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How to schedule a printing job?

I have an inkjet printer that I don't regularly use and in order to prevent it from clogging I must print 1 or 2 pages every week.


I've figured that I could simply schedule a "test print page" to run every X days (something that is easily done with Windows 7).


Can anybody give me a hint of how I could setup my MAC to print automatically based on a schedule (I've searched the web but found nothing that would work with Yosemite)?

Custom, Windows 7, null

Posted on Jun 16, 2015 8:41 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 4, 2015 11:39 PM

Well I couldn't get much help from the forum...


Anyways for anyone who might be looking for the same kind of solution to this problem I may have something good for you. Obviously it's not ideal and really not as easy as in Windows but this will do. This solution doesn't make use of cron or any other script or prompt commands.


For reference sake I must say that I'm not the one who came up with this solution. This solution is inspired by francois's post at luminous-landscape forums.




Consider this as an idea using Automator & iCal.


The instructions assume that your printer will be the default printer in the Print Center. A test page to print every day can be found on Apple's website at http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/cups/cups-136.9/cups/test/testfile.pdf .


Automator


• First open Automator and create a new Application.

• You'll need to drag the Get Specified Finder Items into the right pane and then add the PDF you want to be printed.

• Then drag Print Finder Items, again into the right pane, just below the previous action.

• Save the application.


iCal (or Calendar)


• Create a new Event (set the date/time), make it repeating and as alert, open your automator created application.

• Test the setup.


Now, this isn't perfect or optimal but it uses applications that are on your Mac and doesn't require shell scripting.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 4, 2015 11:39 PM in response to Jeff_B_

Well I couldn't get much help from the forum...


Anyways for anyone who might be looking for the same kind of solution to this problem I may have something good for you. Obviously it's not ideal and really not as easy as in Windows but this will do. This solution doesn't make use of cron or any other script or prompt commands.


For reference sake I must say that I'm not the one who came up with this solution. This solution is inspired by francois's post at luminous-landscape forums.




Consider this as an idea using Automator & iCal.


The instructions assume that your printer will be the default printer in the Print Center. A test page to print every day can be found on Apple's website at http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/cups/cups-136.9/cups/test/testfile.pdf .


Automator


• First open Automator and create a new Application.

• You'll need to drag the Get Specified Finder Items into the right pane and then add the PDF you want to be printed.

• Then drag Print Finder Items, again into the right pane, just below the previous action.

• Save the application.


iCal (or Calendar)


• Create a new Event (set the date/time), make it repeating and as alert, open your automator created application.

• Test the setup.


Now, this isn't perfect or optimal but it uses applications that are on your Mac and doesn't require shell scripting.

How to schedule a printing job?

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