Printing an army of PDFs

[ddrueding]

A while ago I dropped a random tidbit into the something random thread.

Large would be an understatement. It is over 1,100 files that are each between 3 and 33 pages long. My estimate would be between 10,000 and 17,000 pages; that is a stack 3-6 feet tall. Our fastest printer would take four to seven hours to finish it. It took nearly three hours to download, and would fill 2 CDs.

Looking at each page for 3 seconds would take 8-12 hours. I don't see and index, and they are not numbered logically. They are also not searchable. This is what lawyers do when they don't like you.

Lets meet and discuss a better way of getting what you need.

Today I got the response. "Print it".

I'm planning on taking one of the copiers off-line and dedicating it to this for a day. It would be fantastic if I could just queue all the jobs and add paper as needed (it has a 5,000-page hopper). Any recommended app/procedure for printing all these PDFs?

 

[Stereodude]

Does your printer have a duplex unit?

Get all the files in a directory, select all, right click and pick print. Come back later...

 

[ddrueding]

Does your printer have a duplex unit?

It does, that is one of the questions I have in with the client.

 

[timwhit]

Maybe the guy just wants to see what that much paper looks like.

 

[ddrueding]

Maybe the guy just wants to see what that much paper looks like.

I think he is planning on making some kind of statement at the legal hearing. We take deliveries of paper by the pallet quarterly; I can show him all the paper he wants.

 

[Stereodude]

I think he is planning on making some kind of statement at the legal hearing. We take deliveries of paper by the pallet quarterly; I can show him all the paper he wants.

Is he going to have it wheeled in on a dolly for dramatic effect with the jury?

 

[Handruin]

Take a picture if you can, I bet that'll be one hell of a stack of paper.

 

[P5-133XL]

To me this appears to be one of the more stupid decisions I have recently heard of. I can't think a reason why one would prefer paper over CD's.

I know, he doesn't like PDF's! After they are all printed, he's going to ask you to scan them all in and run OCR on them so they are all poorly spelled pure text files.

 

[Stereodude]

After they are all printed, he's going to ask you to scan them all in and run OCR on them so they are all poorly spelled pure text files.

If that's what he's really after he could just have Lost6200 transcribe them for him.

 

[ddrueding]

They were all scanned in originally. Invoices, bills, receipts, timecards, misc. crap. It is going to be crazy. I'm thinking of actually breaking the work over 3 copiers to save time.

 

[Howell]

What, Kinkos refused the job?

 

[ddrueding]

Nah, our cost per page is better than Kinkos. We do have some pretty serious hardware. It also is legally sensitive stuff, so I don't know how comfortable they would be outsourcing it.

 

[P5-133XL]

I can think of at least one good reason why it would be necessary to do such a job. Perhaps, they are under a court order to produce the documents and electronic copies are not acceptable..

 

[ddrueding]

The reason isn't that good. This entire stack will be reviewed by a group of people. I offered to provide everyone in the group with a laptop, and coordinate the review process, but they want a hard copy.

 

[Howell]

Nah, our cost per page is better than Kinkos. We do have some pretty serious hardware.

Are you using your employers equipment to print off stuff for another client of yours? Maybe I didn't read something right.

 

[ddrueding]

Sorry, I said client, but it is for my employer.

 

[ddrueding]

Turned out to be much smaller than I thought. Only about 4,000 pages, one copier for 6 hours.