How to programmatically print to PDF file without prompting for filename in C# using the Microsoft Print To PDF printer that comes with Windows 10

Question

Microsoft Windows 10 comes with a Microsoft Print To PDF printer which can print something to a PDF file. It prompts for the filename to download.

How can I programmatically control this from C# to not prompt for the PDF filename but save to a specific filename in some folder that I provide?

This is for batch processing of printing a lot of documents or other types of files to a PDF programmatically.

Answer 1

To print a PrintDocument object using the Microsoft Print to PDF printer without prompting for a filename, here is the pure code way to do this:

// generate a file name as the current date/time in unix timestamp format string file = (DateTime.UtcNow.Subtract(new DateTime(1970, 1, 1))).TotalSeconds.ToString();  // the directory to store the output. string directory = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);  // initialize PrintDocument object PrintDocument doc = new PrintDocument() {     PrinterSettings = new PrinterSettings() {         // set the printer to 'Microsoft Print to PDF'         PrinterName = "Microsoft Print to PDF",          // tell the object this document will print to file         PrintToFile = true,          // set the filename to whatever you like (full path)         PrintFileName = Path.Combine(directory, file + ".pdf"),     } };  doc.Print(); 

You can also use this method for other Save as File type printers such as Microsoft XPS Printer