Printing PCL and Postscripts generated by Output ES2

You would usually have this case when you are doing Server-side printing i.e. the document will be generated by Output ES2 and sent to a network printer as a part of the business process.

1) Single Documents
If your use case has a requirement to generated individual/single templates and sent it to a network printer in either PCL/PS format, then you should know the following -

1.1 Tray Selection
Implicit and Explicit tray selection are possible by using an XDC file. If you are using common paper sizes like Letter/Legal/A4 etc, all you need to do is configure the XDC file and map appropriate paper size to paper tray. If you have custom paper sizes, you must first define a new paper type in the XDC file and then map it to a specific tray on the printer.

1.2 Simplex Duplex
These properties can be configured on the master pages. When OUTPUT ES2 generates a PCL/PS using GeneratePrintedOutput Service it creates the document such that it prints as expected.

2) Assembled Documents
If your use case required you to do a server side printing of the assembled document in either PCL or PS format then you should know the following -

2.1 Tray Selection
Implicit and Explicit tray selection are possible by using an XDC file. If you are using common paper sizes like Letter/Legal/A4 etc, all you need to do is configure the XDC file and map appropriate paper size to paper tray. If you have custom paper sizes, you must first define a new paper type in the XDC file and then map it to a specific tray on the printer.

2.2 Simplex/Duplex
These properties can be configured on the master pages. When OUTPUT ES2 generates a PCL/PS using GeneratePrintedOutput Service it creates the document such that it prints as expected.

Note that for assembled documents, you must first merge all the XDP and then render a PDF from the merged XDP to get the correct results.

Printing PDF Documents Generated by Output ES2

You would usually have this case when you are doing a Desktop Printing. i.e. you want the Output ES2 to generate a PDF document for your calling application to display PDF to the user. The user would then use the “Print” button on Adobe Reader Toolbar to print the document.

1) Single Documents
If your use case has a requirement to render individual documents using Output ES2 and print them individually, then you need to know the following.

1.1 Tray Selection
Explicit Tray Selection not possible.
If you check “Select Paper Source based on Paper Size” from Adobe Reader’s Print Dialog box, it will pick the first non-secured paper-tray that has paper with required page size. If no such trays are found, it will ask for manual feed.

1.2 Simplex/Duplex
Define it in Form Properties and when you print it, it will print with right Simplex/Duplex Settings.

2) Assembled Documents

If your use case requires you to assemble multiple PDF documents before printing it, then you should know the following.

2.1 Tray Selection
Explicit tray selection is not possible.
If you check “Select Paper Source based on Paper Size”, it will pick the first nonsecured paper-tray that has paper with required page size. If no such trays are found, it will ask for manual feed.

2.2 Simplex/Duplex
When individual XDP are merged together, the “Form Properties” of only the base document is retained. And since we are using the OUTPUT ES2 to render a PDF, the generated PDF is a flat PDF which loses all the XFA characteristics (like master pages, JavaScripts etc)

Thus – in an assembled document, if the first template is “simplex” all the pages will be printed in Simplex manner. Similarly, if the first template is “Duplex” all the pages will be printed in Duplex mode.

How to : Hide Adobe Reader Toolbars when Opening a PDF in Web Browser

For the explanation’s sake, let us consider a simple URL which displays the PDF form.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

In reality this will be replaced by the application URL of the application.

Step 1: Removing the toolbar

Append “#toolbar=0” at the end of the URL as shown in the screenshot below

Note that the toolbar is no longer visible in the rendered PDF.

Step 2: Removing the Navigation Panes, Status Panes and setting other properties.

Now, to remove additional toolbars such as Navigation Panes , Status Bar just append the following to the URL separating each of the qualifiers by “&”.

So the URL would look like –

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf#toolbar=0&statusbar=0&navpanes=0

Note that none of the toolbars are visible now.

You can also set the Zoom property to 100% by adding one more qualifier “&zoom=100” to the URL.

About "Livecycle-ed" blog

Dear Bloggers/Readers,

The blog - "Livecycle-ed" is intended to help you with learning livecycle quickly and easily. I will also be posting many re-usable components that will help you develop an application using Livecycle easily and quickly.

A bit of introduction about myself - I am from Mumbai, India and working with Livecycle for more than 4 years. I have worked on multiple implementation projects from Livecycle 6, Livecycle 7 and also on Livecycle ES.

This blog will mostly give you idea on various aspects of form design using Livecycle ES 8.2

In case you have any suggestions, please drop me a comment/email. I would be more than happy to help you in anyway I can.

Thanks & Regards,
Priyank Pardiwala