Print PDF and Choose the Printer Tray in Batch

Three hundred invoices should print on plain paper from tray 2. The cover letters — on letterhead from tray 1. A standard print dialog decides for you: every job goes to the default tray unless you change the paper source file by file. Total PDF Printer lets you pick the exact tray for an entire batch of PDFs — one setting, hundreds of files.

Instead of 300 trips through a print dialog, you run two one-click jobs: the letterhead batch from tray 1, the plain-paper batch from tray 2. The tray choice is saved with your print settings, so tomorrow's run is one click, not two.

Quick answer: To choose the printer tray for a batch of PDFs, open Total PDF Printer, check the files or a whole folder, pick the target printer, then select the paper source from the list of trays in the print settings and click Print. Every file in the batch prints from the chosen tray, so you can route letterhead, labels, or colored stock without changing the printer panel.

Key Tray Features

• Tray selection for the whole batch — pick any paper source the printer driver reports: cassettes, bypass tray, envelope feeder.
• Route jobs to the right stock — letterhead, colored paper, labels, or pre-printed forms.
• Local and network printers — works with multi-drawer office MFPs and shared print servers.
• Sort before printing — order files by name, date, or time so the printed stack comes out ready to hand over.
• Combine with other options — duplex, separator sheets, fit-to-page scaling, and print quality are set in the same dialog.

How to Batch Print PDF to a Specific Tray

1. Download and install — get the free 30-day trial (Windows 7/8/10/11). No email or credit card required.
2. Select files — browse to the folder in the left panel and check the PDFs to print, or click Check All.
3. Choose the printer — pick the target device from the dropdown.
4. Choose the tray — in the print settings, select the paper source from the list of trays your printer driver exposes.
5. Click Print — every file in the batch prints from the chosen tray.

Per-page tray switching (first page letterhead, rest plain) depends on the printer driver: Total PDF Printer sets the paper source per job, which is exactly what batch runs need.

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Command Line and Automation

The command-line interface takes the same tray setting as the GUI, so a .bat file plus Windows Task Scheduler can send every nightly export to the right paper automatically — invoices to invoice stock, labels to the label tray. For server-side printing without any UI, use Total PDF Printer X.

When Tray Control Matters

• Letterhead vs. plain paper — print official letters from the letterhead tray, attachments from the standard one.
• Label sheets — shipping or file labels live in the bypass tray; route the label batch there without touching the printer panel.
• Colored paper for internal copies — accounting prints archive copies on colored stock to separate them from originals.
• Pre-printed forms — invoice blanks or certificate stock stay in their own cassette and are used only when the right batch calls for them.

For the rest of the batch-printing workflow — sorting, separator pages, scaling — see how to batch print PDF files on Windows.