How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

jaredrowe

Newbie

Posts: 4

How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

« on: June 23, 2017, 02:45:53 PM »

Hi everyone, I just purchased Qimage Ultimate and it seems like a great piece of software. I love how I can use my custom printer profiles in it.
My question is related to the hot folder function.

I need to be able to drop my files to be printed into the appropriate hot folder and then have them automatically print out. I thought when I purchased the software this was how it worked, but evidently you have to delete the text file in the ~~actions~~ folder before it will start printing???

Does anyone know of a way I can get past this limitation?
Thanks!


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Fred A

Forum Superhero

Posts: 5644

Re: How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2017, 04:05:38 PM »

Quote

I need to be able to drop my files to be printed into the appropriate hot folder and then have them automatically print out. I thought when I purchased the software this was how it worked, but evidently you have to delete the text file in the ~~actions~~ folder before it will start printing???

Does anyone know of a way I can get past this limitation?
Thanks!

Hi Jared, welcome

I am not very good at answering your question specifically, except for the part, How can I get around this limitation.

Let first sy, that probably someone who uses the hot folder feature will reply to you, but in the meantime, I have never used it. Probably because I have my own method. My Edit preferences has the destination set to QUEUE for this operation.
I find the images I want, and select. Right click and use SEND TO from that menu, and choose Qimage Ultimate.
All my chosen images are now in the queue, ready to print.
If they are all to be printed at the same size, I pre set the print size.
If there are multiple images of varying print sizes, then I set them selectively in the queue.

Probably the Hot Folder is better, but I never got into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-7xch-2VYQ&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Fred


« Last Edit: June 23, 2017, 04:17:23 PM by Fred A »	Logged

admin

Administrator
Forum Superhero

Posts: 4218

Re: How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2017, 02:56:28 AM »

It's not really a limitation; more of a safeguard. I can't foresee any scenario where you would want to kick off a print job just by virtue of the fact that you added prints to the hot folders. What if you have three images to print at 5x7 and one 4x6. If it started printing as soon as you drag three images into the 5x7 folder, it'd print two 5x7's on your first 8.5x11 sheet, one on the second, and then start a new job, wasting a sheet of paper printing the 4x6 alone on page 3 when you drag that image to the 4x6 folder.

The bottom line is... there is no way for QU to know when you are really done adding prints, so just delete the file in the actions folder to start printing when you are done. You might need to print 20 8x10 prints, 55 5x7 prints, and 100 wallet size prints and you don't want it starting a print job without your consent, potentially wasting paper or even starting a job without you even being able to confirm that the printer/paper is set up properly.

Regards,
Mike


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jaredrowe

Newbie

Posts: 4

Re: How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2017, 04:45:47 AM »

Hi, I am using the software for a very specific application where I print one size (am using the original size folder) to print the same size graphic over and over on to legal paper.
I am working inside Photoshop and when I finish with the customizations to the graphic, I will export via a Photoshop action to the folder, where it needs to just automatically print.

I only will ever use the software to print the one size paper and graphic.

Does this make sense? And is there any way to set it up the way I need too ??

Thanks for responding, Jared


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admin

Administrator
Forum Superhero

Posts: 4218

Re: How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2017, 01:32:24 PM »

Auto-printing under that scenario may cause more problems than it solves because it's still not going to know when you are finished. What if you just finished editing two graphics and you want to print both? Your action will send graphic 1 to the hot folders, it'll start printing immediately, and when the action (or you) gets around to sending the second one, the first one is already printing and it will fail: the job (graphic 1) cannot be altered while it is still processing that print. The same problem would occur if you decided you wanted two copies of one graphic and you tried to send that one graphic to the "Original Size" hot folder twice: the second one would fail because the first one kicked off a print job automatically.

Based on what you are doing (and assuming you aren't going cross-platform like Mac-->PC), the best way to accomplish what you want is to use the Photoshop plugin. When you are done editing your graphic, use File, Automate, Qimage Ultimate to open the image(s) in Qimage Ultimate. Then in Qimage Ultimate, highlight the thumbnail(s) from PS and choose "Original Size" on the Prints tab and click the "Print" button. Note that once you use "Original Size", QU will remember that as your size preference so all you would have to do is click the "+" on the thumbnail and print. In addition, you can make a PS action that opens File, Automate, Qimage Ultimate so that in the end, the process would be a simple three click operation:

- Press the shortcut key (the one you assigned to your action for File, Automate, Qimage Ultimate): QU opens with the image(s) from PS showing in the thumbs
- Press the "+" button on the displayed thumbnail(s)
- Click the Print button

Mike


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jaredrowe

Newbie

Posts: 4

Re: How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2017, 02:25:05 PM »

Okay, I think I'm beginning to understand a bit better how the hot folder function works within Qimage.

The way my workflow goes, it takes about an hour to process through all my prints (what I do is make custom plates, like my product here (link removed)and I am just making a few changes to the file and then print) and I don't want to wait till I'm finished to process/print the queue as that would be very inefficient. It needs to be printing while I am working and adding more prints to the hot folder.

I also intend to have another software program automatically drop these same sized prints/graphics into the folder to be printed, so it would be best if I didn't have to perform some sort of print/automate process inside Photoshop. There would be in essence multiple "users" all dropping these same sized graphics into the same "original size" folder.

I could configure a folder monitor program to automatically delete the "delete to print.txt" every 2 minutes to keep it printing. That way, what ever has been added to the queue gets sent to the printer. Do you think accomplishing it that way would cause problems?

Forgive me please for all my questions, I'm just trying to learn here and don't really understand the workings of the "hot folder" function. (I have read all the documentation and watched the video on this).

Thanks again, Jared


« Last Edit: July 15, 2017, 09:12:04 PM by jaredrowe »	Logged

jaredrowe

Newbie

Posts: 4

Re: How to have Hot Folder automatically print files.

« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2017, 09:10:55 PM »

Well, I'm a bit disappointed that my last questions were ignored...

But I'm am putting this out there for record in case anyone needs this capability in the future.
I wrote a simple script that is run via the Windows Powershell (5.1 or greater, NET framework 4.5 or greater) that works together with Qimage to print automatically.
The way it works is if you drop a "original size" file into C:\InputFolder it will automatically print out through the "original size" hot folder function.
You can drop one file in or 1,000 at a time and it will process each image one at a time and print it.
I have attached the file to this post and am also copying and pasting the script into this message.

Code:

$FileName = "C:\PrintFolder\~~actions~~\DELETE to START PRINTING.txt"
$PrintFolder = "C:\PrintFolder\Original size"
$InputFolder = "C:\InputFolder"
$Continue = 1
while ($Continue = 1) {

if(#folder is empty 
(Get-ChildItem $PrintFolder -force | Select-Object -First 1 | Measure-Object).Count -eq 0) 
{ start-sleep -s 10
if ((Test-Path $FileName)) {#check if file is there, then delete it
Remove-Item $FileName
} 
else {
#Move a file into folder
Get-ChildItem $InputFolder | Get-Random -count 1 | Move-Item -Destination $PrintFolder
}
}
else {#Keep Cycling
}
}


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