Printing

Sooner or later you will need to print out application data. Perhaps you have created documents or test data and now you want to see them on paper. You may be drawing something and want to print it out. Printing data from a database and printing images are other possibilities. With the .NET Framework you will find it easy to create applications that talk your printer's language. This chapter covers printing functionality in the .NET Framework. The aim is to give you the knowledge to handle basic (and some not so basic) printing needs.

We'll begin with a brief history of printing, followed by an introduction to the printing classes available in .NET. Toward the end of the chapter we will delve deep into printing functionality. After reading this chapter, you should have a good idea of printing functionality defined in the .NET Framework, and how to implement this functionality in your applications. Here are some of the topics we will discuss in this chapter:

• A brief history of printing in Microsoft Windows
• The printing process (i.e., how printing works)
• Printing in Microsoft .NET
• The System.Drawing.Printing namespace and its classes
• Getting and setting page and printer settings
• The basic framework of printing-enabled applications
• How to print text, images, and graphics objects
• How to use various print dialogs and their classes
• Writing your own custom printing and page setup dialogs
• Printing multipage documents
• Understanding the print controller and its related classes