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Create a printer that saves as PDF to a folder

I

izzy0242mr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 24, 2009
691
491
I know you can use the Print function to then click Save as PDF and save in a specific folder, but I was wondering if there was a simple way to make a Mac "printer" that acts and looks like a printer to the OS, but is just designed to automatically save the document as a PDF to a specific folder. I have a folder called CloudPrint that I use to put stuff that I need printed at my college library that I have to access from the library computers.

Any ideas?
 
KALLT said:
What is wrong with the PDF menu though? You can create custom actions there and have it save a PDF file to that specific folder automatically. Adobe Acrobat has a custom ‘printer’ for this, but, well, it’s Adobe. A quick search also revealed this: https://github.com/rodyager/RWTS-PDFwriter.
Click to expand...

Nothing's "wrong" with it, per se. It just requires a few extra clicks. With a printing default I can hit Cmd P and then Enter/Return and it's automatically good to go.

This app would be perfect if I knew enough about coding to change the save location.

UPDATE: If someone could walk me through making an Automator thing to automatically move the files placed in one folder into another folder, that'd solve my issue. I can't get it to work, though.
 
Last edited:
izzy0242mr said:
This app would be perfect if I knew enough about coding to change the save location.

UPDATE: If someone could walk me through making an Automator thing to automatically move the files placed in one folder into another folder, that'd solve my issue. I can't get it to work, though.
Click to expand...

Have you used this program? Maybe you can recompile it with the correct path.
 
KALLT said:
Have you used this program? Maybe you can recompile it with the correct path.
Click to expand...
What program?
[doublepost=1477590003][/doublepost]
BrianBaughn said:
You could try something like RWTS PDFwriter if you can find a macOS Sierra compatible one (assuming you're on Sierra since you posted in this forum category).
Click to expand...
I'm using that but see the above post: I need to figure out how to move the save file to somewhere else.
 
BrianBaughn said:
Sorry about that! Is the folder "CloudPrint" on a network drive...or...how is that folder accessed by your college library's computers?
Click to expand...

No prob - no, it's just a Dropbox folder. I can get to in in like 3 clicks by logging into my (Windows) account on the library PC and going to Dropbox. Nothing fancy.
 
Easy then!

Just put a "symbolic link" of the RWTS PDFwriter folder (the one at /Users/Shared/PDFwriter/<your user name>) into your Dropbox folder.

You'll have to "sudo" the command, I think.

Code: 
sudo ln -s <path to the PDFwriter folder> <path to the new symbolic link>

If you're not sure about using Terminal for this, ask for more help or do the research.
 
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