Printing a file to a printer in Ruby

pdf, printing, ruby-on-rails

Solution

On Linux and Mac OS X you can use the "lpr" command line program, passing it the name of the PDF file (not sure about Windows though). For example:

def print_to_paper
  your_code_to_write_a_pdf_file("file.pdf")
  system("lpr", "file.pdf") or raise "lpr failed"
end

Problem

I need help with sending a formatted text to a printer using Ruby on Ruby on Rails OR sending a pdf file to a printer from Ruby program. I can write the code to create a pdf file from Rails app but don't know how to print that pdf file to a default printer. I am trying to write a small ticketing application with Ruby on Rails.

Original source