Get Printer Spooler Name & Connection Type

Question

I'm creating a small plugin for an application using C# to switch printers automatically based upon the document being printed. Using c# I have a list of printers installed on the system, but need to determine the Spooler ID/Name and the connection type for each printer.

Essentially I am changing a registry key which the host application uses to handle the default printer to use on next print and the value is in the format of Printer Name; Spooler, Connection Type which appear to be unique for different printers.

Here is an example of the value I need to construct: HP LaserJet 5500,winspool,Ne01:

I have the printer name, just not sure how to retrieve the other params for each printer.

The code fragment I am using to retrieve the list of printers relies upon System.Drawing;

foreach (string printer in PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters)

    Console.WriteLine(printer);

    var printerSettings = new PrinterSettings();
    Console.WriteLine(printerSettings.PrinterName);
}

Answer 1

I Don't know if this helps you out more, or at least down a deeper road to your end-result. I had similar need of looking into printer component / driver settings and have this. Although I have a switch/case for each possible type per the printers I have on my machine there may be others and you can pause and drill into more of the settings which might be deeper nesting elements. One such that I needed was found on queue.DefaultPrintTicket to determine the x/y page resolution for a label printer.

using System.Printing;

        var ps = new PrintServer();
        var queues = ps.GetPrintQueues(
            new[] { EnumeratedPrintQueueTypes.Local, EnumeratedPrintQueueTypes.Connections });

        // The AMSConfig table has width of 70 for binding to match.
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        foreach (var queue in queues)
        {
            sb.AppendLine( queue.Name );
            if (queue.PropertiesCollection == null)
                continue;

            foreach (System.Collections.DictionaryEntry ppd in queue.PropertiesCollection)
            {
                switch( ppd.Value.ToString() )
                {
                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintStringProperty":
                        var psp = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintStringProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + psp.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintInt32Property":
                        var pip = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintInt32Property;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + pip.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintTicketProperty":
                        var ptp = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintTicketProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + ptp.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintBooleanProperty":
                        var pbp = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintBooleanProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + pbp.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintQueueStatusProperty":
                        var pstap = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintQueueStatusProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + pstap.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintQueueAttributeProperty":
                        var pap = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintQueueAttributeProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + pap.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintProcessorProperty":
                        var ppp = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintProcessorProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + ppp.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintPortProperty":
                        var pportp = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintPortProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + pportp.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintServerProperty":
                        var psvrp = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintServerProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + psvrp.Value);
                        break;

                    case "System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintDriverProperty":
                        var pdp = ppd.Value as System.Printing.IndexedProperties.PrintDriverProperty;
                        sb.AppendLine(ppd.Key + " : " + pdp.Value);
                        break;
                }
            }

            sb.AppendLine("");
            sb.AppendLine("");
        }

        System.IO.File.WriteAllText( "PrinterInfo.txt", sb.ToString());

So at the end of this, I get a top-level list per printer something like...

PaperPort Image Printer
SeparatorFile : 
Location : 
UntilTimeOfDay : 0
ShareName : 
Name : PaperPort Image Printer
Priority : 1
AveragePagesPerMinute : 0
UserPrintTicket : 
IsXpsEnabled : False
DefaultPrintTicket : 
QueueStatus : None
QueueAttributes : 65
StartTimeOfDay : 0
QueuePrintProcessor : System.Printing.PrintProcessor
QueuePort : System.Printing.PrintPort
DefaultPriority : 1
Comment : 
Description : \\[machine]\PaperPort Image Printer,Nuance Image Printer Driver,
HostingPrintServer : 
QueueDriver : System.Printing.PrintDriver
NumberOfJobs : 0

Again, some of these objects have values that are other objects to drill deeper, such as getting a COM port too, but again, this should jump you to a bunch more details and hopefully find what you need.