Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Print multiple files without opening them Desktop
Printing files in OS X is easy, and there are often a number of ways to do it. Personally, I would either print while the document is open or I would drag and drop a bunch of files from the Desktop or Finder to the Desktop printer. Well, there is yet another way to do it without dragging and dropping files on the desktop printer and without having documents open.

There is a contextual technique to print explained on Apple's web site: Printing from the Desktop (Without a Desktop Printer. I read this, and it raised my curiosity. At first thought, this is a good tip, but you have to press several keys before you get to the Printer Setup Utility where you can print your documents. Then I thought that this same feature would be neat if you can do the same thing at the stroke of a hotkey. A one-stroke hotkey to print multiple documents, without drag and drop, and without a desktop printer; how neat is that!?

Inspired by one of my Mac friends, I thought about writing an AppleScript that does the same thing without all the hassle of clicking a bunch of buttons to get to the Printer Setup Utility application. This AppleScript that I put together does the same thing as described in the above-linked article. Copy this script, save it as an application without the startup screen, give it a hot key in your favorite switching utility such as Butler, QuickSilver, DragThing, etc.

Select the documents in the Finder or the desktop that you want to print, hit the hotkey, and they will automatically print for you without opening up the documents. This is a good technique if you just want to quickly print small reports or daily log files. You can also you the script from the search results of the Finder. You will achieve the best results if you already have a default printer selected. It will print the documents with the printer's default settings such as name of printer, orientation, copies, etc. If you are into the Terminal, you can print the files the same way using this command:
open -a /Applications/Utilities/Printer\ Setup\ pathtofiles
Using the open shell command with the Printer Setup Utility in the Terminal is not published on this site, so this is yet another way to print documents without drag and drop and opening up the files. So now you have yet another tough choice; print either using drag and drop, or print via hotkey. Choose your poison.
    •    
  • Currently 2.00 / 5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  (4 votes cast)
 
[38,582 views]  

Print multiple files without opening them | 5 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Print multiple files without opening them' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Works for individual printers, too!
Authored by: rhowell on Apr 12, '05 10:26:14AM
Interestingly, this command works too:
open -a ~/Library/Printers/<some printer> <somefile>
This would allow finer control over where the document gets sent, if you have multiple printers.

[ Reply to This | # ]
enscript
Authored by: Daverz on Apr 12, '05 08:24:56PM
I use enscript, which is in /usr/bin, so I assume it's standard on OS X. I have this in my ~/.profile
alias print='enscript -2rG -DDuplex:true -DTumble:true'
That will print 2 pages per side in landscape mode with a gaudy header and with the sides matching up along the long edge. This uses the default printer. You can specify a printer with the -P switch just like lpr.
man enscript


[ Reply to This | # ]
Of course, the ideal thing would have been...
Authored by: jigg on Apr 12, '05 08:53:00PM

...if we could somehow add that "print" menu-entry in the "file" menu that Apple removed in OS X. Cmd-P is unused anyway, and with the added possibility to just select a menu command, even newbies would install this absolutely necessary add-on...



[ Reply to This | # ]
Of course, the ideal thing would have been...
Authored by: hatchethead on Apr 29, '05 10:00:03AM

This sounds great, but I want more. How can you pass setting to the printer, like duplex or 2-up, and such. None of the "printer on the desltop" or "printer in the sidebar" hints describe how you to control or set these additional functions. Do they? Certainly Applescript would allow you to pass a parameter to a printer. How?



[ Reply to This | # ]
Print multiple files without opening them
Authored by: harf on May 31, '05 10:32:26AM

it doesn't work with word files...

word run but there is only a blank page and no print task

is it a word problem ? are you a solution ?

Thanks



[ Reply to This | # ]