Output to Printer

[strido]

I'd like to educate myself on the ability of Switch to send to printers and more specifically, dedicated tray pulls. (Legal size from tray 1, Cover stock from tray 2, etc...)

I'm having a hard time finding that information though. Can someone point me in the right direction?

(my Switch trial isn't loaded yet, so it may be obvious once I install it)

[gabrielp]

I haven't done this but I'd love to learn more about it. I think it can be done with Apple Automator and there is an app for Windows: https://appstore.enfocus.com/product/pdfPrinter

But I'm sure there's also probably other alternatives for printing from Switch, which I'd love to learn.

[strido]

That seems to be pretty bare bones. When it lands on the printer (Konica BizHub 8000) it just says "unknown" and errors out. I was hoping for a more robust solution along the lines of what I see in the HP Digital Front End. We use Fiery.

If there's no suitable solution in Switch I could just output the PDFs to a JobFlow hotfolder I suppose.

[gabrielp]

You mean sending a JDF? I don't think a connector for Fiery exists but if JDF is supported, it shouldn't be too hard to write a script to create one. If your printer supports hotfolders, that would definitely work. But yeah, hotfolder workflows are garbage.

[strido]

Would that require the Scripting Module I assume?

[gabrielp]

Would that require the Scripting Module I assume?

Yeah. But you should get the scripting module for a lot of reasons. It's really very good.

[strido]

Do you know where I could find some appropriate JDF files? Nothing fancy, just something that I could look at.

[gabrielp]

Do you know where I could find some appropriate JDF files? Nothing fancy, just something that I could look at.

It depends which device you want to send the JDF to. Each vendor has their own spin on it. If you're looking for HP's (for Indigos and stuff), you can grab their JDF SDK here: http://www.hpwsn.com/gsb/#/en/17168

For your device, the BizHub 8000, perhaps the device itself can take a JDF. Sometimes, you put these devices in front of a controller that takes the JDF and then drives the device. Sometimes both the device and the controller can take JDF and you can choose between them.

You should find out what devices can be driven by JDF, then contact that vendor for an SDK or an example of what you need to send. If you end up sending to an Indigo, you'll find that there are built-in configurators to do this for you.

Once you make your JDF, you can usually sent it two ways to a device. Sometimes you can send it to a hotfolder, where the device will pick up the JDF file from a folder and read it. Other times you can send it to a web server on the device directly.

If you're just curious what a JDF looks like, here is an indigo one created from Switch:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<JDF xmlns="http://www.CIP4.org/JDFSchema_1_1" Type="Combined" ID="rootNodeId" Status="Waiting" JobPartID="000.cdp.797" Version="1.3" Types="DigitalPrinting" DescriptiveName="PDNA-JP9BX8_REDACTED-REDACTED Business Card (REDACTED, K.)_QTY-500_17261">
   <AuditPool><Created AgentName="Enfocus~Switch - HP DFE JDF Configurator" AgentVersion="8" TimeStamp="2016-08-26T10:51:20"/></AuditPool><Comment Name="RetainTime">360</Comment><NodeInfo JobPriority="50"/><ResourcePool>
      <Media Class="Consumable" ID="M001" Status="Available" DescriptiveName="110# GPA UNCOATED COVER"/>
      <DigitalPrintingParams Class="Parameter" ID="DPP001" Status="Available" Collate="None" PageDelivery="ReverseOrderFaceUp"><MediaRef rRef="M001"/></DigitalPrintingParams>
      <RunList ID="RunList_1" Status="Available" Class="Parameter">
            <LayoutElement>
               <FileSpec MimeType="application/pdf" URL="FILE://hppro01-sm1/Jobs/PageDNA//PDNA-JP9BX8_REDACTED-REDACTED Business Card (REDACTED, K.)_QTY-500_17261.pdf"/>
            </LayoutElement>
      </RunList>
      <Component ID="Component" ComponentType="FinalProduct" Status="Unavailable" Class="Quantity"/>
   <Device Class="Implementation" ID="D001" Status="Available"><GeneralID IDUsage="QueueDestination" IDValue="Held"/></Device><LayoutPreparationParams Class="Parameter" ID="LPP001" Status="Available" Sides="TwoSidedFlipY" Rotate="Rotate0"><ExternalImpositionTemplate><FileSpec URL="urn:21up Business Cards_NoDist_Duplex"/></ExternalImpositionTemplate></LayoutPreparationParams><RenderingParams Class="Parameter" ID="RP001" Status="Available"><AutomatedOverprintParams OverPrintBlackLineArt="false" OverPrintBlackText="false" TextBlackLevel="1.0"/></RenderingParams></ResourcePool>
   <ResourceLinkPool>
      <MediaLink rRef="M001" Usage="Input"/>
      <DigitalPrintingParamsLink rRef="DPP001" Usage="Input"/>
      <RunListLink rRef="RunList_1" Usage="Input"/>
      <ComponentLink Usage="Output" rRef="Component" Amount="500"/>
   <DeviceLink rRef="D001" Usage="Input"/><LayoutPreparationParamsLink rRef="LPP001" Usage="Input"/><RenderingParamsLink rRef="RP001" Usage="Input"/></ResourceLinkPool>
</JDF>