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I used 'process' to print pdf file in C# app.But i cannot get the print status.I found that it is possible to interact with printer/queue with System.management and System.printing.I did a lot of trial n error using these two namespaces but couldnt print a file.Any examples availble on how to use these to print a pdf doc to printer?

Murali Uppangala
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3 Answers3

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System.Printing cannot be used to print PDFs. PDFs has to be rendered to a printable file first.

See this question and its answers for a nice overview of different approaches.

If you're on linux you can easily call lp command.

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Johan van der Slikke
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This Question has already been answered here How can I send a file document to the printer and have it print?.

You cannot print a pdf with standard methods cause it needs to be rendered first, you can user Ghostscript, Adobe Acrobat or something else for that.

Edit: Johan was faster

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BudBrot
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    But these examples doesnt show how to get status of print ..They Use Process to print file.From those process is it possible get print status? I guess no!! – Murali Uppangala Nov 22 '13 at 11:42
  • @mmu not direct, no. But take a look at PrintServer.GetPrintQueues. This is can give you a printers status. Yo can check it in a second Thread or something. Im not sure if you look for the printers status or the print job status. If you want the print job status take a look at Win32_PrintJob. – BudBrot Nov 22 '13 at 11:53
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If you have a WPF application, then use System.Printing.

Here's code:

var file = File.ReadAllBytes(pdfFilePath);
var printQueue = LocalPrintServer.GetDefaultPrintQueue();

using (var job = printQueue.AddJob())
using (var stream = job.JobStream)
{
    stream.Write(file, 0, file.Length);
}

Now, this namespace must be used with a WPF application. It does not play well with ASP.NET or Windows Service. It should not be used with Windows Forms, as it has System.Drawing.Printing. I don't have a single issue with my PDF printing using the above code, but I'm all ears as to why it doesn't work for someone else.

I should mention that you have to have a printer that will support direct printing, as you're sending the information directly to the printer. In my experience, this has worked with Brother HL series and Sharp enterprise printers. I wish this would work for other things, such as Excel documents, but it doesn't. Luckily, those are easy to print in other manners.

B.K.
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    It would be nice if whoever gave this a downvote would provide feedback that lead them to their decision. This has worked perfectly for me, but I'm all ears. There might have been a specific case and it would be nice if you shared with others. – B.K. Mar 09 '15 at 21:22
  • @KJ I did mention that you need to have a printer which supports direct printing... that's the last paragraph. – B.K. Aug 02 '23 at 18:45