Tom,
1) The manual port setting is something that can be done
programmatically. There is actually someone who sells a package (on
http://www.mast-computer.com/) that works in conjuction with
GhostScript and Redmon to accomplish the same goal I did. His
application which costs 13 dollars (which again I was too cheap to buy)
asks for the path to Redmon and Ghostscript and then creates the port
programmitcally to those specs, so this is can definitely be done.
Depending on the scope of your project, creating the port through code
may be well worth your time.
2) My printer can be used to print programmitically. It involves two
lines of code generally, first you write a line to the file that
contains the desired pdf name, then you simple use your code to print
the document to the already setup printer. We use this current
solution to print PDFs straight from MS Access. We had some ad hoc
reports that we generate for clients from Access and last week my boss
insisted we not send snapshot format. I use a macro and write a line
to pdf name file and then call print on the report. This puts the PDF
report where ever I specify based on the client. This loops through
each client putting each file on our SFTP location for client
retrieval. Any code you have that can print can be automated.
3) As for just printing to a file, I think this presents the same
problem as printing to PDF. You still would be required to manually
enter an output file name. I have printed to a postscript file on
Linux systems via one shell command never on XP though. It would be
nice if this kind of application was available then you could skip the
whole printer port issue which I agree would ease this whole process,
does Distiller API have to ability to print to postscript via command
line arguments or passed variables? From what I saw on the API
documenation it looked like it was just concerned with taking
postscript documents to PDF. (forgive me I am pretty ignorant when it
comes to Distiller)
The Adobe® Acrobat® Distiller® application converts PostScript
language page descriptions into Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
4) So far I use this on one PC that outputs PDF reports weekly for
clients. It runs on a scheduled task and therefore its all done
programmtically. This was the limitation I had to get around in the
Mast-Computer.com product because it could only print to a specific
file name and you couldnt change it dynamically through code like I
needed to for each client. I havent had the need to install this on
mulitple end users machines but if that is the case you I would say it
may be a pain to write the code to create the port but without it, it
will be a bigger pain :(. Definitely the best thing would be to find
something that gets you a PS file with one shell command then convert
it with Ghost!!!
So what are you trying to accomplish? What type of documents do you
want to print to PDF and what is the whole process you are looking at?
Are you wanting to build a full out installation exe? I am just trying
to get a picture of your specific needs?
-Tony