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Q76260: HOWTO: How to Create Device-Independent Printing Code

Article: Q76260
Product(s): Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit
Version(s): WINDOWS:3.1
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbOSWin310 _IK kbSDKWin16
Last Modified: 04-JUL-1999

3.00 3.10
WINDOWS
kbprg

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.1 
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SUMMARY
=======

Windows provides a device-independent platform for application developers.
Device independence applies to printing as well. To write code to work with any
printer driver, applications must not rely on any special feature in a printer
driver. Instead, applications should direct all requests through the Windows
Graphical Device Interface (GDI).

MORE INFORMATION
================

There are two major classes of printers: raster printers and PostScript
printers. This article is directed towards application support for raster
printers.

With the exception of the standard printer escapes, applications should not rely
on any printer escape to be supported in a particular printer driver. Note that
the printer escapes are supported in Windows 3.1, but it is recommended that you
use the new equivalent functions, instead of the escapes.

The standard escapes/functions are: STARTDOC/StartDoc(), ENDDOC/EndDoc(),
NEXTBAND, NEWFRAME, SETABORTPROC/SetAbortProc(), and ABORTDOC/AbortDoc(). The
remaining escapes are optional for printer drivers. Applications should use the
QUERYESCSUPPORT escape to test for the support of optional escapes. Applications
should not depend on private knowledge of how a particular driver works.

For example, the DRAWPATTERNRECT escape is available on certain devices. The
following code fragment determines if the DRAWPATTERNRECT escape is supported on
the installed device. If not, an alternative function, PatBlt(), is used to
create the output.

     short i;

     i = DRAWPATTERNRECT;

     if (Escape(hPr, QUERYESCSUPPORT, sizeof(i), (LPSTR)&i, NULL))

        Escape(hPr, DRAWPATTERNRECT, sizeof(lpPatRect),
                 (LPSTR)lpPatRect, NULL);

     else

        PatBlt(hPr, .....);

Of the remaining escapes, the following are used frequently: GETPHYSPAGESIZE,
GETPRINTINGOFFSET, PASSTHROUGH, and DRAWPATTERNRECT. An application should
minimize the number of escapes that it uses.

Another area of device independence applies to ExtDeviceMode(). Applications
should not allow the user to change printer settings globally. If the user wants
to change the printer settings for all applications, the Control Panel utility
should be used. It is more appropriate for printer settings to be associated
with an application, a document, or a particular set of pages in a document. For
more information please see the Knowledge Base article:

  "Using ExtDeviceMode() to Modify Printer Settings"

Additional query words: 3.00 3.10

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Keywords          : kbOSWin310 _IK kbSDKWin16 
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbWin3xSearch kbSDKSearch kbWinSDKSearch kbWinSDK310
Version           : WINDOWS:3.1
Issue type        : kbhowto

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