Develop Reference

Exporting WPF Canvas to PDF

I've been attempting to find an easy solution to exporting a Canvas in my WPF Application to a PDF Document.
So far, the best solution has been to use the PrintDialog and set it up to automatically use the Microsoft Print the PDF 'printer'. The only problem I have had with this is that although the PrintDialog is skipped, there is a FileDialog to choose where the file should be saved.
Sadly, this is a deal-breaker because I would like to run this over a large number of canvases with automatically generated PDF names (well, programitically provided anyway).
Other solutions I have looked at include:
Using PrintDocument, but from my experimentation I would have to manually iterate through all my Canveses children and manually invoke the correct Draw method (of which a lot of my custom elements with transformation would be rather time consuming to do)
Exporting as a PNG image and then embedding that in a PDF. Although this works, TextBlocks within my canvas are no longer text. So this isn't an ideal situation.
Using the 3rd party library PDFSharp has the same downfall as the PrintDocument. A lot of custom logic for each element.
With PDFSharp. I did find a method fir generating the XGraphics from a Canvas but no way of then consuming that object to make a PDF Page
So does anybody know how I can skip or automate the PDF PrintDialog, or consume PDFSharp XGraphics to make
A page. Or any other ideas for directions to take this besides writing a whole library to convert each of my Canvas elements to PDF elements.

If you look at the output port of a recent windows installation of Microsoft Print To PDF
You may note it is set to PORTPROMP: and that is exactly what causes the request for a filename.
You might note lower down, I have several ports set to a filename, and the fourth one down is called "My Print to PDF"
So very last century methodology; when I print with a duplicate printer but give it a different name I can use different page ratios etc., without altering the built in standard one. The output for a file will naturally be built:-
A) Exactly in one repeatable location, that I can file monitor and rename it, based on the source calling the print sequence, such that if it is my current default printer I can right click files to print to a known \folder\file.pdf
B) The same port can be used via certain /pt (printto) command combinations to output, not just to that default port location, but to a given folder\name such as
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows NT\Accessories\WORDPAD.EXE" /pt listIN.doc "My Print to PDF" "My Print to PDF" "listOUT.pdf"
Other drivers usually charge for the convenience of WPF programmable renaming, but I will leave you that PrintVisual challenge for another of your three wishes.
MS suggest XPS is best But then they would be promoting it as a PDF competitor.
It does not need to be Doc[X]2PDF it could be [O]XPS2PDF or aPNG2PDF or many pages TIFF2PDF etc. etc. Any of those are Native to Win 10 also other 3rd party apps such as [Free]Office with a PrintTo verb will do XLS[X]2PDF. Imagination becomes pagination.

I had a great success in generating PDFs using PDFSharp in combination with SkiaSharp (for more advanced graphics).
Let me begin from the very end:
you save the PdfDocument object in the following way:
PdfDocument yourDocument = ...;
string filename = #"your\file\path\document.pdf"
yourDocument.Save(filename);
creating the PdfDocument with a page can be achieved the following way (adjust the parameters to fit your needs):
PdfDocument yourDocument = new PdfDocument();
yourDocument.PageLayout = PdfPageLayout.SinglePage;
yourDocument.Info.Title = "Your document title";
PdfPage yourPage = yourDocument.AddPage();
yourDocument.Orientation = PageOrientation.Landscape;
yourDocument.Size = PageSize.A4;
the PdfPage object's content (as an example I'm putting a string and an image) is filled in the following way:
using (XGraphics gfx = XGraphics.FromPdfPage(yourPage))
{
XFont yourFont = new XFont("Helvetica", 20, XFontStyle.Bold);
gfx.DrawString(
"Your string in the page",
yourFont,
XBrushes.Black,
new XRect(0, XUnit.FromMillimeter(10), page.Width, yourFont.GetHeight()),
XStringFormats.Center);
using (Stream s = new FileStream(#"path\to\your\image.png", FileMode.Open))
{
XImage image = XImage.FromStream(s);
var imageRect = new XRect()
{
Location = new XPoint() { X = XUnit.FromMillimeter(42), Y = XUnit.FromMillimeter(42) },
Size = new XSize() { Width = XUnit.FromMillimeter(42), Height = XUnit.FromMillimeter(42.0 * image.PixelHeight / image.PixelWidth) }
};
gfx.DrawImage(image, imageRect);
}
}
Of course, the font objects can be created as static members of your class.
And this is, in short to answer your question, how you consume the XGraphics object to create a PDF page.
Let me know if you need more assistance.

