Scripting print run from PDF

[JLRobertson]

Our shop does fulfilment work for companies that provide their clients with pension accounting services, part of which involves audited mailings of personal pension information.

We have just received a 4,400 page PDF; each of the 1,100 recipients will be receiving an eight page folded and stitched half-legal size document. The PDF has been set up in printers spreads in a legal-sized doc, the first client is the first four pages, the second client the second set of four pages, and so on.

We're printing on an Ikon CPP650 fronted with Creo PowerPro Plus v2.0. Each booklet will have to be sent one at a time as the front end does not of course recognize each booklet as a discrete entity.

Without some kind of automation, an operator will be entering numbers into print parameters for a very long time, and the opportunity for error is tremendous.

I believe I am looking for a scripted solution to this challenge. But I have no idea if scripting a print run is even possible. It would have to tell Acrobat to print pages 1-4, then pages 5-8, then pages 9-12, etc.

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Can you drop a PDF into a hot-folder for output, rather than printing? Acrobat Pro has a split document feature that can breakup the original file into separate documents of 4 pages per doc. If you can't drop a PDF into the front-end, can you drop in or import a batch of .ps files? Acrobat Can export multiple files to PostScript, so you could first split and then export (yes, you still have to process 1100 separate documents).

So, this is not the "best solution" - however it may be "a possible solution".


Hope this helps,

Stephen Marsh

 

[Zwicker Press]

Can you drop a PDF into a hot-folder for output, rather than printing?

I agree with this method. Use Acrobat to split the file every four pages. Then drop all (1100) files into a direct-print hot folder configured for the booklets.
One question though; If you drop 1100 files at once into a hot folder, what order are they processed in? Alphabetical?
I'm assuming this job needs to be kept in order.

 

[JLRobertson]

Thanks to both of you ... yep, the hot folder route is possible, I'll look into the print order, the job will be run in smallish batches to facilitate the auditing.

 

[arossetti]

Does your creo rip offer subset finishing? Our FreeFlow servers allow us to tell the printer to stitch and fold ever 4 sheets so you wouldn't have to worry about breaking up the file.