About printing

To print a document you can either use an Output task, or a combination of OL Connect Workflow printer queues and the Printer Queue Output task. Decisive factors, in addition to the printer that you're using, are:

  • The type of job (Connect, or PlanetPress Suite).

  • The features that you want to use. When you associate a single Printer Queue Output task with multiple printer queues, you have the option of using load balancing or not (see Load balancing).

  • The file type. Printer Queues can only handle PostScript and PDF files.

Printing can be done locally or remotely. The spool file is sent to the printer by the Output task itself, or by Workflow if the file is placed in a Workflow Printer Queue.
Printer-centric printing - which means that a document and data are merged on a printer - is only supported with PlanetPress Design documents, and requires that this feature be available on the printer.

OL Connect print jobs

There are two OL Connect tasks designed to create print output based on a Connect Designer template: the Create Output task, and the All In One task, which combines 4 different OL Connect tasks, including the Create Output task, within a single one.
Both tasks can produce many different types of files and distribute them to many different printers, or to a folder.

Print options

The file type, printer model, output type (a folder, LPR queue or Windows printer), and print options and settings are normally contained in an Output Creation Preset. Output Creation Presets are created in the Connect Designer and can be used with any Connect template (see Output Creation Preset and Print Options in the OL Connect Online Help). For some options, such as grouping documents and splitting jobs, a Job Creation Preset is required as well (see Job Creation Preset in the OL Connect Online Help).
Presets have to be sent to or imported into Workflow before they can be used in a Workflow process.

Alternatively, the All in One and Create Output tasks can send the spool file back to the Workflow process, instead of to the destination defined in the Output Creation Preset. (To achieve this, select the Handle through Workflow option in the task properties.)
Back in the process the output file may be sent to a folder using the Send to Folder task, or to a Workflow Printer Queue via the Output to Printer Queue task.
Here are a few reasons why you might want to use the Handle through Workflow option:

  • Additional flexibility. Printer Queues have load balancing options that allow to distribute the printing load and make the process faster and more efficient. Print jobs may, for example, be split equally among several printers, or they may be split according to each printer’s capacity and speed. (See OL Connect Workflow printer queues.)

  • Archiving. If the output file is a PDF, the file can be sent to an Archiving solution before it is sent to the printer.

  • Easier debugging. If the output file is a PDF, for example, you can open it inside Workflow once it has been sent back to the process (see Debugging your OL Connect Workflow process).

Using a Printer Queue requires creating the appropriate Printer Queue in the Workflow Configuration tool first.
In the Output to Printer Queue task, select No document to let the spool file pass through it.

PlanetPress Suite print jobs

In PlanetPress Suite, the printer model and settings are defined in the Design document itself (see PlanetPress Design documents).
Print output is normally generated by an Output task that merges a PlanetPress Design document with a data file (i.e. the job file). This can be either the Print using a Windows driver Output task, or the Printer Queue Output Output task.
The latter has to be combined with at least one Printer Queue, and to ensure that the print output is actually sent to the intended printer, you also have to:

Note that the Printer Queue Output task requires printer licenses, unless you have the “Optimized Output” add-on in your Connect license, which grants you the equivalent of PlanetPress Production in Connect Workflow. Even then, doing “printer-centric” output requires a printer license (see Activate a printer).

Printer-centric printing

Alternatively the merging of the document and data can take place inside a printer (if the printer is suitable for it). In that case, OL Connect Workflow sends one of two things to a printer: a file that contains only the data to the selected Printer Queue, along with a trigger that specifies which document the printer should use to merge the data. The document must already be present on the printer’s hard disk or memory, otherwise printing will fail; or a file that contains the data and the document to the selected Printer Queue. Since the data and the document with which it must be merged are both sent to the printer, printing should never fail.