Printing problems

[Teemu]

I have an application created with VB6 and now I'm converting it to VB 2005.
Conversion is not so simple because printing is so much different.

In my app I have Timer-component, which is creates graphics to printer every
second. After 2 minutes it calls Printer.Enddoc and the result is printed
out. Printing process is on background and I can use my program normally
during this 2 minutes.

Now in VB 2005 if I'm right, whole printing process starts when I call
Printdocument1. Print. Is there some way to send graphics to printer before
that command and then simulate Enddoc-command with this PrintDocument1. Print
command?

Oh, and creating a bitmap or textfile during these 2 minutes is not
suitable, because text should be printed as text and lines as lines, not as
bitmap.

Hopefully somebody understood what I'm trying to explain. Maybe there is a
solution, but I haven't figured it out yet.

-Teemu

[Chris]

Re: Printing problems

Teemu wrote:[color=blue]
> I have an application created with VB6 and now I'm converting it to VB
> 2005. Conversion is not so simple because printing is so much different.
>
> In my app I have Timer-component, which is creates graphics to printer
> every second. After 2 minutes it calls Printer.Enddoc and the result is
> printed out. Printing process is on background and I can use my program
> normally during this 2 minutes.
>
> Now in VB 2005 if I'm right, whole printing process starts when I call
> Printdocument1. Print. Is there some way to send graphics to printer
> before that command and then simulate Enddoc-command with this
> PrintDocument1. Print command?
>
> Oh, and creating a bitmap or textfile during these 2 minutes is not
> suitable, because text should be printed as text and lines as lines, not
> as bitmap.
>
> Hopefully somebody understood what I'm trying to explain. Maybe there is
> a solution, but I haven't figured it out yet.
>
> -Teemu[/color]

Would launching the printing in a new thread solve you problem? This
would allow your program to function normally while the printing happens
in the background.

Chris

[Teemu]

Re: Printing problems

> Would launching the printing in a new thread solve you problem? This[color=blue]
> would allow your program to function normally while the printing happens
> in the background.[/color]

Yes, this could be a solution. Another problem is that I might have two
different documents and those should be printed in one printing job. If I
have for example a user control, which prints a page, how can I hold the
printing job to wait another page?

In my opinion printing with old VB6 was more flexible...

A way to create printing job before printing it out with Print-command, is
that too difficult in new .NET enviroment?

-Teemu