Print multipage PDF on different printer-trays

Question

I am generating a PDF by PHP with FPDF. This works well.

Now what I want:
From a multipage PDF all pages expect the last one have to print with paper from tray1 and the last page from tray2.

Now the Question:
How is this possible? Is this a Acrobat Reader issue? Can it be done with JavaScript in PDF?

Answer 1

It is not possible, as PDFs do not contain any information on the printer trays or other information. It is actually set in the printer instructions through the client's printer driver, who has to provide this information to the client program. If you need this functionality for batch processing, you'd have to leave PHP and get on the client side, e.g. through the Acrobat SDK, in which you can give this information, e.g. on a PostScript printer via the SetPageDevice-function

Answer 2

I use CUPS on an intranet website. I don't specify a tray and my code is ruby, but the principle definitely works.

Here's my code, see if you can adapt it for your scenario

def print(path)
  raise ArgumentError, "'#{path}' does not exist" unless File.file?(path)

  `lp -s -d printer_name -h 127.0.0.1 -o page-ranges=1-4 -o media=A4,Upper #{path}`

  $?.to_i == 0 ? true : false
end

The basic idea is to generate the PDF, save it to disk then call this method to shell out to CUPS. You might need to play with the media option to get it doing what you need. 'Upper' is the tray you're targeting.

Make sure path is sanitised before being passed to this method or you risk opening a security hole.