Windows 10: Microsoft Print to PDF silently fails creates 0kb if filename or path contains comma

Doesn't matter the original program you are printing from, if your filename or path contains a comma the Microsoft Print to PDF silently fails creating a 0kb corrupt file.Microsoft rep Lance Cai MSFT acknowledged this 6/29/16 on this post yet still doesn't appear to be fixed.


Issue seen on multiple PC's & can be easily replicated per my guidance above. Machines tested had Win10 x64 v1607 and v1809


Similar post where 250 people confirmed they have the same issue & 46 people said @Stan Gobien's response to not include comma helped them

:)

 

Bug in "Print to PDF" and "Print to XPS" in Windows 10? comma in filename results in zero-byte file

I can. Commas are frequently used as parameter separators. Applications can incorrectly assume that the part before the comma is one path, and the part after it is another. Or it could think that the part after the comma contains optional command line options.

Here is a plausible explanation: A badly coded substep in the print to pdf toolchain interprets the path with a comma in it as two separate paths and fails silently since neither can be found. The next tool in the chain then proceeds as if nothing has happened,
ignoring or never receiving the error from the previous step/tool that failed. That's how we end up with this zero byte output.

 

Occasionally "Microsoft print to pdf" creates empty files

Hi,

If the file name of the .pdf that is sent to the printer contains "special characters" i.e. \ / : * ? " < > | or a comma, the file sent to the printer will be 0 ir 1kb in size: Enable there are no comma in the file name you enter

Filename | MS Docs

• What do you do when you catch one of these 0/1kb files to allow it to print?
• What PDF program do you use?

 

Programmatically set filename and path in Microsoft Print to PDF printer

I have a C# / .net program that creates various documents. These documents should be stored in different locations and with different, clearly defined names.

To do so, I use the System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument class in .net

I select the "Microsoft Print to PDF" as printer with this statement:

PrintDocument.PrinterSettings.PrinterName = "Microsoft Print to PDF";

In doing so I'm able to print my document in a pdf file. The user gets a file select dialog. He can then specify in this dialog box the name of the pdf file and where to store it.

As the amount of files is large and it is annoying and error-prone to find always the correct path and name, I would like to set already the correct path and filename in this dialog box programmatically.

I already tested these attributes:

PrintDocument.PrinterSettings.PrintFileName

PrintDocument.DocumentName

Writing the required path and filename to these attributes didn't help.

Does anybody know, how to set the default values for path and filename for the "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer in C#?

My environment:

Windows 10

Visual Studio 2010

.net 4.5