Batch PDF Printing to PostScript Printer

[Jeff Carlin]

We need to batch convert PDF files to PostScript for printing. We're running hp-ux 11.11. I researched some other posts here on the ITRC and started down the path of using acroreader. This worked for printing interactively, but I can't determine a way to make it work without having a DISPLAY set.

Has anyone else done this and what did you do?

I am open to using GhostScript, but I have no clue how to get it set up on my system, let alone use it.

[Dennis Handly]

When I invoke acroread with -? I get:
-toPostScript [options] pdf_file ... [ps_dir]
-toPostScript [options] -pairs pdf_file_1 ps_file_1 ...
-toPostScript [options]
Converts the given pdf_files to PostScript.

On page 5 of the acroread help it says:

To display a list of all Acrobat Reader command-line options (UNIX), start the Acrobat Reader product with the -help option. For example: acroread -help

Page 10 has:
Printing PDF documents from the command line (UNIX)

[john korterman]

Hi Jeff,

try setting the DISPLAY variable like this:
$ export DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0

and then try acroread like this:
$ /path/to/acroread -toPostScript -shrink < /path/to/whatever.pdf | lp -d myprinter


regards,
John K.

[Jeff Carlin]

I had tried that, still get the error:

(acroread:27492): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

[Ermin Borovac · Accepted solution]

Try using Xvfb (virtual framebuffer X server).

$ xinit acroread -toPostscript -pairs file.pdf file.ps -- /usr/bin/X11/Xvfb :1

[Jeff Carlin]

Thanks for the identifying the xinit approach. It worked for me like this:

xinit /usr/local/bin/printpdf.sh -ld {printer} {pdf_file} -- /usr/bin/X11/Xvfb :0

I wrote a wrapper for acroread to specify the PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH for GTK+. It also specifies some options I needed set for acroread.

Again, thanks everyone for the help!