c# printing through PDF drivers, print to file option will output PS instead of PDF

After struggling whole day, I identified the issue but this didn't solve my problem.
On short:
I need to open a PDF, convert to BW (grayscale), search some words and insert some notes nearby found words. At a first look it seems easy but I discovered how hard PDF files are processed (having no "words" concepts and so on).
Now the first task, converting to grayscale just drove me crazy. I didn't find a working solution either commercial or free. I came up with this solution:
open the PDF
print with windows drivers, some free PDF printers
This is quite ugly since I will force the C# users to install such 3'rd party SW but.. that is fpr the moment. I tested FreePDF, CutePDF and PDFCreator. All of them are working "stand alone" as expected.
Now when I tried to print from C#, obviously, I don't want the print dialog, just select BW option and print (aka. convert)
The following code just uses a PDF library, shown for clarity only.
Aspose.Pdf.Facades.PdfViewer viewer = new Aspose.Pdf.Facades.PdfViewer();
viewer.BindPdf(txtPDF.Text);
viewer.PrintAsGrayscale = true;
//viewer.RenderingOptions = new RenderingOptions { UseNewImagingEngine = true };
//Set attributes for printing
//viewer.AutoResize = true; //Print the file with adjusted size
//viewer.AutoRotate = true; //Print the file with adjusted rotation
viewer.PrintPageDialog = true; //Do not produce the page number dialog when printing
////PrinterJob printJob = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob();
//Create objects for printer and page settings and PrintDocument
System.Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings ps = new System.Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings();
System.Drawing.Printing.PageSettings pgs = new System.Drawing.Printing.PageSettings();
//System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument prtdoc = new System.Drawing.Printing.PrintDocument();
//prtdoc.PrinterSettings = ps;
//Set printer name
//ps.PrinterName = prtdoc.PrinterSettings.PrinterName;
ps.PrinterName = "CutePDF Writer";
ps.PrintToFile = true;
ps.PrintFileName = #"test.pdf";
//
//ps.
//Set PageSize (if required)
//pgs.PaperSize = new System.Drawing.Printing.PaperSize("A4", 827, 1169);
//Set PageMargins (if required)
//pgs.Margins = new System.Drawing.Printing.Margins(0, 0, 0, 0);
//Print document using printer and page settings
viewer.PrintDocumentWithSettings(ps);
//viewer.PrintDocument();
//Close the PDF file after priting
What I discovered and seems to be little explained, is that if you select
ps.PrintToFile = true;
no matter C# PDF library or PDF printer driver, Windows will just skip the PDF drivers and instead of PDF files will output PS (postscript) ones which obviously, will not be recognized by Adobe Reader.
Now the question (and I am positive that others who may want to print PDFs from C# may be encountered) is how to print to CutePDF for example and still suppress any filename dialog?
In other words, just print silently with programmatically selected filename from C# application. Or somehow convince "print to file" to go through PDF driver, not Windows default PS driver.
Thanks very much for any hints.

I solved conversion to grayscale with a commercial component with this post and I also posted there my complete solution, in care anyone will struggle like me.
Converting PDF to Grayscale pdf using ABC PDF

Programmatic cutting on a ZPL printer from c#

I am developing a program in C# to process shipping requests with UPS, register them in the clients database and send the new labels to a networked ZPL printer.
We are working with a GX420T Zebra printer with a cutter. Printing labels works without issue via IP.
I am having an issue cutting the labels. The client wants each shipment's labels to be connected, but separated from the labels of other shipments. (ie. only cut after all the shipment's labels are printed) With a shipment of a single label the label is cut as expected. With shipments of multiple labels the cutter never runs.
bool print = true; //true: If printing fails on the first label,
// do not try the rest.
//false: do not print
//Set printer mode
print = parseZPL.printZPL_IP(#"^XA^MMD^XZ");
//Save and print Package labels
foreach (XElement package in Packages)
{ //Parse XML
if (package.Name.LocalName == "PackageResults")
{
//Pulling Package and Shipping label information from XML
string ShippingLabel = package.Element(ship + "ShippingLabel").Element(ship + "GraphicImage").Value;
//convert string to Base64
byte[] ZPLbytes = Convert.FromBase64String(ShippingLabel);
if (print)
{
print = parseZPL.printZPL_IP(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(ZPLbytes));
}
}
};
if (print)
{
print = parseZPL.printZPL_IP(#"~JK");
}
I tried adding a sleep() command before the ~JK command, with no success. I have scoured the ZPL Documentation without finding a solution that worked.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

When printing a batch of labels, I think you need to set ^MMT (tearoff) at the start of the first label, and ^MMC (cut) at the start of the last label.

