Difficulty Printing

Everything I draw looks perfect and is aligned perfectly in the print preview but when I actually print things come out different.

For example, if I draw a rectangle using printableArea, I get a rectangle about 1/4" around the page in the print preview but when I print the right side of the rectangle is cut off.

After trying more stuff, I tried setting the margins to 1/2" and used MarginBounds instead of PrintableArea. Everything shows up nicely centered on the print preview but when I print everything is shifted right and down half an inch.

I thought what you do in the print preview is supposed to be the same as the actual print. Obviously not, I don't have a problem with writing code to check if I'm doing a print preview or an actual printing and adjust the locations I calculate accordingly but I need to know what's going on the adjust my calculations. I have yet to see a pattern. Are my calculations automatically shifted by the printable area? the margin? something else?

Can someone explain what's going on?


Thanks,
Scott MacMaster

Sample
declaration

Code:

---

    Private WithEvents pdoc As New Printing.PrintDocument()

---

PrintDialog button

Code:

---

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim dialog As New PrintDialog()
        dialog.Document = pdoc

        If dialog.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
            pdoc.Print()
        End If
    End Sub

---

Code:

---

    Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
        Dim ppd As New PrintPreviewDialog()
        Try
            ppd.Document = pdoc
            ppd.ShowDialog()
        Catch exp As Exception
            MessageBox.Show("Error")
        End Try
    End Sub

---

PageSetupDialog button

Code:

---

    Private Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
        Dim psd As New PageSetupDialog()
        With psd
            .Document = pdoc
            .PageSettings = pdoc.DefaultPageSettings
        End With

        If psd.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
            pdoc.DefaultPageSettings = psd.PageSettings
        End If
    End Sub

---

PrintPage event

Code:

---

    Private Sub pdoc_PrintPage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles pdoc.PrintPage

        Dim intPrintAreaHeight, intPrintAreaWidth, marginLeft, marginTop As Int32
        With pdoc.DefaultPageSettings
            intPrintAreaHeight = .PaperSize.Height - .Margins.Top - .Margins.Bottom
            intPrintAreaWidth = .PaperSize.Width - .Margins.Left - .Margins.Right

            marginLeft = .Margins.Left ' X coordinate
            marginTop = .Margins.Top ' Y coordinate
        End With

        ' If the user selected Landscape mode, swap the printing area height
        ' and width.
        If pdoc.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape Then
            Dim intTemp As Int32
            intTemp = intPrintAreaHeight
            intPrintAreaHeight = intPrintAreaWidth
            intPrintAreaWidth = intTemp
        End If

        Dim rectPrintingArea As New Rectangle(marginLeft, marginTop, intPrintAreaWidth, intPrintAreaHeight)
        e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pens.Blue, rectPrintingArea)
    End Sub

---

>Can someone explain what's going on?

The printer has a "hard margin" that the printpreview controls does not, usually it's around 1/4 inch.

THanks for helping, however the example code you gave did the exact same thing my code does. The print preview is aligned perfectly but the actual printout on paper isn't. I set the margin at .5" but it got shifted right and down but about 3/16" of an inch. Do you know why this is happening? Thanks.

Ok so printers have a "hard margin". So how do I figure out what that is and add/subtract that in my calculations? Thanks.

I would look for a low tech solution: print a line down the edges of your page with a known margin, then measure the actual location with a ruler, and compensate accordingly.

Obviously this won't help if you want your code to work on several printers, but it might be worth trying a few and seeing if there is a tendency for the value to be approx 1/4 inch.

H

I'm working for the telmis department of a community college. I'm writing software that various college staff will use to print reports. The printers I've used so far have printing differences of almost 1/4". I really need something more exact, espacially when I'm printing on preprinted certificates and labels. My current fix is to have an alignment option in my software. That will allow college staff to adjust the printing for specific printers. Of course, I rather this be automatic and simple for them.

This post may be helpful
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...70469&SiteID=1