Develop Reference

Print FixedDocument/XPS to PDF without showing file save dialog

I have a FixedDocument that I allow the user to preview in a WPF GUI and then print to paper without showing any Windows printing dialogue, like so:
private void Print()
{
PrintQueueCollection printQueues;
using (var printServer = new PrintServer())
{
var flags = new[] { EnumeratedPrintQueueTypes.Local };
printQueues = printServer.GetPrintQueues(flags);
}
//SelectedPrinter.FullName can be something like "Microsoft Print to PDF"
var selectedQueue = printQueues.SingleOrDefault(pq => pq.FullName == SelectedPrinter.FullName);
if (selectedQueue != null)
{
var myTicket = new PrintTicket
{
CopyCount = 1,
PageOrientation = PageOrientation.Portrait,
OutputColor = OutputColor.Color,
PageMediaSize = new PageMediaSize(PageMediaSizeName.ISOA4)
};
var mergeTicketResult = selectedQueue.MergeAndValidatePrintTicket(selectedQueue.DefaultPrintTicket, myTicket);
var printTicket = mergeTicketResult.ValidatedPrintTicket;
// TODO: Make sure merge was OK
// Calling GetPrintCapabilities with our ticket allows us to use
// the OrientedPageMediaHeight/OrientedPageMediaWidth properties
// and the PageImageableArea property to calculate the minimum
// document margins supported by the printer. Very important!
var printCapabilities = queue.GetPrintCapabilities(myTicket);
var fixedDocument = GenerateFixedDocument(printCapabilities);
var dlg = new PrintDialog
{
PrintTicket = printTicket,
PrintQueue = selectedQueue
};
dlg.PrintDocument(fixedDocument.DocumentPaginator, "test document");
}
}
The problem is that I want to also support virtual/file printers, namely PDF printing, by giving the file destination path and not showing any Windows dialogues, but that doesn't seem to work with the PrintDialog.
I would really like to avoid 3rd party libraries as much as possible, so at least for now, using something like PdfSharp to convert an XPS to PDF is not something I want to do. Correction: It seems like XPS conversion support was removed from the latest version of PdfSharp.
After doing some research, it seems the only way to print straight to a file is to use a PrintDocument where it's possible to set PrintFileName and PrintToFile in the PrinterSettings object, but there is no way to give the actual document contents, rather we need to subscribe to the PrintPage event and do some System.Drawing.Graphics manipulation where the document is created.
Here's the code I tried:
var printDoc = new PrintDocument
{
PrinterSettings =
{
PrinterName = SelectedPrinter.FullName,
PrintFileName = destinationFilePath,
PrintToFile = true
},
PrintController = new StandardPrintController()
};
printDoc.PrintPage += OnPrintPage; // Without this line, we get a blank PDF
printDoc.Print();
Then the handler for PrintPage where we need to build the document:
private void OnPrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
// What to do here?
}
Other things that I thought could work are using the System.Windows.Forms.PrintDialog class instead, but that also expects a PrintDocument. I was able to create an XPS file easily like so:
var pkg = Package.Open(destinationFilePath, FileMode.Create);
var doc = new XpsDocument(pkg);
var writer = XpsDocument.CreateXpsDocumentWriter(doc);
writer.Write(PreviewDocument.DocumentPaginator);
pkg.Flush();
pkg.Close();
But it's not a PDF, and there seems to be no way to convert it to PDF without a 3rd party library.
Is it possible to maybe do a hack that automatically fills the filename then clicks save on the PrintDialog?
Thank you!
EDIT: It's possible to print directly to PDF from Word documents using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word, but there seems to be no easy way of converting from XPS/FixedDocument to Word.
EDIT: It seems so far the best way is to grab the old XPS to PDF conversion code that was present in PdfSharp 1.31. I grabbed the source code and built it, imported the DLL's, and it works. Credit goes to Nathan Jones, check out his blog post about this here.

