printing over a network in C

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

I would like to print directly to a network printer from my desktop. Where can i find examples? I have done this a while back but cannot recall. Thank you.

[EDIT — moved from "solution" — SA]

That's not even the half of it. I will need to actually hardcode the pcl codes to send some data to a printonix printer with forms preprinted where i have to place the data exactly in certain locations. Right now, i just want to be able to print directly to a printer on the network. I know windows had some api's that allowed a user to select the printer, but if i am going to directly access the printer i wonder if i need to use sockets.

Posted 12-Mar-12 8:58am

Joao Coelho

Updated 12-Mar-12 13:40pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

v2

Add a Solution

3 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 1 · 2012-03-12T09:13:00

Solution 1

Look at any more or less advanced text editor, graphic editor, Web browser or IDE. Do they ever have anything special to print using a network printer? I would say, never. They just print using a printer selected by the user, suggesting the default printer first, it any is available. You should do this, too, unless you want to scare off your users by one or another kind of ad-hoc functionality.

—SA

Posted 12-Mar-12 9:13am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Updated 12-Mar-12 19:06pm

v2

Comments

Espen Harlinn 12-Mar-12 19:32pm

5'ed!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Mar-12 19:39pm

Thank you, Espen.
--SA

El_Codero 12-Mar-12 21:23pm

A 5 star advice.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Mar-12 21:39pm

Thank you, Björn.
--SA

ProEnggSoft 27-Mar-12 9:13am

Good advice. +5

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Mar-12 23:03pm

Thank you.
--SA

Espen Harlinn · Answer 2 · 2012-03-12T13:49:00

Solution 3

You need to install the printer driver, and it's likely you'll find it here:
http://www.printronix.com/products/drivers.aspx#2147483655[^]

Once you have installed and configured the driver for your printer you can get a handle to the printer using the OpenPrinter[^] function.

You can get a list of available printers using the EnumPrinters[^]

You can use the WritePrinter[^] function to send data directly to the printer, but it's usually easier to use GDI[^] or GDI+.

Best regards
Espen Harlinn

Posted 12-Mar-12 13:49pm

Espen Harlinn

Comments

Abhinav S 26-Mar-12 21:51pm

5!

Espen Harlinn 27-Mar-12 5:27am

Thank you Abhinav!

ProEnggSoft 27-Mar-12 9:14am

+5

Espen Harlinn 27-Mar-12 9:15am

Thank you :-D

Joao Coelho · Answer 3 · 2012-03-13T03:56:00

Thank you Espen. I appreciate the feedback on the windows APIs, that's one of the things i need, i finally found an application i wrote 7 years ago but this is great, thanks a lot. The printer is already in production and this was being done by a mainframe which sent some file to a dropzone and the people doing the printing would pick it up and send it to the printer itself. They just want to replace the mainframe until the pre-formatted pages run out then they will move to some other printer and probably will use something like adobe live cycle or jasper if we go with java.