Printing a graphics buffer using VB 2019

Les 281

I know this may be an elementary question and I understand that at times it can be a difficult thing to do but I am going to keep it simple. I have a graphics buffer that I want to send to my printer for printing. All I want to be able to do is take whatever the size of the image buffer is and fit it on just 1 page. I don't care if it shrinks down the image just as long as it fits on my page. Its kind of like when you go to print something you are asked if you want to fit it on the page. Can someone explain to me how I can accomplish this?

Thanks

Les

Xingyu Zhao-MSFT 5,356 Reputation points

2021-09-09T01:58:56.687+00:00

Hi @Les ,
Also check : Printing image with PrintDocument. how to adjust the image to fit paper size
You can convert the code to VB. NET.
Besides, if I have any misunderstanding, please let me know.
Les 281 Reputation points

2021-09-09T04:07:38.567+00:00

Hi XZ,

Well I am not at all familiar with C but perhaps I can make a suggestion. Figure I have this big graphics buffer and lets just say its 5000x5000. Now the image I send to this buffer is lets say 2534X1785 and the way I know this is I keep track of where the right most and bottom most graphic is done. So what I like to do is just send that 2534x1785 over to the printer and have print on just one page. Now if the image is larger then the paper is there a way of telling the printer to fit it onto the one page? If you have a good link as to how to do this I would certainly appreciate it since I am not asking for you to convert the C code but if you have that link that would be very helpful.

Thank you XZ

Les

Accepted answer

Castorix31 81,741 Reputation points

2021-09-11T19:46:59.73+00:00
If you want to keep the scaling, you will have to choose to scale to the page width or the page height
For example, in my test, if I scale on the width only by keeping the original scaling of the image, I can do :

Private Sub printdoc1_PrintPage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As PrintPageEventArgs) Dim pageBounds As Rectangle = e.PageBounds Dim nFactor As Single = CSng(pageBounds.Width / img.Width) Dim nNewHeight = img.Height * nFactor pageBounds.Height = CInt(nNewHeight) e.Graphics.DrawImage(img, New Rectangle(New Point(), pageBounds.Size), New Rectangle(New Point(), img.Size), GraphicsUnit.Pixel) End Sub

And I will get the image covering all the page width only, with the right image scale :
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1 person found this answer helpful.
Les 281 Reputation points

2021-09-12T05:14:42.223+00:00

Hi Cast,

You the man !!! You know your stuff. Listen if I want to learn about this aspect of printing using vb can you refer me to either a book or link that goes into very clear details about this part of vb??. Not to waste your time but I have 3 pics I am going to show you. The first one is the graph that appears in my picturebox, second is the image that gets printed where the image was very scuwd and the third is the printer image after I ran your second code snippet. As you can see there is a big difference. The whole purpose of this graph is to show that a normal line is perpendicular to the tangent line (blue) but as you can see even though the math is right the visual does not.

I do not know what the heck I did here in this forum, I thought I sent you a comment with 3 images to show you and for some reason they seem to be closer to the top of this thread. Now I went to click on ACCEPTED ANSWER but I think it went under my name. Can you please tell me where do I click on accepted answer please! And is it the proper thing to do to communicate with people out here by using comment? When I send you comments does everyone in the thread see it also? I am just trying to learn.

Thx Cast

Les

Xingyu Zhao-MSFT 5,356 Reputation points

2021-09-13T01:43:14.92+00:00

Hi @Les ,

Can you please tell me where do I click on accepted answer please

I have converted the last comment of Castorix31 to answer, and you can click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
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1 additional answer

Castorix31 81,741 Reputation points

2021-09-08T20:30:20.05+00:00

Just use PrintDocument / PrintPage : How to: Print Graphics in Windows Forms
(with e.Graphics.DrawImage , etc...)
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Les 281 Reputation points

2021-09-08T21:13:56.633+00:00

Hi Cast,

If I do just print page I do not think I will get the entire image that is stored in my graphics buffer but I am not an expert here. Your thoughts. All I want is the entire image in my buffer to fill an entire page. By the way cast I sent a comment to someone who made a suggestion to me in the forum yet I do not see that comment?? How do I do that?

