CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#printing
user1779064
user1779064

Reputation: 85

Printing to non default printer from c#

I need to be able to print out a number of documents aytomatically with no user input.

The application is going to sit on a server and print at a certain point each day. I have the requirement to print some documents to 1 printer and some to another printer.

I cannot get my code to print to the non default printer, unless that non-default printer is the Microsoft XPS Document writer, which leads me to suspect permissions.

I am setting the printer with PrinterSettings.PrinterName = "*printername*" but get a printerexception error saying the settings are incorrect.

I did find an article that metioned a similer error but this was with ASP.Net and not C# - it was to do with Windows Impersonation but I really dont understand what to do to get it working in c#.

I should add that I know the network printer name is correct as I got a little bit of MS Code to show all installed printers and copied the name from the list it provided.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 5489

Answers (2)

user1779064
user1779064

Reputation: 85

I have just found out that if I print to \servername\printername it works, as opposed to printing to the name of the printer as it shows in control panel. I now have a different issue - if I print to the default printer i.e. dont specift a printer, then it spits them out quickly. If I specify a printer it waits for about a minute then prints, then waits a minute then prints the next one etc - why should it take longer this way?

Upvotes: 0

Tomtom
Tomtom

Reputation: 9394

If you want to set the default-printer you can do it by the winapi with:

[DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
public static extern bool SetDefaultPrinter(string Name);

If you want to reset the defaultprinter after your code is finished you probably need another method from the winapi:

[DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
public static extern bool GetDefaultPrinter(StringBuilder pszBuffer, ref int size);

A list of all available printers you can get by:

List<string> printers = PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters.Cast<string>().ToList();

Upvotes: 2

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