Solved! After googling around I was inspired by the P/Invoke method of directly calling Windows printers.
So the solution is to use the Print Spooler API functions to directly call the Microsoft Print to PDF printer available in Windows (make sure the feature is installed though!) and giving the WritePrinter function the bytes of an XPS file.
I believe this works because the Microsoft PDF printer driver understands the XPS page description language. This can be checked by inspecting the IsXpsDevice property of the print queue.
The "Microsoft Print to PDF" feature must be installed in Windows for this to work!
Here's the code:
using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Printing;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
public static class PdfFilePrinter
{
private const string PdfPrinterDriveName = "Microsoft Print To PDF";
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
private class DOCINFOA
{
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
public string pDocName;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
public string pOutputFile;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
public string pDataType;
}
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "OpenPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
private static extern bool OpenPrinter([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string szPrinter, out IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pd);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "ClosePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
private static extern bool ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "StartDocPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
private static extern int StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, int level, [In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)] DOCINFOA di);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "EndDocPrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
private static extern bool EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "StartPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
private static extern bool StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "EndPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
private static extern bool EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
[DllImport("winspool.drv", EntryPoint = "WritePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
private static extern bool WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pBytes, int dwCount, out int dwWritten);
public static void PrintXpsToPdf(byte[] bytes, string outputFilePath, string documentTitle)
{
// Get Microsoft Print to PDF print queue
var pdfPrintQueue = GetMicrosoftPdfPrintQueue();
// Copy byte array to unmanaged pointer
var ptrUnmanagedBytes = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(bytes.Length);
Marshal.Copy(bytes, 0, ptrUnmanagedBytes, bytes.Length);
// Prepare document info
var di = new DOCINFOA
{
pDocName = documentTitle,
pOutputFile = outputFilePath,
pDataType = "RAW"
};
// Print to PDF
var errorCode = SendBytesToPrinter(pdfPrintQueue.Name, ptrUnmanagedBytes, bytes.Length, di, out var jobId);
// Free unmanaged memory
Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(ptrUnmanagedBytes);
// Check if job in error state (for example not enough disk space)
var jobFailed = false;
try
{
var pdfPrintJob = pdfPrintQueue.GetJob(jobId);
if (pdfPrintJob.IsInError)
{
jobFailed = true;
pdfPrintJob.Cancel();
}
}
catch
{
// If job succeeds, GetJob will throw an exception. Ignore it.
}
finally
{
pdfPrintQueue.Dispose();
}
if (errorCode > 0 || jobFailed)
{
try
{
if (File.Exists(outputFilePath))
{
File.Delete(outputFilePath);
}
}
catch
{
// ignored
}
}
if (errorCode > 0)
{
throw new Exception($"Printing to PDF failed. Error code: {errorCode}.");
}
if (jobFailed)
{
throw new Exception("PDF Print job failed.");
}
}
private static int SendBytesToPrinter(string szPrinterName, IntPtr pBytes, int dwCount, DOCINFOA documentInfo, out int jobId)
{
jobId = 0;
var dwWritten = 0;
var success = false;
if (OpenPrinter(szPrinterName.Normalize(), out var hPrinter, IntPtr.Zero))
{
jobId = StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, documentInfo);
if (jobId > 0)
{
if (StartPagePrinter(hPrinter))
{
success = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, dwCount, out dwWritten);
EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
}
EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
}
ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
}
// TODO: The other methods such as OpenPrinter also have return values. Check those?
if (success == false)
{
return Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
}
return 0;
}
private static PrintQueue GetMicrosoftPdfPrintQueue()
{
PrintQueue pdfPrintQueue = null;
try
{
using (var printServer = new PrintServer())
{
var flags = new[] { EnumeratedPrintQueueTypes.Local };
// FirstOrDefault because it's possible for there to be multiple PDF printers with the same driver name (though unusual)
// To get a specific printer, search by FullName property instead (note that in Windows, queue name can be changed)
pdfPrintQueue = printServer.GetPrintQueues(flags).FirstOrDefault(lq => lq.QueueDriver.Name == PdfPrinterDriveName);
}
if (pdfPrintQueue == null)
{
throw new Exception($"Could not find printer with driver name: {PdfPrinterDriveName}");
}
if (!pdfPrintQueue.IsXpsDevice)
{
throw new Exception($"PrintQueue '{pdfPrintQueue.Name}' does not understand XPS page description language.");
}
return pdfPrintQueue;
}
catch
{
pdfPrintQueue?.Dispose();
throw;
}
}
}
Usage:
public static void FixedDocument2Pdf(FixedDocument fd)
{
// Convert FixedDocument to XPS file in memory
var ms = new MemoryStream();
var package = Package.Open(ms, FileMode.Create);
var doc = new XpsDocument(package);
var writer = XpsDocument.CreateXpsDocumentWriter(doc);
writer.Write(fd.DocumentPaginator);
doc.Close();
package.Close();
// Get XPS file bytes
var bytes = ms.ToArray();
ms.Dispose();
// Print to PDF
var outputFilePath = #"C:\tmp\test.pdf";
PdfFilePrinter.PrintXpsToPdf(bytes, outputFilePath, "Document Title");
}
In the code above, instead of directly giving the printer name, I get the name by finding the print queue using the driver name because I believe it's constant while the printer name can actually be changed in Windows, also I don't know if it's affected by localization so this way is safer.
Note: It's a good idea to check available disk space size before starting the printing operation, because I couldn't find a way to reliably find out if the error was insufficient disk space. One idea is to multiply the XPS byte array length by a magic number like 3 and then check if we have that much space on disk. Also, giving an empty byte array or one with bogus data does not fail anywhere, but produces a corrupt PDF file.
Note from comments:
Simply reading an XPS file using FileStream will not work. We have to create an XpsDocument from a Package in memory, then read the bytes from the MemomryStream like this:
public static void PrintFile(string xpsSourcePath, string pdfOutputPath)
{
// Write XPS file to memory stream
var ms = new MemoryStream();
var package = Package.Open(ms, FileMode.Create);
var doc = new XpsDocument(package);
var writer = XpsDocument.CreateXpsDocumentWriter(doc);
writer.Write(xpsSourcePath);
doc.Close();
package.Close();
// Get XPS file bytes
var bytes = ms.ToArray();
ms.Dispose();
// Print to PDF
PdfPrinter.PrintXpsToPdf(bytes, pdfOutputPath, "Document title");
}

