Print Image using PrintDialog Box

To print images in windows forms Graphics class and its various methods are used. Graphics class provides methods for sending objects to a device such as printer. Add a printDocument,  printDialog and a button to the windows form application.

In the code behind file create an object of Bitmap class which will be used to create an image. Write a function to capture the screen to be printed just like written in the below code:

private void CaptureScreen()
{
Graphics graphics = this.CreateGraphics();
graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 50, 50, 300, 100);
image = new Bitmap(300, 300, graphics);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(image);
g.CopyFromScreen(this.Location.X, this.Location.Y, 0, 0, this.Size);
}

In the above code a rectangle will be drawn at the given location. CopyFromScreen() function used to performs a bit-block transfer of the color data, corresponding to a rectangle of pixels, from the screen to the drawing surface.

In the click event of code write the following code:

CaptureScreen();
printDocument1.PrintPage += printDocument_PrintPage;
printDialog1.Document = printDocument1;
DialogResult res = printDialog1.ShowDialog();
if (res == DialogResult.OK)
printDocument1.Print();

The above code is somewhat same to the code used in printing text except the calling of CaptureScreen() method.

Print page event of print document should be look like:

void printDocument_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
e.Graphics.DrawImage(image, 50, 100);
}

Run the project and click on print button. On the print Dialog box click on ok with selected printer and it will print whatever is on your screen at the given points. When I print this then it had printed as the following image:

See also: Printing Text

PrintDialog Box Control in Windows Forms

To print any text or image, print Dialog box is used which is in-built control in windows forms. To invoke the default print dialog box, you need to either add the PrintDialog and PrintDocument control from the toolbox or create an instance of the same classes. The following image shows the default Print Dialog box.

Printing Text

In this topic we will print the text from textbox to the printer attached with the computer. Just add a textbox and a button to the form.

The click event of button should be look like the following code in C# language:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
printDialog1.Document = printDocument1;
DialogResult res = printDialog1.ShowDialog();
if (res == DialogResult.OK)
printDocument1.Print();
}

Now when we check out the above code, text to be print is not specified there. To specify the text to be print printPage event of print document is used. The print page event will be:

private void printDocument1_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
e.Graphics.DrawString(textBox1.Text, new Font("Tahoma", 25), Brushes.Black, 150, 20);
}

Here above the drawstring method draws the specified text at the given location with given properties. If we don’t want to add print dialog and print document from the toolbox then we have to instantiate both of the classes in our code. Just write the following code (C# language) in the click event of button:

PrintDocument pd = new PrintDocument();
pd.PrintPage += pd_PrintPage;

PrintDialog printDialog = new PrintDialog();
printDialog.Document = pd;

DialogResult res = printDialog.ShowDialog();
if (res == DialogResult.OK)
pd.Print();

The second line in above code will be used to generate the printPage event of printDocument. The code of this event will be the same as written first.
Run the project and write something in the textbox e.g. “Print Example”. It will print a page written the above text on the location given above.
There are some properties of the printDocument class, some of which are DefaultPageSettings, PrinterSettings, DocumentName, PrintController and etc.

See also: Print Image using Print Dialog