Creating PDF from template file, drawing text, and printing the file

I am trying to learn, if it's possible to create an application in C# which needs to meet requirements:
Can load a template PDF file, and draw some text on top of it (positioned by pixels for example)
Save this file in a specific directory
And most important... Application should be able to print such PDF file. And i don't mean print it on the screen, i mean 'silently' send on the printer.
I've heard, that two first points can be accomplished by iTextSharp/iTextPdf. But does it allow me to simply send this file to the printer? I was looking for a solution for a while now.
User should pick default printer once in options, and all he should do is click "print" after generating such PDF file. I would love the solution that doesn't open Adobe Reader in the background.
Are there maybe some alternatives?
I know its possible to send images to printer like that, without running any other program in the background. But I need it to work for PDFs.
private void SendToPrinter(string path)
{
PrinterSettings defaultprinter = new PrinterSettings();
PrintDocument pd = new PrintDocument();
pd.PrinterSettings.PrinterName = defaultprinter.PrinterName;
pd.PrintPage += (sender, e) => PrintPage(e, path);
pd.Print();
}
private void PrintPage(PrintPageEventArgs e, string path)
{
Bitmap bitma = new Bitmap(776, 538, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
System.Drawing.Image dest = bitma;
Graphics graph = Graphics.FromImage(dest);
graph.Clear(Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 255));
Bitmap z = new Bitmap(path);
System.Drawing.Image img = z;
graph.DrawImage(img, new System.Drawing.Point(120, 350));
e.Graphics.DrawImage(dest, new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0));
}
PS. Yes, I've tried searching. Google, stackoverflow, seen even few similar questions, but didn't find one answering all my questions.

If you look at the different Questions I put myself here in SO You'll see that using GhostScript in order to print pdf files it's a great tool. You can find the Questions here, here, here and here.
Between the 4 of them you'll find all the information you need :)

Best way to print for Windows Clients (Not Web Apps)?

What is the best way to print stuff from c#/.net?
The question is in regard to single pages as well as to reports containing lots of pages.
It would be great to get a list of the most common printing libs containing the main features and gotchas of each of them.
[Update] for standard windows clients (or servers), not for web apps, please.

For reports, I use the RDLC control.
For everything else, I use the inherent printing objects within .NET.
Edit
The inherent printing objects are all found in the System.Drawing.Printing namespace. When you use the PrintDialog or the PrintPreviewDialog in a WinForms (or WPF) application, it is to these objects that you're turning over control.
The fundamental concept is that you're drawing to the printer. The simplest form of this is:
Sub MyMethod()
Dim x as New PrintDocument
AddHandler x.PrintPage, AddressOf printDoc_PrintPage
x.Print
End Sub
Sub printDoc_PrintPage( sender as Object, e as PrintPageEventArgs)
Dim textToPrint as String= ".NET Printing is easy"
dim printFont as new Font("Courier New", 12)
dim leftMargin as int= e.MarginBounds.Left
dim topMargin as int = e.MarginBounds.Top
e.Graphics.DrawString(textToPrint, printFont, Brushes.Black, leftMargin, topMargin)
End Sub
What's happening here is that when my object (x) is sent the print command, it raises the "PRINT PAGE" event (which is designed to print 1 page at a time). This event then uses the Graphics attribute of the PrintPageEventArgs to draw the relevant string directly to the print spooler.
Here's one tutorial, and a quick Google search for ".NET printing tutorial" returns a bit over 200K results.

We used a set of third party DLLs from PDFSharp who in turn use DLLs from MigraDoc. I'm not privy to all the reasons that we went that direction (the decision was made by a senior developer), but I can tell you that:
It seems to be in active
development.
It had most of the
features we needed.
The source code
is available. Although it used some
patterns and conventions that I
hadn't seen before, once I got on to
them, it was fairly easy to make the
changes. I added support for using
the System.Drawing.Image directly
rather than as saving files.
It is
not documented well either
internally or externally.