Windows 10 gives error when calling ShellExecute with verb that is registered

We have run into a strange problem and it seems we are not the only ones (see note at bottom).
The problem is that we want to call ShellExecute with the shell verb printto. We are checking if it is registered and if so, start a process. The registered verbs can be retrieved in ProcessStartInfo.Verbs.
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.FileName = #"C:\test.jpg";
startInfo.Verb = "printto";
startInfo.Arguments = "MyPrinter";
startInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
if (!startInfo.Verbs.Contains("printto"))
throw new Exception("PrintTo is not supported!");
try
{
Process.Start(startInfo);
}
catch (Win32Exception ex) when (ex.NativeErrorCode == 1155)
{
Console.WriteLine("Somehow printto is NOT registered...");
}
When running Windows 10 with the Photos UWP app as default viewer, the console will print that a Win32Exception with code 1155 was raised, which means that the file type is not registered (for the given verb). If the (old) windows picture viewer is default, this works.
Please also note, that we are checking if the verb is registered and only call this if it is. It seems that Microsoft does something different here.
The big question is: Why do these two MS APIs do not play together anymore and how can we circumvent that?
Note:
There is an old discussion with an answer that is not particularly correct, but also a slightly different problem description:
Windows 8 blows error on c# process for printing pdf file, how?
I therefore decided to start a new question and hope that it is aligned with the SO principles.

