Printer Queue Output

The Printer Queue Output task dispatches jobs to selected PReS Workflow Printer Queues (see PReS Workflow printer queues). Note that you must have created at least one Printer Queue in PReS Workflow before you can add your first Printer Queue Output task.
You can select multiple Printer Queues in a Printer Queue Output task and choose exactly how your jobs will be dispatched to the selected printers.

The task can create print output as well, by merging the data file with a PlanetPress Design document (see PlanetPress Design documents). This requires at least one PlanetPress Design document to be associated with a Workflow printer queue (see Associating PlanetPress Design documents and PReS printer queues). This also 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, “printer-centric” output requires a printer license.)

For more information about printing see About printing.

Input

Any data file.

Processing and output

If the data file is in a valid emulation (see About data emulation) and a PlanetPress Design document is selected, the data file and document are merged to produce a PostScript output. The output may be an Optimized PostScript Stream or a Printer Centric stream (data file + trigger).

If no document was selected, the job file is sent as-is to the selected Printer Queue.
Whether the queue will properly output depends on the capabilities of the queue and its target. For example, sending a JPG job file to an FTP or Send to Folder printer queue will simply place the file in the destination. Sending this same file to an LPR or Windows queue will produce no output as these queues expect valid PostScript.

Task properties

General Tab

  • Queues: Select the queues to which you want to send the output (see PReS Workflow printer queues).
  • Documents: Select None if you want the job file to be printed as is.
    Select a specific PlanetPress Design document (see PlanetPress Design documents) if you want all the jobs to be printed with that document. To use a document chosen at run-time for each job, enter a dynamic document name using a combination of text, variables and data selections. To enable the dynamic document name box, click inside it. To disable it, press Enter. Note that in the later case, you must be certain that the documents that will be chosen at run-time will in fact be available locally or at all the selected printer. Note that PReS Workflow will not specify a given document version number, so the latest version will be used by default. To specify a given document version number, you can use an Add Document action task instead of a Printer Queue Output task, and then use an Add / Remove Text Action task to add a version number in the document trigger (for more information, refer to the Control Versions of a Document section of the PlanetPress Design User Guide).

    Note: It is not possible to select a Connect template with this task. It is however possible to send Print output produced by an OL Connect task to a Workflow Printer Queue (see PReS Workflow printer queues). In the All in One task or the Create Output task, on the Output Creation tab, select the Output Management Through Workflow option. The Print output file returned to the Workflow process will become the new job file. In the Printer Queue Output task, on the General tab, under Documents, select None to send the job file to the Workflow Printer Queue as-is. See also: About printing.

Advanced Tab

  • Copies: Enter the number of copies to be printed outputs. Since this is a variable property box, you may enter a fixed value or use a data selection. Note that load balancing options have an impact on how copies are printed as well as on the total number of printed copies.
  • Load balancing group (Options from this group are only valid if multiple Workflow printer queues were selected.)
    • No balancing: No load balancing means that all the selected Workflow printer queues get everything.
    • Split job: Split job means that jobs will be split according to the criteria set in the Page delimiter group (see below) and that an equal share of the job file will be sent to each one of the selected Workflow printer queues. For a hundred page job, for example, if two queues were selected, each one will get 50 pages.
    • Queue balancing: Queue balancing means that jobs will be split according to the criteria set in the Page delimiter group (see below) and that a share of the job file corresponding to each printer’s capacity (as set in the PReS Workflow Printer Queue Options dialog box—See Print using a Windows driver) will be sent to each one of the selected Workflow printer queues. If two queues were selected, the first one sending jobs to a printer that prints 500 pages a minute, and the second one sending jobs to a smaller printer printing 50 pages a minute, the first queue will receive roughly ten times more pages than the second one.
    • Round robin: Round robin means that complete jobs will be sent in turn to each one of the selected Workflow printer queues. For example, Queue_1 will get the first job, Queue_2 will get the second job, and so forth.
  • Page delimiter group: These options are enabled when you choose Split job or Queue balancing load balancing options. They are used to determine how each job is to be split before being sent to the Workflow printer queues.
    • Form feed: Cuts the job file at every form feed character.
    • Lines per page: Cuts the job file after the specified number of lines.
    • Keyword: Cuts the job file after each occurrence of the specified keyword (string of characters).
  • Custom Trigger: Enter the code of the trigger that will be sent with the data to the selected Workflow printer queues. Note that this box is only enabled if None was selected in the General tab.
  • Add job information to the document: Includes the current Job Info variables to the job output. This option is only available if a document was selected in the General tab.
  • Use job name as Title: Uses the Job Name set in the Workflow printer queue's General tab, as the job's title, set as %%Title in the PostScript's job.

On Error Tab

For a description of the options on the On Error tab see Using the On Error tab.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous tab is common to all tasks.

It contains a text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.

Check the option Use as step description to display the text next to the icon of the plugin in the Process area.

The tab also provides an option to highlight the task in The Process area with the default color, set in the Preferences (see Colors), or the color selected or defined under Highlight color on this tab.
To revert the selected highlight color to the default color, open this tab, turn the Highlight option off and close the dialog with the OK button; then turn highlighting back on.
Highlighting can also be turned on and off via the task's contextual menu and with the Highlight button on the View ribbon.