How do I print a line at a time rather than a full page?

Last Modification: December 11, 1999

Most Windows documentation shows you how to print using GDI which necessitates an entire page be printed. If you're implementing an application which requires simple text output for a logging type application, and your printer can accept pure text, then you can quite easily use the lower level printer functions as illustrated in this sample:


#include <winspool.h>

BOOL PrintStringDirect( LPCSTR Str,
			LPTSTR PrinterName,
			LPSTR DeviceName )
{
	BOOL bRet = FALSE;
	HANDLE hPrinter;

	if ( OpenPrinter( PrinterName, &hPrinter, NULL ) )
	{
		DOC_INFO_1 doc_info = {0};

		doc_info.pDocName = "The Document Name";
		doc_info.pOutputFile = DeviceName;

		DWORD jobid = StartDocPrinter( hPrinter, 1,
				(LPBYTE) &doc_info );

		if ( jobid != 0 )
		{
			DWORD written;
			DWORD dwNumBytes = lstrlen( Str );

			WritePrinter( hPrinter,
				(void*) Str,
				dwNumBytes, &written );

			if ( written == dwNumBytes )
			{
				bRet = TRUE;
			}
		}

		EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
		ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
	}

	return bRet;
}

which you can use like this:


PrintStringDirect( "Print this line to the printer\r\n",
		"HP DeskJet 850C", "LPT1:" );