Sending control characters to a printer

rbuser

Hello,

How can I send some control characters to a printer from Report Builder? The
printer have continuous paper and after each label the printer have to cut
of this label.
The printer have a scissor to cut of the paper, the question is how to
activate this scissor.

Regards,

Hanjo Willems
iSOFT Nederland B.V.

nardmoseley

1. You can use the Report.Printer.Canvas.Handle to access the printer device
context. According to the Windows API documentation, the ExtEscape function
allows applications to access capabilities of a particular device that are
not available through GDI. Try searching the Windows API docs and Google for
more information. We do not have any direct experience with sending escape
codes directly to the printer driver.

2. The other approach is to use the Widnows DevMode structure to control the
printer. See the following article.

-------------------------------------------------
Tech Tip: Configuring Printer Specific Options
-------------------------------------------------

The Report.PrinterSetup properties can be used to set the properties that
are common to all printers. Internally RB applies these to the Windows
DevMode structure.


Report.PrinterSetup <----> Windows DevMode <-----> Printer Driver <--->
Printer


Printers often contains additional features, such as output bins, media
types, etc. The Windows DevMode structure can contain a private area that is
used the printer driver to store printer specific options. These can be
configured by using the Printer Driver's built-in properties dialog. These
options can theoritically be set programmatically, the trick is that you
have to know where in the structure to store the option and what values are
valid.

The following example shows how to display the printer properties dialog and
save the devmode for use within RB...

http://www.digital-metaphors.com/tips/SavePrinterDevMode.zip


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Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors Corporation
www.digital-metaphors.com