Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step eBook

Chapter 17 Working with Printers 417

Your form looks similar to this:

Now add the program code necessary to print a graphic file (bitmap, icon, metafile,

JPEG file, and so on).

7. Double-click the Print Graphics button.

The Button1_Click event procedure appears in the Code Editor.

8. Move the insertion point to the top of the form’s code, and then type the following
   program statement:
   Imports System.Drawing.Printing
   This Imports statement declares the System.Drawing.Printing namespace, which makes
   it easier to reference the printing classes.


9. Now move the insertion point down to the Button1_Click event procedure, and enter
   the following program code:
   ' Print using an error handler to catch problems
   Try
   AddHandler PrintDocument1.PrintPage, AddressOf Me.PrintGraphic
   PrintDocument1.Print() 'print graphic
   Catch ex As Exception 'catch printing exception
   MessageBox.Show("Sorry--there is a problem printing", ex.ToString())
   End Try

Note After you enter this code, you’ll see a jagged line under Me.PrintGraphic indicating

an error. Don’t worry, you’ll be adding the PrintGraphic procedure in the next step.

This code uses the AddHandler statement, which specifies that the PrintGraphic event

procedure (also called an event handler) should be called when the PrintPage event

of the PrintDocument1 object fires. An event procedure is a mechanism that handles