closing an instance of acrobat reader from command line

Question

I am using the following cmd to print the pdf:

acroRD32.exe /t \"file1.pdf\" \"printerName\"

Everything works fine but one window pops up.

Answer 1

You cannot close the last open Acrobat window through the command line. From ancient history of programming scripts for Acrobat, I believe that there is no way to do this in an Acrobat script, either.

But you can close Acrobat from the command line, though it is a bit convoluted. For a pure MSDOS method for most Windows systems, create two files: called.bat and caller.bat.

caller.bat:

REM call the batch file that runs the program:
start "ProgramRunner" called.bat

REM wait 5 seconds -- if this closes Acrobat too soon, then increase the time:
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 >nul

REM kill the called program -- should be the program name that was started in called.bat:
REM (If the program does not close, type "taskkill /?" in the command line to see options.)
taskkill /F /IM acroRD32.exe

called.bat

"path\to\the\program\acroRD32.exe" /t "path\to\the\program\file1.pdf" "printerName"

exit

Note that you can write scripts in many programming languages that accomplish the same task more elegantly.

Answer 2

I successfully tested forking a delayed kill command before starting the print job.

start cmd /c "timeout 15 & taskkill /f /im acrord32.exe"
acroRD32.exe /t "file1.pdf" "printerName"

Answer 3

Why even use Acrobat at all? This class that print silently for you without any executables or even a printer setup:

Sample Usage:
bool isPrinted = BatchPrint.PrintBinaryFile("file path", "Printer IP Address", "Queue Name", "User");

---

public class BatchPrint
{

    private const int cPort = 515;
    private const char cLineFeed = '\n';
    private const int cDefaultByteSize = 4;
    public static string ErrorMessage = string.Empty;
    private static string mHost;
    private static string mQueue;
    private static string mUser;
    private static readonly Queue mPrintQueue = new Queue();
    private static readonly Dictionary<string, int> mLastPrintId = new Dictionary<string, int>();

    public static bool PrintBinaryFile(string filePath, string printerName, string queueName, string userName)
    {
        try
        {
            mHost = printerName;
            mQueue = queueName;
            mUser = userName;
            BeginPrint(filePath);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            ErrorMessage += ex.Message + cLineFeed + ex.StackTrace;
        }
        return ErrorMessage.Length <= 0;
    }

    private static void BeginPrint(string filePath)
    {      
        mPrintQueue.Enqueue(filePath);
        ThreadStart myThreadDelegate = SendFileToPrinter;
        var myThread = new Thread(myThreadDelegate);
        myThread.Start();
    }

    private static void SendFileToPrinter()
    {
        ErrorMessage = string.Empty;
        var fileFromQueue = (string)mPrintQueue.Dequeue();
        var tcpClient = new TcpClient();
        tcpClient.Connect(mHost, cPort);
        const char space = ' ';
        using (var networkStream = tcpClient.GetStream())
        {
            if (!networkStream.CanWrite)
            {
                ErrorMessage = "NetworkStream.CanWrite failed";
                networkStream.Close();
                tcpClient.Close();
                return;
            }
            var thisPc = Dns.GetHostName();
            var printId = GetPrintId();
            var dfA = string.Format("dfA{0}{1}", printId, thisPc);
            var cfA = string.Format("cfA{0}{1}", printId, thisPc);
            var controlFile = string.Format("H{0}\nP{1}\n{5}{2}\nU{3}\nN{4}\n", thisPc, mUser, dfA, dfA, Path.GetFileName(fileFromQueue), true);
            const int bufferSize = (cDefaultByteSize * 1024);
            var buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
            var acknowledgement = new byte[cDefaultByteSize];
            var position = 0;
            buffer[position++] = 2;
            ProcessBuffer(mQueue, ref buffer, ref position, (byte)cLineFeed);
            if (!IsAcknowledgementValid(buffer, position, acknowledgement, networkStream, tcpClient, "No response from printer"))
                return;               
            position = 0;
            buffer[position++] = 2;
            var cFileLength = controlFile.Length.ToString();
            ProcessBuffer(cFileLength, ref buffer, ref position, (byte)space);
            ProcessBuffer(cfA, ref buffer, ref position, (byte)cLineFeed);
            if (!IsAcknowledgementValid(buffer, position, acknowledgement, networkStream, tcpClient, "Error on control file len"))
                return;
            position = 0;
            ProcessBuffer(controlFile, ref buffer, ref position, 0); 
            if (!IsAcknowledgementValid(buffer, position, acknowledgement, networkStream, tcpClient, "Error on control file"))
                return;
            position = 0;
            buffer[position++] = 3;
            var dataFileInfo = new FileInfo(fileFromQueue);
            cFileLength = dataFileInfo.Length.ToString();
            ProcessBuffer(cFileLength, ref buffer, ref position, (byte)space);
            ProcessBuffer(dfA, ref buffer, ref position, (byte)cLineFeed);
            if (!IsAcknowledgementValid(buffer, position, acknowledgement, networkStream, tcpClient, "Error on dfA"))
                return;              
            long totalbytes = 0;
            using (var fileStream = new FileStream(fileFromQueue, FileMode.Open))
            {
                int bytesRead;
                while ((bytesRead = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, bufferSize)) > 0)
                {
                    totalbytes += bytesRead;
                    networkStream.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
                    networkStream.Flush();
                }
                fileStream.Close();
            }
            if (dataFileInfo.Length != totalbytes)
                ErrorMessage = fileFromQueue + "File length error";
            position = 0;
            buffer[position++] = 0;
            if (!IsAcknowledgementValid(buffer, position, acknowledgement, networkStream, tcpClient, "Error on file"))
                return;
            networkStream.Close();
            tcpClient.Close();
        }
    }

    private static int GetPrintId()
    {
        var count = 0;
        lock (mLastPrintId)
        {
            if (mLastPrintId.ContainsKey(mUser))
                count = mLastPrintId[mUser];
            count++;          
            count %= 1000; 
            if (mLastPrintId.ContainsKey(mUser))
                mLastPrintId[mUser] = count;
            else
                mLastPrintId.Add(mUser, count);
        }
        return count;
    }

    private static void ProcessBuffer(string item, ref byte[] buffer, ref int position, byte nextPosition)
    {
        foreach (var t in item)
        {
            buffer[position++] = (byte)t;
        }
        buffer[position++] = nextPosition;
    }

    private static bool IsAcknowledgementValid(byte[] buffer, int position, byte[] acknowledgement, NetworkStream networkStream, TcpClient tcpClient, string errorMsg)
    {
        networkStream.Write(buffer, 0, position);
        networkStream.Flush();
        networkStream.Read(acknowledgement, 0, cDefaultByteSize);
        if (acknowledgement[0] == 0) 
            return true;
        ErrorMessage = errorMsg;
        networkStream.Close();
        tcpClient.Close();
        return false;
    }

}