qprinter.3qt - Man Page

#include <qprinter.h>

Inherits QPaintDevice.

The QPrinter class is a paint device that paints on a printer.

On Windows it uses the built-in printer drivers. On X11 it generates postscript and sends that to lpr, lp, or another print command.

QPrinter is used in much the same way as QWidget and QPixmap are used. The big difference is that you must keep track of the pages.

QPrinter supports a number of settable parameters, most of which can be changed by the end user when the application calls QPrinter::setup().

The most important parameters are:

setOrientation() tells QPrinter which page orientation to use (virtual).

setPageSize() tells QPrinter what page size to expect from the printer.

setResolution() tells QPrinter what resolution you wish the printer to provide (in dpi).

setFullPage() tells QPrinter whether you want to deal with the full page or just with the part the printer can draw on. The default is FALSE, so that by default you should be able to paint on (0,0). If TRUE the origin of the coordinate system will be in the top left corner of the paper and most probably the printer will not be able to paint something there due to it's physical margins.

setNumCopies() tells QPrinter how many copies of the document it should print.

setMinMax() tells QPrinter and QPrintDialog what the allowed range for fromPage() and toPage() are.

Except where noted, you can only call the set functions before setup(), or between QPainter::end() and setup(). (Some may take effect between setup() and begin(), or between begin() and end(), but that's strictly undocumented and such behaviour may differ depending on platform.)

There are also some settings that the user sets (through the printer dialog) and that applications are expected to obey:

pageOrder() tells the application program whether to print first-page-first or last-page-first.

colorMode() tells the application program whether to print in color or grayscale. (If you print in color and the printer does not support color, Qt will try to approximate. The document may take longer to print, but the quality should not be made visibly poorer.)

fromPage() and toPage() indicate what pages the application program should print.

paperSource() tells the application progam which paper source to print from.

You can of course call these functions to establish defaults before you ask the user through QPrinter::setup().

Once you start printing, calling newPage() is essential. You will probably also need to look at the QPaintDeviceMetrics for the printer (see the print function in the Application walk-through). In previous versions, paint device metrics were valid only after the QPrinter has been set up, i.e. after setup() has returned successfully. This is no longer the case and paint device metrics can be requested safely before set up.

If you want to abort the print job, abort() will try its best to stop printing. It may cancel the entire job or just some of it.

If your current locale converts "," to ".", you will need to set a locale (via the standard C setlocale() function) that doen't do this before using QPrinter. The "C" locale works well for this.

The TrueType font embedding for Qt's postscript driver uses code by David Chappell of Trinity College Computing Center.

Copyright 1995, Trinity College Computing Center. Written by David Chappell.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

TrueType font support. These functions allow PPR to generate PostScript fonts from Microsoft compatible TrueType font files.

The functions in this file do most of the work to convert a TrueType font to a type 3 PostScript font.

Most of the material in this file is derived from a program called" ttf2ps" which L. S. Ng posted to the usenet news group" comp.sources.postscript". The author did not provide a copyright notice or indicate any restrictions on use.

Last revised 11 July 1995.

See also Graphics Classes and Image Processing Classes.

This enum type is used to indicate whether QPrinter should print in color or not.

QPrinter::Color - print in color if available, otherwise in grayscale.

QPrinter::GrayScale - print in grayscale, even on color printers. Might be a little faster than Color. This is the default.

This enum type (not to be confused with Qt::Orientation) is used to specify each page's orientation.

QPrinter::Portrait - the page's height is greater than its width (the default).

QPrinter::Landscape - the page's width is greater than its height.

This type interacts with QPrinter::PageSize and QPrinter::setFullPage() to determine the final size of the page available to the application.

This enum type is used by QPrinter to tell the application program how to print.

QPrinter::FirstPageFirst - the lowest-numbered page should be printed first.

QPrinter::LastPageFirst - the highest-numbered page should be printed first.

This enum type specifies what paper size QPrinter should use. QPrinter does not check that the paper size is available; it just uses this information, together with QPrinter::Orientation and QPrinter::setFullPage(), to determine the printable area (see QPaintDeviceMetrics).

The defined sizes (with setFullPage(TRUE)) are:

QPrinter::A0 - 841 x 1189 mm This value is not supported on windows.

QPrinter::A1 - 594 x 841 mm This value is not supported on windows.

