type this:

this.print({bUI: false, bSilent: true, bShrinkToFit: true});

This will print your document without a dialogue to the default printer on your machine. If you want the print dialog, just change bUI to true, bSilent to false, and optionally, remove the shrink to fit parameter.

Auto-printing PDF!

Solution 4:

I use named action instead of javascript because javascript often is disabled, and if it isn't it gives a warning.

My web application creates a postscript file that then is converted with ghostscript to a pdf. I want it to print automatically because the user has already clicked on print inside my application. With the information about named actions from @DSimon above, I researched how to solve this. It all boils down to insert the string /Type /Action /S /Named /N /Print at the right place in the pdf.

I was thinking of writing a small utility, but it has to parse the pdf to find the root node, insert /OpenAction with a reference an object with the action, and recalculate the byte-offsets in xref.

But then I found out about pdfmark which is an extension to postscript to express, in postscript syntax, idioms that are converted to pdf by Adobes distiller or by ghostscript.

Since I'm already using ghostscript, all I have to do is append the following to the end of my postscript file:

%AUTOPRINT
[ /_objdef {PrintAction} /type /dict /OBJ pdfmark
[ {PrintAction} << /Type /Action /S /Named /N /Print >> /PUT pdfmark
[ {Catalog} << /OpenAction {PrintAction} >> /PUT pdfmark

and ghostscript will create the action, link it, and calculate the xref offsets. (In postscript % is a comment and PrintAction is my name for the object)

By looking at the PDF I see that it has created this:

1 0 obj
<</Type /Catalog /Pages 3 0 R
/OpenAction  9 0 R
/Metadata 10 0 R
>>
endobj

9 0 obj
<</S/Named
/Type/Action
/N/Print>>endobj

1 0 is object 1, revision 0, and 9 0 is object 9, revision 0. In the pdf-trailer is says that it is object 1 that is the root node. As you can see there is a reference from object 1, /OpenAction to run object 9 revision 0.

With ghostscript it's possible to convert a pdf to postscript (pdf2ps), append the text above, and convert it back to pdf with ps2pdf. It should be noted that meta-information about the pdf is lost in this conversion. I haven't searched more into this.