The ProcessStartInfo.Verbs property is somewhat broken as it does not consider the way how newer versions of Windows (Windows 8 and above afaik) retrieve the registered application. The property only checks the verbs that are registered for the ProgId defined under HKCR\.ext (as can be seen in the reference source) and does not consider other places such as below the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.ext or some other places, e.g. defined via Policy.
Getting the registered verbs
The best way is to not rely on checking the Registry directly (as done by the ProcessStartInfo class), but to use the appropriate Windows API function AssocQueryString to retrieve the associated ProgId:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Win32;
class Program
{
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
string fileName = #"E:\Pictures\Sample.jpg";
string progId = AssocQueryString(AssocStr.ASSOCSTR_PROGID, fileName);
var verbs = GetVerbsByProgId(progId);
if (!verbs.Contains("printto"))
{
throw new Exception("PrintTo is not supported!");
}
}
private static string[] GetVerbsByProgId(string progId)
{
var verbs = new List<string>();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(progId))
{
using (var key = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(progId + "\\shell"))
{
if (key != null)
{
var names = key.GetSubKeyNames();
verbs.AddRange(
names.Where(
name =>
string.Compare(
name,
"new",
StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)
!= 0));
}
}
}
return verbs.ToArray();
}
private static string AssocQueryString(AssocStr association, string extension)
{
uint length = 0;
uint ret = AssocQueryString(
AssocF.ASSOCF_NONE, association, extension, "printto", null, ref length);
if (ret != 1) //expected S_FALSE
{
throw new Win32Exception();
}
var sb = new StringBuilder((int)length);
ret = AssocQueryString(
AssocF.ASSOCF_NONE, association, extension, null, sb, ref length);
if (ret != 0) //expected S_OK
{
throw new Win32Exception();
}
return sb.ToString();
}
[DllImport("Shlwapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern uint AssocQueryString(
AssocF flags,
AssocStr str,
string pszAssoc,
string pszExtra,
[Out] StringBuilder pszOut,
ref uint pcchOut);
[Flags]
private enum AssocF : uint
{
ASSOCF_NONE = 0x00000000,
ASSOCF_INIT_NOREMAPCLSID = 0x00000001,
ASSOCF_INIT_BYEXENAME = 0x00000002,
ASSOCF_OPEN_BYEXENAME = 0x00000002,
ASSOCF_INIT_DEFAULTTOSTAR = 0x00000004,
ASSOCF_INIT_DEFAULTTOFOLDER = 0x00000008,
ASSOCF_NOUSERSETTINGS = 0x00000010,
ASSOCF_NOTRUNCATE = 0x00000020,
ASSOCF_VERIFY = 0x00000040,
ASSOCF_REMAPRUNDLL = 0x00000080,
ASSOCF_NOFIXUPS = 0x00000100,
ASSOCF_IGNOREBASECLASS = 0x00000200,
ASSOCF_INIT_IGNOREUNKNOWN = 0x00000400,
ASSOCF_INIT_FIXED_PROGID = 0x00000800,
ASSOCF_IS_PROTOCOL = 0x00001000,
ASSOCF_INIT_FOR_FILE = 0x00002000
}
private enum AssocStr
{
ASSOCSTR_COMMAND = 1,
ASSOCSTR_EXECUTABLE,
ASSOCSTR_FRIENDLYDOCNAME,
ASSOCSTR_FRIENDLYAPPNAME,
ASSOCSTR_NOOPEN,
ASSOCSTR_SHELLNEWVALUE,
ASSOCSTR_DDECOMMAND,
ASSOCSTR_DDEIFEXEC,
ASSOCSTR_DDEAPPLICATION,
ASSOCSTR_DDETOPIC,
ASSOCSTR_INFOTIP,
ASSOCSTR_QUICKTIP,
ASSOCSTR_TILEINFO,
ASSOCSTR_CONTENTTYPE,
ASSOCSTR_DEFAULTICON,
ASSOCSTR_SHELLEXTENSION,
ASSOCSTR_DROPTARGET,
ASSOCSTR_DELEGATEEXECUTE,
ASSOCSTR_SUPPORTED_URI_PROTOCOLS,
ASSOCSTR_PROGID,
ASSOCSTR_APPID,
ASSOCSTR_APPPUBLISHER,
ASSOCSTR_APPICONREFERENCE,
ASSOCSTR_MAX
}
}
Actually printing images
However, this does not solve your actual problem, i.e. printing an image on Windows 10. If your requirement is to just get the image printed out you can do so using the PrintDocument class from the System.Drawing.Printing namespace as described in this related post: Print images in C#:
PrintDocument pd = new PrintDocument();
pd.PrintPage += PrintPage;
pd.Print();
private void PrintPage(object o, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
System.Drawing.Image img = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile("D:\\Foto.jpg");
Point loc = new Point(100, 100);
e.Graphics.DrawImage(img, loc);
}

