Lots of pdf files

[Greg Lindstrom]

Hello-
I'm running Python 2.3 on a Linux system and have lots (about 2000)
files in pdf format to print each day. If I just wind up and fire all
the files at the printer at once (as 2000 separate print jobs), the
print server throws a fit and our system admin comes down and slaps me
around for a few minutes (which, I guess, is fair).

There does not appear to be a simple way to merge many pdf's into one.
I could, for example, merge all of the files for a particular provider
into one pdf for that provider and then print it (or, better
yet...encrypt it and ship it!), but I do not see a way.

Any suggestions? As it stands now, I'm printing sending 200 files,
waiting until the queue is clear, then another 200, and so forth.
Eventually we will be paperless (if for no other reason this seems
insane to me), but what can I do in the meantime?

Thanks for your help!

--greg

--
Greg Lindstrom 501 975.4859 (office)
Senior Programmer 501 219-4455 (fax)
NovaSys Health (e-mail address removed)
Little Rock, Arkansas

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." W.W.

 

[Wojciech Mula]

There does not appear to be a simple way to merge many pdf's into one.

Program pdftk can merge pdf's, but I have never tried it.
You may also use pdflatex --- there is a package called pdfpages
provides powerful command \includepdf.

w.

 

[Paul Rubin]

There does not appear to be a simple way to merge many pdf's into one.

There's probably some way to do it with pstops or some related program
or set of programs.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

There's probably some way to do it with pstops or some related program
or set of programs.

The pdftk manpage gives this as one of its examples:

pdftk *.pdf cat output combined.pdf

<http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/>

 

[Ralf Muschall]

Hello-
I'm running Python 2.3 on a Linux system and have lots (about 2000)
files in pdf format to print each day. If I just wind up and fire all
the files at the printer at once (as 2000 separate print jobs), the
print server throws a fit and our system admin comes down and slaps me
around for a few minutes (which, I guess, is fair).

Are your sure it is the number (and not the sum of the sizes) of
the jobs your admin is worrying about?

What about

#!/bin/sh
for i in *.pdf; do
lpr $i
sleep 10
done

(maybe adding something that waits until the queue is empty instead
of sleep)?

Ralf

 

[Duncan Booth]

I'm running Python 2.3 on a Linux system and have lots (about 2000)
files in pdf format to print each day. If I just wind up and fire all
the files at the printer at once (as 2000 separate print jobs), the
print server throws a fit and our system admin comes down and slaps me
around for a few minutes (which, I guess, is fair).

There does not appear to be a simple way to merge many pdf's into one.
I could, for example, merge all of the files for a particular provider
into one pdf for that provider and then print it (or, better
yet...encrypt it and ship it!), but I do not see a way.

A quick Google search turns up lots of program which claim to merge PDFs
files. e.g. http://www.verypdf.com/pdfpg/index.html (for a mere $29.90,
except it is GPL'd so I'm not sure what the money is for).

Or perhaps PDCAT, http://www.pdf-tools.com/asp/products.asp?name=CLE for
$150, or $250 if you want to be able to encrypt the output and ship it.

 

[nick]

There's probably some way to do it with pstops or some related program
or set of programs.

Google for "multivalent tools" - a collection of Java applications
for PDF manipulation...


N.

 

[Richie Hindle]

[Duncan]

a mere $29.90, except it is GPL'd so I'm not sure what the money is for

"Tech support [...] free forever for registered users."

But I've often wondered whether you could charge for mass-market GPL software
simply because your ordinary punter doesn't know what the GPL is, and doesn't
mind paying a small amount of money for decent software. Whether it's
ethical, given that presumably the thing is GPL because it inherits GPL code
from other developers, I don't know. Certainly the GPL itself has no
objection to charging for binaries provided you ship the source as well.

 

[Terry Hancock]

a mere $29.90, except it is GPL'd so I'm not sure what the money is for

"Tech support [...] free forever for registered users."

Hmm. Though that raises the old spectre of charging a fixed price for
a "loss center".

But I've often wondered whether you could charge for mass-market GPL software
simply because your ordinary punter doesn't know what the GPL is, and doesn't
mind paying a small amount of money for decent software. Whether it's
ethical, given that presumably the thing is GPL because it inherits GPL code
from other developers, I don't know. Certainly the GPL itself has no
objection to charging for binaries provided you ship the source as well.

Sure it's ethical. I suspect most GPL developers would love to see it work.
Of course, you might have to worry about them pre-empting you. ;-)

The problem is that competition will tend to drive the price to the marginal
cost of distribution. By tacking on a value-added feature (printed documentation
or tech support), you are improving the "production quality" of the copy
you are selling, which means you can (sustainably) charge a bit more.

Still hard to make money at it, though.