Q59380: How to Do a Print Screen within a Program

Article: Q59380
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 5.10
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 7-MAR-1990

The code below demonstrates how to do a print screen from within a
program under MS-DOS. This is done by executing INT 5 within a
program.

The interrupt service directs all its output to the default printer.
The print-screen service prints text or graphics. In graphics mode,
GRAPHICS.COM must be loaded before invoking the print-screen service.

INT 5 does not return any values but the status code is available at
memory location 0050:0000. The values are as follows:

   00   no error occurred
   01   indicates that a print-screen operation is in progress
   FF   the previous print screen was not successful.

Code Example
------------

  #include <stdio.h>
  #include <dos.h>

  void main (void)
  {
     int  *result;
     struct REGS inregs, outregs;

  /* inregs and outregs are never used but necessary
     for the int86 function.
  */

     puts("This is a test of prtscr() function.");
     int86(0x5, &inregs, &outregs);

     *result = (int *) 0x00500000;
     switch( *result )
     {
        case 0:
          puts("No error occurred.");
          break;
        case 1;
          puts("Print Screen in progress....");
          break;
        case 0xFF;
          puts("ERROR occurred during print screen");
          break;
     }
  }

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