Manipulate Registry Hive files from C#

1.)
How do Load, Edit and Save binary Hive files for registry from C#?
I found this Win32 api.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210770%28VS.85%29.aspx
This guy shared the code to dump the content of binary Hive files to text.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipes/RegistryDumper.aspx
2.)
In addition to manipulating the Hive files, I also search for a method to load the Hive file into registry at runtime using C#
(similar to the Load Hive and Unload Hive commands on the File many in regedit)
/Thanks

Have you looked at the Registry and RegistryKey classes in Microsoft.Win32?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.win32.aspx
It sounds like you may need to create your own representation to read the hive file and either queue up or immediately make the corresponding registry changes. Likewise you would need to write your own converter back to disk.

The article below explains how to analyze the registry file without using WinAPI (advapi32.dll). In this particular case the guy is using Mono:
http://volatile-minds.blogspot.com/2011/01/analyzing-windows-nt-registry-without.html
using (FileStream fs = File.OpenRead (path)) {
var data = new byte[checked((int)fs.Length)];
int i = 0;
int read;
using (var ms = new MemoryStream (checked((int)fs.Length))) {
while ((read = fs.Read (data, 0, data.Length)) > 0) {
ms.Write (data, 0, read);
i += read;
}
byte[] hive = ms.ToArray ();
char[] cList = new char[fs.Length];
i = 0;
foreach (byte b in hive)
cList[i++] = (char)b;
string d = new string (cList);
int all = 0;
foreach (Match mx in lf.Matches (d)) { //you can change out the regex you want here.
byte[] bb = new byte[mx.Value.Length];
char[] cb = new char[mx.Value.Length];
for (int k = 0; k < mx.Value.Length; k++) {
bb[k] = (byte)mx.Value[k];
cb[k] = (char)bb[k];
}
all++;
//Console.WriteLine (new string (cb));
}
Console.WriteLine (all.ToString ());
all = 0;
}
}

This is 9 years old, but I figured this could help someone else. I wrote this class that allows you to do something like this:
Hive.AcquirePrivileges() // Acquires the privileges necessary for loading the hive
Hive myregistryhive = Hive.LoadFromFile("hivepathhere") // Loads the hive
// use myregistryhive.RootKey (a RegistryKey), read and/or write to it and its sub keys
myregistryhive.SaveAndUnload() // Unloads the hive
Hive.ReturnPrivileges() // De-elevate back to normal privileges.
The code for the class:
class Hive
{
[DllImport("advapi32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern int RegLoadKey(IntPtr hKey, string lpSubKey, string lpFile);
[DllImport("advapi32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern int RegSaveKey(IntPtr hKey, string lpFile, uint securityAttrPtr = 0);
[DllImport("advapi32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern int RegUnLoadKey(IntPtr hKey, string lpSubKey);
[DllImport("ntdll.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern IntPtr RtlAdjustPrivilege(int Privilege, bool bEnablePrivilege, bool IsThreadPrivilege, out bool PreviousValue);
[DllImport("advapi32.dll")]
static extern bool LookupPrivilegeValue(string lpSystemName, string lpName, ref UInt64 lpLuid);
[DllImport("advapi32.dll")]
static extern bool LookupPrivilegeValue(IntPtr lpSystemName, string lpName, ref UInt64 lpLuid);
private RegistryKey parentKey;
private string name;
private string originalPath;
public RegistryKey RootKey;
private Hive() { }
public static Hive LoadFromFile(string Path)
{
Hive result = new Hive();
result.parentKey = RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.Users, RegistryView.Default);
result.name = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
result.originalPath = Path;
IntPtr parentHandle = result.parentKey.Handle.DangerousGetHandle();
RegLoadKey(parentHandle, result.name, Path);
//Console.WriteLine(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
result.RootKey = result.parentKey.OpenSubKey(result.name, true);
return result;
}
public static void AcquirePrivileges()
{
ulong luid = 0;
bool throwaway;
LookupPrivilegeValue(IntPtr.Zero, "SeRestorePrivilege", ref luid);
RtlAdjustPrivilege((int)luid, true, false, out throwaway);
LookupPrivilegeValue(IntPtr.Zero, "SeBackupPrivilege", ref luid);
RtlAdjustPrivilege((int)luid, true, false, out throwaway);
}
public static void ReturnPrivileges()
{
ulong luid = 0;
bool throwaway;
LookupPrivilegeValue(IntPtr.Zero, "SeRestorePrivilege", ref luid);
RtlAdjustPrivilege((int)luid, false, false, out throwaway);
LookupPrivilegeValue(IntPtr.Zero, "SeBackupPrivilege", ref luid);
RtlAdjustPrivilege((int)luid, false, false, out throwaway);
}
public void SaveAndUnload()
{
RootKey.Close();
RegUnLoadKey(parentKey.Handle.DangerousGetHandle(), name);
parentKey.Close();
}
}
Edit: Note that this requires administrator privileges.

