How to Batch Print PDF Files

Suppose you have several PDF docs located in a folder that you want to have on paper. You could open each one individually from a PDF viewer and print... Or, you could save a ton of time by avoiding a print setup for each file and going through the same dialog boxes over and over again. Use batch printing software – a desktop application or a command-line tool – to do this for you. Walk away and do other tasks while the docs are printing!

Contents:

Batch printing PDFs via a desktop application
Batch printing PDFs from the command line

Batch printing PDFs via a desktop application

There's an easy way to handle batch printing of PDF files. If you find using command-line utilities difficult, here's a user-friendly GUI-based solution by fCoder – Print Conductor.

With this desktop software, you can batch print many files – PDFs or other documents – in a few mouse clicks. Simply add your files to the list and click the Start Printing button.

Download Print Conductor

Batch printing PDFs from the command line

If you're looking for more ways to automate batch printing or want to make the entire process user-unattended, try 2Printer. This batch printing utility lets you automate printing PDF files via Windows Command Line. It can print a large number of PDF documents in different ways: from a folder, using a batch script, from a list, on a schedule, or even from another software.

Thanks to 2Printer's command line interface, a system administrator can automate printing of documents in a typical office. Or, a software developer can add a PDF printing feature to their software product. Let's see how 2Printer can batch print PDFs from the command line.

Batch printing all PDFs in a folder

To print PDF files from a folder, open the Run dialog box by pressing ⊞ Win + R combination on your keyboard. Then enter the command line as you see below and press Enter:

2Printer.exe -src "C:\In\*.PDF" -prn "iR C3025"

In this command, you should indicate the source of files (a folder) and the printer – this command will be sufficient for 2Printer to batch print all PDFs or other documents in a folder.

As you can see on the screenshot above, 2Printer works from Command Prompt – or any other application that can run console commands. 2Printer runs on Windows 10, 8, 7, XP (32-bit or 64-bit), or Windows Server 2003-2019 or later versions.

Download 2Printer

Printing to a specific printer

To print to a selected printer, just add the -prn switch and the necessary printer name in double quotation marks after it. First, you'll need to know the correct name of the printer installed on your computer.

How to get a list of all installed printers

Printing to the default printer

If you want to print PDF files to the system default printer, just skip the printer name parameter (-prn) in the 2Printer command line:

2Printer.exe -src "C:\In\*.PDF"

Don't forget to enter *.* after the backward slash at the end of the source file path. That will make 2Printer process any files with any file extension. To limit file processing to PDFs only, use *.PDF (or *.pdf).

How to check which printer is default

If a specific printer is not selected, 2Printer will use the printing preferences of the printer that is set to default in Windows. For example, paper size, color mode, orientation, and so on. To check which printer is set to default and its printing preferences, open Control Panel > Devices and Printers.

Go to the Windows Start menu > Control Panel > Devices and Printers;
Right-click the device and check if it marked as default;
Select Printing Preferences if you want to change them;
Change the defaults if necessary and click OK.

Batch script to print all PDF files in a folder

You can also create a batch file, for example, .bat or .cmd, with a 2Printer command. Here's a basic BAT script example:

Printing all PDF documents from a list

To batch print PDF files listed in a text file, add the @ symbol before the file path. That will indicate that it is a list of files with paths to be processed. Use this command line as an example:

2Printer.exe -src "@C:\docs.txt" -prn "iR C3025"

If you don't have such a list of files yet, please check our tutorial:

How to create a list of files with Notepad

Printing PDFs on a schedule

You can also make 2Printer print at a specific time and day. Add the 2Printer commands to Windows Task Scheduler if you want to print PDF documents saved in specific folders on a regular basis. For example, your employees may save all documents in a shared network folder during a day. Windows Task Scheduler will run 2Printer to print all collected files when everyone has already gone home after the workday.

How to set up scheduled printing step by step

Batch printing from your software or existing source code

2Printer commands can be called from other software or scripts.

Run print jobs from a VB Script

You also can save different command lines as VBScript files and use them depending on the situation. VB Script example:

Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run """2printer.exe"" -src ""C:\In\*.PDF"" -prn ""iR C3025""",1,True
Set objShell = Nothing

Use 2Printer in Visual C++ software

Software developers can use 2Printer as a ready-to-use printing core component in their own software product. Here is an example of 2Printer usage in Visual C++ source code:

ShellExecute(NULL, "open", "2printer.exe", "-src \"C:\\In\\*.pdf\" -prn \"iR C3025\"", NULL, SW_HIDE)