Printing in Visual Basic and C (103213)

SUMMARY

Printing from applications written for the Microsoft Windows version 3.1 operating system can be trying at times. This article describes a convenient method for printing from applications using a Dynamic-Link Library (DLL) called EZPRINT.dll. EZPRINT provides three exported functions--StartDocument, PrintObject, and EndDocument--to start the printing job, print various objects on the page, and end the printing job. The sample DLL code and Visual Basic code that calls EZPRINT are included with this article. You may use the DLL as is or modify it to meet your needs. In its present form, EZPRINT prints text, rectangles, and lines with various attributes.

This article was written for developers who have relatively little printing experience and whose printing needs involve text placement and simple line drawing only. Experienced developers can also use EZPRINT as a framework for implementing more sophisticated printing capabilities.