Combining or merging two print jobs into a single PDF

A Profile in Print&Share CQ can be configured to combine one or multiple print jobs. The input could be documents from a hot folder or by printing them directly to P&S CQ. The output could be a single combined print job being sent to the printer (e.g. to staple) or maybe a merged PDF file.

By default a profile only accepts a single document. Various methods allow more than one job to be processed.

  • By setting the profile in ´Manual (user intervention)´ release mode.
  • By configuring an auto release option (e.g. ´Number of jobs in queue´)
  • By splitting a single print job into sub-print jobs and combining these.

PDF Output

Don't forget to add and configure a File channel to your profile to create a PDF.

Configuration of combining print jobs

  1. Go to Manage > Profiles.
  2. Edit the profile where you want to enable the combining/merging.
  3. In the profile, Edit the Incoming job process under the Options section.
  4. Select Combine from the dropdown and click Add job process option.
  5. Click Save to save the settings.

Processing multiple jobs

We have now configured Print&Share CQ to merge jobs into a single PDF file.
However, P&S CQ only processes single jobs now. It's time to tell P&S CQ to wait for another print job when already processing a print job.

Hold print jobs and manually release

One possibility is to hold all print jobs and releasing them manually.
See Hold and manually release print jobs (e.g. printroom).

Configuring Auto release options

  1. Go to Manage > Profiles.
  2. Edit your profile.
  3. In the profile, Edit the Job release under the Options section.
  4. For the Job release type, select Wait for condition release.
  5. Select **Number of jobs in queueand set it to2`.
  6. Click Save to save the settings.

Now the profile will automatically execute when two jobs are in the queue, thus releasing two jobs. These two jobs will then be executed by the profile. Because the profile is set to Combine it will combine the two jobs. Our output is a File-channel, meaning we have a merged PDF.

Note

Remember the Order of profile-execution is important. Each incoming job (print or hot folder) will be evaluated by profiles. Meaning that if you print a same type of document, most likely the same profile will be selected, but printing different types of documents a different profile recognition could be triggered. In case of jobs not being combined, Make sure your profile recognition is configured correctly.