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I'm looking for a software like Microsoft print to PDF but that can save 50+ PDFS into one without prompting to save each one as a different file name and then convert to PDF.

The scenario is when we print payslips to PDF from our payroll software it saves each pay week as a different week, meaning if you need to print a years worth you need to save 52 PDFs with different names then merge into one.

Software to preferably run on Windows Server 2016 but can also run on Windows 10. Free is preferred but our current expenditure is $300 per month on this, so anything less is than that is the goal.

Ive been through quiet a lot of answers on here but i cant see anything that makes you not have to save each one as a different file.

I'm new to this forum, so i hope all is up to standards.

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If for any reason you would like to try a different approach, the company I work for has a program called LEADTOOLS ePrint Professional, which can be used as follows:

  1. It installs a Windows virtual printer that can save to dozens of output formats, including PDF.
  2. You can send it any number of print jobs, each containing one or more pages, and select the “Append to queue” option as shown in the image below. enter image description here
    1. When you’re done with all jobs, de-select the checkbox with the last print job, and this will cause all printout to go to one output file.

If you would like to try LEADTOOLS ePrint, you can download a free evaluation edition from this page. If you don’t wish to buy it after trying it, simply un-install it. There’s also free email support during the evaluation.

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  • Thats quite a nice piece of software. – SQLTemp Feb 20 '20 at 10:46
  • I'm glad you liked it. I recommend you make full use of the free evaluation period before purchasing, and don't hesitate to email ePrintSupport@leadtools.com with any questions you might have. Support emails are usually answered the same day or the next business day. – Amin Dodin Feb 20 '20 at 20:45
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Found that PDF24 has an option to automatically save to a file with an auto increment name, then you can use the PDF merge function to do what i need.

This program is also a free ware for business use

https://en.pdf24.org/

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Assuming that you are on Windows PDF Toolkit will allow you combine multiple PDFs into a single one, (and a lot more).

  • GUI or Command line use
  • Free GUI, with command line server edition
  • Pro edition $3.99 (nearly free), has more GUI options.
  • Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 & 10 (site doesn't mention 10 but I have tried it).

enter image description here

Command line example

Both free & pro versions also include the pdf server, command line, version so assuming that your output is in the form employee_no_wk01.pdf the command:

"c:\Program Files (x86)\PDFtk Server\bin\pdftk.exe" employee_no*.pdf output annual_employe_number.pdf

Should produce the file that you need, if your files are not naturally in the correct order you can list them in the desired order in place of the wildcard above.

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  • I’m not at home right now so I can’t test, will this resolve the file naming also or only merge multiple PDFs into one? – SQLTemp Feb 17 '20 at 8:50
  • @SQLTemp added command line example. If you need more control then take a look at PyPDF2 - see blog.pythonlibrary.org/2018/04/11/… for more. – Steve Barnes Feb 17 '20 at 20:34
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For a more end to end solution you could use Python with the addition of the Report Lab library.

With surprisingly little work and no initial expenditure, other than a little time, you could have a python script that:

  1. Queried your database to get the payment details for each month/week for one, or more, employee - (SqlAlchemy)
  2. Formatted the monthly results
  3. Calculated a per employee annual summary and formatted that as well
  4. Produced a PDF per employee with the summary followed by the months/weeks in the appropriate order. (Possibly encrypted with a suitable password e.g. Employees DOB in YYYYMMDD format). Using ReportLab Open Source.
  5. Possibly even e-mailed the PDF to the employee.

Alternatively, or initially you could simply use python to list and sort the PDF files and then merge them for you using PyPDF2.

All of the above software is: - Available free (including commercial use) ReportLab does have a paid option that you may wish to investigate. - Cross Platform - the same code will run on Windows, Mac, Linux, AWS, etc. - Can be picked up in quite a short time.

Further Reading:

Disclaimer I have made some minor contributions to Python, some of its libraries and some of the documents above but I receive no financial benefit from any of them.

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