Batch print Excel files with lp

I have 33 Excel files I want to print.

They are all just 1 page A4 size.

I was hoping I could use the script below in bash, but I get this error from lp:

lp: Unsupported document-format "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet".

I don't really want to open each file and then click print.

Any tips please? Maybe convert to PDF??

#! /bin/bash
echo "This script should print all the files in a given directory."
echo "Easiest is go to that directory first."


XLfiles="/home/pedro/winter2021/20EAP/individual_stats/*.xlsx" # local machine
# batch print Excel files

for X in $XLfiles;
do
echo "This is one of the files:"
printf $X;
printf "\n";
echo "Now sending the file to the printer ... "
lp -d "EPSON-L380-Series" $X;
done

echo "All files sent to the printer!"
echo "All done!"

Perhaps installing gnumeric would register the xlsx type. Or some open office type spreadsheet app. Or you could put open file and print in your batch file.

Have you tried this technique of converting from Excel format to PDF format and then printing?

^Either that or ssconvert (which is part of Gnumeric).

Thanks for your replies!

I had never heard of gnumeric or ssconvert before, but I installed them.

I used the libreoffice approach,

libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf *.xlsx

then lp with the pdfs, worked perfectly.

but I will look into gnumeric. I already installed it.

Thanks for your advice!