Printing with PrintForm

If you have a simple need to only print the Form (window) you are currently viewing in .NET you can use the PrintForm tool.

The PrintForm component is described at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb690938.aspx [1] with the following.

The PrintForm component enables you to print an image of a form to a printer, to a print preview window, or to a file without using a PrintDocument component.

With that description let's get started.

Create a Program

I am using Visual Studio Professional 2012.

Start Visual Studio Pro and click New Project.

1.  Select "Windows Form Application"
2.   Enter the program Name "PrintForm-Test
3. Click OK

Add a few Controls to you form.

I am adding

·         PictureBox

·         Panel

·         Label

·         RichTextBox

·         Button

Here is a view of what I made.

Drag and drop a PrintForm component on the Windows form.

Double click on Print to create and open the click event.

Add the following piece of code.

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {             printForm1.Print();         }

Just adding the printForm1.Print() will cause this Window to be printed.

Click Start to compile and run the program.

I copied some text with different font styles and colors from Word an pasted it in the RichTextBox.

Click Print   (this will automatically print this window to your default printer)

This is my print results.

You can add a print preview by adding the following code.

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {             printForm1.PrintAction =                  System.Drawing.Printing.PrintAction.PrintToPreview;             printForm1.Print();         }

This will open the default printPreview tool when you hit print.

Running the program again and clicking print you will get this…

From here you can preview and print.

Button vs Menu

The PrintForm will print the entire Form, in this case, the Print Button is included in this.

One simple way to fix this is to add a MenuStrip and have a Print selection from there.

Remove the Print Button and add a MenuStrip and add a Print option to it.

Double Click on the Print Option to create/Open its event.

Put in the same code.

private void printToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender,                                        EventArgs e) {             printForm1.PrintAction =               System.Drawing.Printing.PrintAction.PrintToPreview;             printForm1.Print();         }

Run the Program and now click on the Print menu item.

You will see that the Print Preview does not show the Menu items.  This is the default behavior for PrintForm.

Here is the printout.  It does not print the menu.

Conclusions

PrintForm is a good simple print tool to use to print the contents of a Window.  It does not give you fine grain control but it may be all you need in a great many situations.

References

 [1]  PrintForm Component (Visual Basic)

       http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb690938.aspx

       Visited 8/2013