New to VB 2008, I was discouraged to Google results that said, "printing is not easy in VB," and found only baffling examples I could not understand until I found and tweaked this simple example. Here is how to create a simple "Hello, world." to the printer.
First, on the project menu, add a class TextPrint
Public Class TextPrint
' Inherits all the functionality of a PrintDocument
Inherits Printing.PrintDocument
' Private variables to hold default font and text
Private fntPrintFont As Font
Private strText As String
Public Sub New(ByVal Text As String)
' Sets the file stream
MyBase.New()
strText = Text
End Sub
Public Property Text() As String
Get
Return strText
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
strText = Value
End Set
End Property
Protected Overrides Sub OnBeginPrint(ByVal ev _
As Printing.PrintEventArgs)
' Run base code
MyBase.OnBeginPrint(ev)
' Sets the default font
If fntPrintFont Is Nothing Then
fntPrintFont = New Font("Times New Roman", 12)
End If
End Sub
Public Property Font() As Font
' Allows the user to override the default font
Get
Return fntPrintFont
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As Font)
fntPrintFont = Value
End Set
End Property
Protected Overrides Sub OnPrintPage(ByVal ev _
As Printing.PrintPageEventArgs)
' Provides the print logic for our document
' Run base code
MyBase.OnPrintPage(ev)
' Variables
Static intCurrentChar As Integer
Dim intPrintAreaHeight, intPrintAreaWidth, _
intMarginLeft, intMarginTop As Integer
' Set printing area boundaries and margin coordinates
With MyBase.DefaultPageSettings
intPrintAreaHeight = .PaperSize.Height - _
.Margins.Top - .Margins.Bottom
intPrintAreaWidth = .PaperSize.Width - _
.Margins.Left - .Margins.Right
intMarginLeft = .Margins.Left 'X
intMarginTop = .Margins.Top 'Y
End With
' If Landscape set, swap printing height/width
If MyBase.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape Then
Dim intTemp As Integer
intTemp = intPrintAreaHeight
intPrintAreaHeight = intPrintAreaWidth
intPrintAreaWidth = intTemp
End If
' Calculate total number of lines
Dim intLineCount As Int32 = _
CInt(intPrintAreaHeight / Font.Height)
' Initialise rectangle printing area
Dim rectPrintingArea As New RectangleF(intMarginLeft, _
intMarginTop, intPrintAreaWidth, intPrintAreaHeight)
' Initialise StringFormat class, for text layout
Dim objSF As New StringFormat(StringFormatFlags.LineLimit)
' Figure out how many lines will fit into rectangle
Dim intLinesFilled, intCharsFitted As Int32
ev.Graphics.MeasureString(Mid(strText, _
UpgradeZeros(intCurrentChar)), Font, _
New SizeF(intPrintAreaWidth, _
intPrintAreaHeight), objSF, _
intCharsFitted, intLinesFilled)
' Print the text to the page
ev.Graphics.DrawString(Mid(strText, _
UpgradeZeros(intCurrentChar)), Font, _
Brushes.Black, rectPrintingArea, objSF)
' Increase current char count
intCurrentChar += intCharsFitted
' Check whether we need to print more
If intCurrentChar < strText.Length Then
ev.HasMorePages = True
Else
ev.HasMorePages = False
intCurrentChar = 0
End If
End Sub
Public Function UpgradeZeros(ByVal Input As Integer) As Integer
' Upgrades all zeros to ones
' - used as opposed to defunct IIF or messy If statements
If Input = 0 Then
Return 1
Else
Return Input
End If
End Function
End ClassThen, I have a button with code:
Private Sub Button5_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button5.Click
Dim MyPrintObject As New TextPrint("Hello, world.")
' Set font, if required
MyPrintObject.Font = New Font("Tahoma", 8)
' Issue print command
MyPrintObject.Print()
End SubHope this helps someone. It sure gives me a head start.
Thanks,
Bill P.