please see: https://github.com/brandonprry/volatile_reader
It reads offline hives in C# with a GTK interface. No write support yet though.

Grayscale printing in Word 2007 from C#

I'm using Visual Studio 2010 to create a Word Template. I created a Ribbon with to buttons: print in color, print in B&W. I use the Document.printout() function to print the document.
How can I set the printer to Grayscale printing from code?
I don't want to use the printDialog.
I tried to use this:
PrinterSettings settings = new PrinterSettings();
settings.DefaultPageSettings.Color = false;
But this doesn't work in combination with Word

I Found a solution with the DEVMODE and some pInvokes;
Devmode: (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa927408.aspx)
This structure contains information about a printer environment and device initialization.
It contains a field: dmColor (short) setting this to 1 means grayscale/monoschrome, settings this to 2 means color. Changing this settings effects the printer directly and overrides user settings.
[DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern bool SetPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, int Level, IntPtr pPrinter, int command);
I used this example to create my code
public bool setPrinterToGrayScale(string printerName)
{
short monochroom = 1;
dm = this.GetPrinterSettings(printerName);
dm.dmColor = monochroom;
Marshal.StructureToPtr(dm, yDevModeData, true);
pinfo.pDevMode = yDevModeData;
pinfo.pSecurityDescriptor = IntPtr.Zero;
Marshal.StructureToPtr(pinfo, ptrPrinterInfo, true);
lastError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
nRet = Convert.ToInt16(SetPrinter(hPrinter, 2, ptrPrinterInfo, 0));
if (nRet == 0)
{
//Unable to set shared printer settings.
lastError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
//string myErrMsg = GetErrorMessage(lastError);
throw new System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
}
if (hPrinter != IntPtr.Zero)
ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
return Convert.ToBoolean(nRet);
}
PrinterName can be retrieved via:
System.Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters

How to get the default printer name with network path

I want to get the default printer name with the network path. Because i am using the network printer as a default printer. So i need this in VB.NET or C#.Net. Kind help needed. Thanks in advance
Sivakumar.P

Try enumerating System.Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters.
using System.Drawing.Printing;
string GetDefaultPrinter()
{
PrinterSettings settings = new PrinterSettings();
foreach (string printer in PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters)
{
settings.PrinterName = printer;
if (settings.IsDefaultPrinter)
return printer;
}
return string.Empty;
}

This does not work too well. I had better experience on more machines with
DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet=CharSet.Auto, SetLastError=true)]
public static extern bool GetDefaultPrinter(StringBuilder pszBuffer, ref int size);
StringBuilder dp = new StringBuilder(256);
int size = dp.Capacity;
if (GetDefaultPrinter(dp, ref size)) {
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Printer: {0}, name length {1}", dp.ToString().Trim(), size));
} else {
int rc = GetLastError();
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Failed. Size: {0}, error: {1:X}", size, rc));
}