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Is it possible to change the printer for a particular map document from ArcPy? The mxd is saved with the default printer settings, and I know with the PrintMap() function one can specify the printer to use. In my case, I do not want to print the map, just change the printer.

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I am not aware of any way to do this, the ListPrinterNames() function can return a list of printers but there does not seem to be anywhere to save a selected printer that does not involve printing.

I had a look at editing the mxd file manually or with some software, but its a binary format so I had no luck. I found some information about editing mxd files mainly around version 9.3 which may be useful but I only have access to 10.1 so I cannot test them, however I am not sure whether a default printer parameter even exists to be changed.

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Also, I think this functionality may be present in qgis, as I think it has plain text map document files. Although someone who knows more about Quantum can put me right. – sgrieve Sep 20 '12 at 7:52
It does seem strange though, that one cannot change the printer in this way. I have 10.0 and 10.1 available. – Arabella Sep 20 '12 at 9:23
After some additional "fiddling" with settings and arcpy, this does not seem possible (or at least not "obvious") to do via Python. – Arabella Oct 29 '12 at 5:09

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