C# – How to print a PDF with C#

I´ve trying to solve this problem for nearly 2 days. There are a lot of more or fewer good solutions on the net, but not a single one fits my task perfectly.

Task:

• Print a PDF programmatically
• Do it with a fixed printer
• Don´t let the user do more than one Button_Click
• Do it silent – the more, the better
• Do it client side

First Solutions:

Do it with a Forms.WebBrowser

If we have Adobe Reader installed, there is a plugin to show PDF´s in the webbrowser. With this solution we have a nice preview and with webbrowserControlName.Print() we can trigger the control to print its content.

Problem – we still have a PrintDialog.

Start the AcroRd32.exe with start arguments

The following CMD command let us use Adobe Reader to print our PDF.

InsertPathTo..\AcroRd32.exe /t "C:\sample.pdf" "\printerNetwork\printerName"

Problems – we need the absolute path to AcroRd32.exe | there is an Adobe Reader Window opening and it has to be opened until the print task is ready.

Use windows presets

Process process = new Process();

process.StartInfo.FileName = pathToPdf; 
process.StartInfo.Verb = "printto";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = "\"" + printerName + "\""; 
process.Start();

process.WaitForInputIdle();
process.Kill();

Problem – there is still an Adobe Reader window popping up, but after the printing is done it closes itself usually.

Solution – convince the client to use Foxit Reader (don´t use last two lines of code).

Convert PDF pages to Drawing.Image

I´ve no idea how to do it with code, but when I get this to work the rest is just a piece of cake. Printing.PrintDocument can fulfill all demands.

Anyone an idea to get some Drawing.Image´s out of those PDF´s or another approach how to do it?

Best Regards,
Max