Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step eBook

Chapter 17 Working with Printers 437

Chapter 17 Quick Reference

To Do This

Make it easier to

reference the printing

classes in your projects

Add the following Imports statement to the top of your form:

Imports System.Drawing.Printing

Create a printing event

procedure

Double-click the PrintDocument1 object in the component tray

or

Use the AddHandler statement and the AddressOf operator. For example:

AddHandler PrintDocument1.PrintPage, _

AddressOf Me.PrintGraphic

Create a PrintDocument

object in your project

Double-click the PrintDocument control on the Printing tab of the Toolbox.

or

Include the following variable declaration in your program code:

Dim PrintDoc As New PrintDocument

Print graphics from

a printing event

procedure

Use the Graphics.DrawImage method. For example:

ev.Graphics.DrawImage(Image.FromFile _

(TextBox1.Text), ev.Graphics.VisibleClipBounds)

Print text from

a printing event

procedure

Use the Graphics.DrawString method in an event procedure. For example:

ev.Graphics.DrawString(TextBox1.Text, _

New Font("Arial", 11, FontStyle.Regular), _

Brushes.Black, 120, 120)

Call a printing event

procedure

Use the Print method of an object of type PrintDocument. For example:

PrintDoc.Print()

Print multipage text

documents

Write a handler for the PrintPage event, which receives an argument of

the type PrintPageEventArgs. Compute the rectangular area on the page

for the text, use the MeasureString method to determine how much text

will fit on the current page, and use the DrawString method to print the

text on the page. If additional pages are needed, set the HasMorePages

property to True. When all text has been printed, set HasMorePages

to False.

Open a text file by

using the FileStream

class, and then load

it into a RichTextBox

object

Create a variable of type FileStream, specifying the path and file mode,

load the stream into a RichTextBox, and then close the stream. For

example:

Imports System.IO 'at the top of the form

...

Dim MyFileStream As New FileStream( _

FilePath, FileMode.Open)

RichTextBox1.LoadFile(MyFileStream, _

RichTextBoxStreamType.PlainText)

MyFileStream.Close()

Display printing dialog

boxes in your programs

Use the PrintDialog, PrintPreviewDialog, and PageSetupDialog controls

on the Printing tab of the Toolbox.