How to Send PDF Files to Different Printers Based on Paper Size or Page Count via Script

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How to Automatically Send PDF Files to Different Printers Based on Paper Size or Page Count

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Struggling to route PDFs to the right printers automatically? Here's how I solved that with VeryPDF PDFPrint and a simple script.

Ever wished your PDFs could just know where to print?

Every morning in the print room was chaos.

How to Send PDF Files to Different Printers Based on Paper Size or Page Count via Script

Invoices, reports, legal docseverything dumped into one printer queue.

Then someone would scream because 300-page financials were hogging the legal tray. Or someone printed A3 blueprints to an A4-only printer.

Manual sorting sucked.

I used to waste 45 minutes every day just routing files.

Until I found a way to let a script handle the whole thingsending PDFs to the right printer based on paper size or page count.

I did it using VeryPDF PDFPrint Command Line. Here's how.

The tool that changed the game

I stumbled across VeryPDF PDFPrint Command Line while digging through forums looking for ways to automate print jobs.

It's not flashy, and it's definitely not for the tech-averse.

But it works, and it works hard.

This tool is a command-line PDF printer for Windows that lets you control exactly how your files printfrom which printer, tray, and bin, to how they're rendered and formatted.

The best part? It doesn't need Adobe Reader or any GUI at all. Just fire it from a batch script and you're golden.

Who's this tool really for?

If you're:

  • Running a print-heavy department (finance, legal, logistics)

  • A sysadmin or IT support for an office drowning in PDFs

  • Managing a warehouse with multiple printers for labels, invoices, and shipment docs

  • Or you're like me and tired of fixing someone else's bad print decisions

You're gonna love this.

Here's how I use it: Real talk

Use case: Route by paper size

Let's say I've got PDFs where some are A4, some A3. I want A4s to go to the regular printer, A3s to the plotter.

I use this combo:

bat
pdfprint.exe -paper pdf -printer "HP-A4" small_doc.pdf

pdfprint.exe -paper pdf -printer "Canon-A3" large_blueprint.pdf

The -paper pdf flag reads the paper size from the file itself.

Pair that with a script that detects the paper size (you can do this with -listpapers and a little scripting logic), and boomauto-routing by size.

Use case: Route by page count

For our long-form audit reports, anything over 100 pages goes to the bulk printer in the copy room.

Smaller files stay local.

Here's how we script it:

bat
set pageCount=0

for /f %%a in ('pdfprint.exe -getpagecount input.pdf') do set pageCount=%%a
if %pageCount% GTR 100 (

pdfprint.exe -printer "BulkPrinter" input.pdf

) else (

pdfprint.exe -printer "LocalPrinter" input.pdf

)

Takes 2 seconds. Way faster than someone eyeballing 30 files.

Other killer features

  • No GUI neededworks straight from scripts or CMD

  • Watermarking: I add a "DRAFT" label to internal review prints using -watermark

  • Tray selection: With -papersource, I can even route colour vs. B&W to different trays

  • Print damaged PDFs: Some corrupted files wouldn't print from Acrobat. -preproc fixes that before printing.

Why this beat everything else I tried

Adobe automation? Way too fragile.

Other command-line tools? Either didn't support printer tray switching or failed on complex PDFs.

VeryPDF PDFPrint just works.

It's ugly, sure. It's all command line. But it's fast, precise, and reliable.

And when you're dealing with 1,000+ pages a day, that's what counts.

My bottom line?

VeryPDF PDFPrint Command Line took a painful, manual process and made it automatic.

I don't think about routing anymore. It just happens.

If you're juggling multiple printers and different document types, I'd highly recommend this tool.

Set it up once, write a smart script, and never babysit print queues again.

Start your free trial now and see how much time you'll save.

Custom Development Services by VeryPDF

Need something even more specific?

VeryPDF offers custom development for everything from printer monitoring tools to virtual drivers.

They've got deep experience with:

  • Windows, Linux, macOS PDF tools

  • Virtual printer drivers for generating PDFs, EMFs, and more

  • Printer job monitoring, intercepting, and redirection

  • Barcode reading/generation, OCR, layout detection

  • PDF security, digital signatures, DRM

  • Hook layers for intercepting system API calls

Whether you need to hook into system printing, handle tricky document types, or build cloud-based doc toolsthey've probably done it.

Reach out through their support center to talk shop.

FAQ

Q1: Can I use PDFPrint Command Line without Adobe Reader?

Yes. That's the beauty of it. It works entirely independently, no Acrobat needed.

Q2: Does it support printing to network printers?

Absolutely. As long as Windows recognises the printer, it can print to it.

Q3: How do I detect paper size before printing?

Use -listpapers or parse PDF metadata via script, then pass the right parameters to PDFPrint.

Q4: Can it merge multiple PDF jobs into one?

Yep, -mergeprintjobs is made for exactly that.

Q5: What if I have corrupt PDF files that won't print?

Try -preproc. It preprocesses the file before sending it to printworks wonders on broken files.

Tags or Keywords

  • route PDF to printer by page count

  • PDF auto printing by paper size

  • VeryPDF PDFPrint Command Line

  • command line print PDF

  • automate print jobs based on PDF content

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