Thanks Les

Castorix31 81,741 Reputation points

2021-09-08T21:24:59.36+00:00

Draw on the whole page
For example, for an Image img, in the PrintPage :

Dim pageBounds As Rectangle = e.PageBounds e.Graphics.DrawImage(img, New Rectangle(New Point(), pageBounds.Size), New Rectangle(New Point(), img.Size), GraphicsUnit.Pixel)

Les 281 Reputation points

2021-09-09T04:13:20.303+00:00

Hi Cast,

Well I tried your code but it is not working. What would help if I had some type of general understanding as to what I am doing. The error stmnt its showing me is e.PageBounds is not a member of EventArgs??? I placed your code into a button click routine.

Any help would be appreciated

Les

Castorix31 81,741 Reputation points

2021-09-09T07:41:32.593+00:00

The code works
As I said, it is in PrintPage , not a button click

Les 281 Reputation points

2021-09-09T20:32:27.27+00:00

Hi Cast,

Sorry about that. I will try it tonight and let you know how it goes. For the New Point parameters do I use the x-y points that make up not the whole buffer but just the part of the buffer that contains the actual graphics I am interested in printing? Following is the code I implemented

Private Sub PrintDocument2_PrintPage(sender As Object, e As Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles PrintDocument2.PrintPage Dim pageBounds As Rectangle = e.PageBounds e.Graphics.DrawImage(Buffer, New Rectangle(New Point(1, 1), pageBounds.Size), New Rectangle(New Point(1000, 1000), Buffer.Size), GraphicsUnit.Pixel) End Sub

Thanks

Les

Les 281 Reputation points

2021-09-11T02:29:09.38+00:00

Hi Cast,

I have been trying to understand exactly how to work with your code snippet and I truthfully have very little experience with printing. Following is the code snippet I added to my program and am not sure how to use it. I placed it in a sub like you suggested and I am not sure how to make it fire. Ideally I would like this event to fire when I hit a command button but for some reason I am missing something. First is it safe to assume that the coordinates I place into the 2 point structs are the bounds of the part of the buffer I wish to print?? Second whatever the size I wish to print will this auto fit it all onto a single page?? Following is the code I implemented

Private Sub PrintDocument2_PrintPage(sender As Object, e As Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles PrintDocument2.PrintPage Dim pageBounds As Rectangle = e.PageBounds e.Graphics.DrawImage(Buffer, New Rectangle(New Point(1, 1), pageBounds.Size), New Rectangle(New Point(1000, 1000), Buffer.Size), GraphicsUnit.Pixel) End Sub

Please have patience since this is all new to me.

Thanks

Les

Castorix31 81,741 Reputation points

2021-09-11T07:13:38.773+00:00

If I use a Print Preview in a Button click, I can see it covers the whole page :

Private img As Image Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click img = Image.FromFile("e:\Schtroumpfette.jpg") Dim printdoc1 As PrintDocument = New PrintDocument AddHandler printdoc1.PrintPage, AddressOf Me.printdoc1_PrintPage Dim previewdlg As PrintPreviewDialog = New PrintPreviewDialog previewdlg.Document = printdoc1 previewdlg.ShowDialog() End Sub Private Sub printdoc1_PrintPage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As PrintPageEventArgs) Dim pageBounds As Rectangle = e.PageBounds e.Graphics.DrawImage(img, New Rectangle(New Point(), pageBounds.Size), New Rectangle(New Point(), img.Size), GraphicsUnit.Pixel) End Sub

Les 281 Reputation points

2021-09-11T18:50:06.173+00:00

Hi Cast,

First let me thank you for all your help, I needed it very badly. Because I have never printed with vb it was all new to me. Your code works beautifully and I plan on marking this post that your code worked but before I do I have one final question. The entire image as I requested does totally print on one page which is great however I noticed that some functions on my graph are a bit out of proportion. I know why they are because how the image had resized since it all had to fit on a page. Is it possible for me to print this image maintaining the same scale for x and y?? The reason being is if I have a parabola and a tangent line and normal line I want it not to be scuwed when printing even if this means the image is smaller when it prints. The image is perfect but only gets distorted when I send it to printer since the image is being sized to fit. Any tricks of the trade Cast to rectify this?

Thank you so much,

Les from NY
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