» Sample Code to show basics of Printing in Windows Forms Applications:
using System.Drawing.Printing;
PrintDocument printDoc = new PrintDocument();
printDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape = true;
printDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left = 100; //100 = 1 inch = 2.54 cm
printDoc.DocumentName = "My Document Name"; //this can affect name of output PDF file if printer is a PDF printer
//printDoc.PrinterSettings.PrinterName = "CutePDF";
printDoc.PrintPage += new PrintPageEventHandler(printDoc_PrintPage);
PrintDialog printDialog = new PrintDialog();
printDialog.Document = printDoc; //Document property must be set before ShowDialog()
DialogResult dialogResult = printDialog.ShowDialog();
if (dialogResult == DialogResult.OK)
{
printDoc.Print(); //start the print
}
void printDoc_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
string textToPrint = ".NET Printing is easy";
Font font = new Font("Courier New", 12);
// e.PageBounds is total page size (does not consider margins)
// e.MarginBounds is the portion of page inside margins
int x1 = e.MarginBounds.Left;
int y1 = e.MarginBounds.Top;
int w = e.MarginBounds.Width;
int h = e.MarginBounds.Height;
g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Red, x1, y1, w, h); //draw a rectangle around the margins of the page, also we can use: g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Red, e.MarginBounds)
g.DrawString(textToPrint, font, Brushes.Black, x1, y1);
e.HasMorePages = false; //set to true to continue printing next page
}

Loads of stuff, you say. Hum, seems that you should use a solution with a designer, so you should look into Crystal Reports and RDLC.
There's also the Reporting Services solution, but in that case you would need a server with SQL Server.
Crystal Reports seems to give you more choices, but needs a little more learning than RDLC.
I wouldn't recommend you create those in HTML + CSS, because of the limitations and the extra work you would have to throw at it.

If you can build your output as a FlowDocument, you can turn it into XPS easily to get an "electronic" version, and the print the XPS.

It depends a lot on the requirements of your application.
Even though it isn't the perfect tool (really far from that), Crystal Reports tends to be a good choice.
It gives you the option of getting data directly from a Database or, if you already have a list of objects you want to print, you can pass them to the document and bind the object properties to the labels of the report.
But give us some more information of what you're trying to do, so you can receive better proposals.

Can Print via Adobe Acrobat
I use the standard libraries such as System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo to use Adobe Acrobat to print a pdf. The end user will not have to interact with the Acrobat GUI, though, annoyingly, the following code still pulls it on-screen for a few seconds.
// Sample fileName = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(
// System.Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData)
// + #"\MyCompany\MyProject\TestPrint.pdf"
private void SendPrintJob(string fileName)
{
try
{
// Start by finding Acrobat from the Registry.
// This supposedly gets whichever you have of free or paid
string processFilename = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine
.OpenSubKey("Software")
.OpenSubKey("Microsoft")
.OpenSubKey("Windows")
.OpenSubKey("CurrentVersion")
.OpenSubKey("App Paths")
.OpenSubKey("AcroRd32.exe")
.GetValue(String.Empty).ToString();
ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo();
info.Verb = "print";
info.FileName = processFilename;
info.Arguments = String.Format("/p /h {0}", fileName);
info.CreateNoWindow = true;
info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
info.UseShellExecute = false;
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo = info;
p.Start();
p.WaitForInputIdle();
// Recommended to add a time-out feature. Mine is coded here.
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error sending print job. " + e.Message);
}
Can Manipulate via PDFSharp/MigraDoc
I did not read document manipulation into the OP, but I see other answers commenting on the fact. A few StackOverflow Q&As from 2008-2012 (including #Robert Gowland from this question) say that PDFSharp / MigraDoc have poor documentation.
In 2018, I have found it to be an easy learning curve, with many samples at the homepage. I read this question this morning to figure out how to print a graph, and now have a button to screen-shot my application and print.
You will want to go to NuGet package manager for PDFsharp-MigraDocs (or PDFsharp-MigraDocs-WPF, or PDFsharp-MigraDocs-GDI). MigraDocs is the high-level component that can create documents from elements, without care of if they are pdf or image or what have you. PDFSharp is the component that helps to, i.e., rearrange documents, put multiple documents on a page, and break apart content from one to two pages.