/PrintToSpool

A simple utility to send a (raw) print file directly to a printer on Windows.

Primary LanguageC#GNU General Public License v2.0GPL-2.0

PrintToSpool

A simple utility to send a (raw) print file directly to a printer on Windows.

Setting up

  1. Compile the program (not Build but Publish). Building should work, too, but only Publish is able to bundle it into a single executable in the current .NET era. Find the single .exe executable in the bin\Release\net6.0-windows\publish folder, you can ignore the .pdb file.

  2. Copy the executable to wherever you please.

  3. Open File Explorer, type shell:sendTo into the address bar. Create a shortcut here (context menu > New > Shortcut), point it to the exe (or, alternatively, create a shortcut to the Desktop and drag-and-drop it here). Practically, name it as your printer. Make sure your target is:

    "\path-to-the-executable\PrintToSpool.exe" "your-printer's-exact-name"

One argument, not two, the print file will be added automatically by Windows. Make sure you type the printer's name exactly as visible in Settings > Printers & Scanners.

  1. To test, find a print file, right click for the context menu, Send To > your new printer shortcut and it should appear from the printer all right. If it doesn't, debug it, you have the source. :-)

Note

I saw another solution here and there on the web that suggests to copy the already existing printer shortcut from shell:PrintersFolder to shell:sendTo. Unfortunately, that doesn't work, it will still expect document files (eg. a .txt) to process, not a raw print file. That's why I decided to write this one...

Enjoy it.

Gábor DEÁK JAHN
deakjahn@gmail.com