Way to print a file from a link in PHP?

Kinsbane

Hey all,

I've got a database of .tif images ranging in 1mb - 5mb for my company's intranet. The user needs to be able to download / print these images themselves, completely un-assisted.

The images cannot be loaded into their browser, because of load time. They cannot be needed to download additional software to view / print these files. All I need is one click - boom - image prints from the user's printer.

Ive been looking over php's printer functions - but those seem more for printing on-the-fly, as opposed to the user clicking a link and directly printing the file that is linked to.

Any way of doing what I'm talking about?

daveyboy

the thing is, if you want to print the image on your users' computers this is a client-side problem and PHP can't really help you.

all you can do with PHP is convert tif into something else (pdf, png etc.) and send that to the browser.

you need to use client-side functions to print directly, i.e. window.print(), but you can't embed that in a tif.

the way i see it, you have 2 options:
1) embed the tifs in html and use javascript
2) send the tif straight to the browser (or convert it to something else first) and let your users press "print".

whichever way you look at it, you will have to send the file to the browser anyway unless your server can send it directly to their printer, which is what PHP's printer functions are for.

Kinsbane

Deviation from the .tif format is a no-no, according to the board of directors here at work. All the images are very high-resolution scanned blueprints and plans of construction projects for recreation parks in the city. In the very end, I need the ability to have the file printed directly without much user input - I'm trying to develop for lowest denominator, and have as much ease of use at the same time.

The server will be hosted inside the company, and will provide a company-wide intranet. It's a Windows 2k box with Apache server, mysql, and php - could this be setup so this server will send directly to a user's printer?

Quite honestly, this is the first time I've had to deal with this and I am struggling 🙁

Thanks for the reply davey

Originally posted by daveyboy
the thing is, if you want to print the image on your users' computers this is a client-side problem and PHP can't really help you.

all you can do with PHP is convert tif into something else (pdf, png etc.) and send that to the browser.

you need to use client-side functions to print directly, i.e. window.print(), but you can't embed that in a tif.

the way i see it, you have 2 options:
1) embed the tifs in html and use javascript
2) send the tif straight to the browser (or convert it to something else first) and let your users press "print".

whichever way you look at it, you will have to send the file to the browser anyway unless your server can send it directly to their printer, which is what PHP's printer functions are for.

daveyboy

i guess that if you have EVERY users' printer installed on the server, too, AND can associate a given user with their printer, you can print directly from the server, giving your users a page saying, "go to your printer, now".

to be honest, it would be a million times simpler if you just showed them a page saying, "click here to download the image, then press 'print'".

if you are not allowed to deviate from tif, then there is very little else you can do, as far as i can see.

let's face it, if you tell them to press "print", it's not your fault if they don't know where their own printer is. if you send to the printers directly, then all your users will hold you entirely responsible for finding everything they ever print.

Kinsbane

Originally posted by daveyboy
i guess that if you have EVERY users' printer installed on the server, too, AND can associate a given user with their printer, you can print directly from the server, giving your users a page saying, "go to your printer, now".

to be honest, it would be a million times simpler if you just showed them a page saying, "click here to download the image, then press 'print'".

if you are not allowed to deviate from tif, then there is very little else you can do, as far as i can see.

let's face it, if you tell them to press "print", it's not your fault if they don't know where their own printer is. if you send to the printers directly, then all your users will hold you entirely responsible for finding everything they ever print.

yeah, i understand. thanks for the info 🙂