In the previous tip we explained how you can use PowerShell on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 to set up a PDF printer that prints anything to a PDF file, of course unattended. To make it really useful, let’s wrap it into a function called Out-PDFFile. Anything you pipe to this new command is turned into a PDF file.
Important: for this function to work, you must have set up the printer “PrintPDFUnattended” as instructed in the previous tip!
Here is the Out-PDFFile function:
function Out-PDFFile { param ( $Path = "$env:temp\results.pdf", [Switch] $Open ) # check to see whether the PDF printer was set up correctly $printerName = "PrintPDFUnattended" $printer = Get-Printer -Name $printerName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue if (!$?) { Write-Warning "Printer $printerName does not exist." Write-Warning "Make sure you have created this printer (see previous tips)!" return } # this is the file the print driver always prints to $TempPDF = $printer.PortName # is the printer set up correctly and the port name is the output file path? if ($TempPDF -notlike '?:\*') { Write-Warning "Printer $printerName is not set up correctly." Write-Warning "Make sure you have created this printer as instructed (see previous tips)!" return } # make sure old print results are removed $exists = Test-Path -Path $TempPDF if ($exists) { Remove-Item -Path $TempPDF -Force } # send anything that is piped to this function to PDF $input | Out-Printer -Name $printerName # wait for the print job to be completed, then move file $ok = $false do { Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 500 Write-Host '.' -NoNewline $fileExists = Test-Path -Path $TempPDF if ($fileExists) { try { Move-Item -Path $TempPDF -Destination $Path -Force -ea Stop $ok = $true } catch { # file is still in use, cannot move # try again } } } until ( $ok ) Write-Host # open file if requested if ($Open) { Invoke-Item -Path $Path } }
Now it’s trivial to pipe results to a PDF file:
PS> Get-Service | Out-PDFFile -Path $home\desktop\services.pdf -Open PS> Get-ComputerInfo | Out-PDFFile -Path $home\Desktop\computerinfo.pdf -Open
Voilá. That was easy!
Note that we deliberately chose to create a “Simple Function”. This way, all piped input is available in the $Input automatic variable. If you start adding attributes to the parameters, i.e. to make the -Path parameter mandatory, you turn the code into an “Advanced Function”, and $input no longer exists. We’ll look into this tomorrow.
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