QPrinter::A2 - 420 x 594 mm

QPrinter::A3 - 297 x 420 mm

QPrinter::A4 - 210 x 297 mm, 8.26 x 11.7 inches

QPrinter::A5 - 148 x 210 mm

QPrinter::A6 - 105 x 148 mm

QPrinter::A7 - 74 x 105 mm

QPrinter::A8 - 52 x 74 mm

QPrinter::A9 - 37 x 52 mm

QPrinter::B0 - 1030 x 1456 mm

QPrinter::B1 - 728 x 1030 mm

QPrinter::B10 - 32 x 45 mm

QPrinter::B2 - 515 x 728 mm

QPrinter::B3 - 364 x 515 mm

QPrinter::B4 - 257 x 364 mm

QPrinter::B5 - 182 x 257 mm, 7.17 x 10.13 inches

QPrinter::B6 - 128 x 182 mm

QPrinter::B7 - 91 x 128 mm

QPrinter::B8 - 64 x 91 mm

QPrinter::B9 - 45 x 64 mm

QPrinter::C5E - 163 x 229 mm

QPrinter::Comm10E - 105 x 241 mm, US Common #10 Envelope

QPrinter::DLE - 110 x 220 mm

QPrinter::Executive - 7.5 x 10 inches, 191 x 254 mm

QPrinter::Folio - 210 x 330 mm

QPrinter::Ledger - 432 x 279 mm

QPrinter::Legal - 8.5 x 14 inches, 216 x 356 mm

QPrinter::Letter - 8.5 x 11 inches, 216 x 279 mm

QPrinter::Tabloid - 279 x 432 mm

QPrinter::Custom

QPrinter::NPageSize - (internal)

With setFullPage(FALSE) (the default), the metrics will be a bit smaller; how much depends on the printer in use.

This enum type specifies what paper source QPrinter is to use. QPrinter does not check that the paper source is available; it just uses this information to try and set the paper source. Whether it will set the paper source depends on whether the printer has that particular source.

Note: this is currently only implemented for Windows.

QPrinter::OnlyOne

QPrinter::Lower

QPrinter::Middle

QPrinter::Manual

QPrinter::Envelope

QPrinter::EnvelopeManual

QPrinter::Auto

QPrinter::Tractor

QPrinter::SmallFormat

QPrinter::LargeFormat

QPrinter::LargeCapacity

QPrinter::Cassette

QPrinter::FormSource

This enum is used to specify which print range the application should use to print.

QPrinter::AllPages - All pages should be printed

QPrinter::Selection - Only the selection should be printed.

QPrinter::PageRange - From page, to page option.

See also setPrintRange() and printRange().

This enum describes the mode the printer should work in. It basically presets a certain resolution and working mode.

QPrinter::ScreenResolution - Sets the resolution of the print device to the screen resolution. This has the big advantage that the results obtained when painting on the printer will match more or less exactly the visible output on the screen. It is the easiest to use, as font metrics on the screen and on the printer are the same. This is the default value. ScreenResolution will produce a lower quality output than HighResolution and should only be used for drafts.

QPrinter::PrinterResolution - Use the physical resolution of the printer on Windows. On Unix, set the postscript resolution to 72 dpi.

QPrinter::HighResolution - Use printer resolution on windows, set the resolution of the postscript driver to 600dpi.

QPrinter::Compatible - Almost the same as PrinterResolution, but keeps some peculiarities of the Qt 2.x printer driver. This is useful for applications ported from Qt 2.x to Qt 3.x.

This enum describes various printer options that appear in the printer setup dialog. It is used to enable and disable these options in the setup dialog.

QPrinter::PrintToFile - Describes if print to file should be enabled.

QPrinter::PrintSelection - Describes if printing selections should be enabled.

QPrinter::PrintPageRange - Describes if printing page ranges (from, to) should be enabled

See also setOptionEnabled() and isOptionEnabled().

Constructs a printer paint device with mode m.

See also QPrinter::PrinterMode.

Destroys the printer paint device and cleans up.

Aborts the print job. Returns TRUE if successful; otherwise returns FALSE.

See also aborted().

Returns TRUE if the print job was aborted; otherwise returns FALSE.

See also abort().

Returns the current color mode. The default color mode is Color.

See also setColorMode().

Returns the name of the application that created the document.

See also setCreator().

Returns the document name.

See also setDocName().

Returns the from-page setting. The default value is 0.

If fromPage() and toPage() both return 0 this signifies 'print the whole document'.

The programmer is responsible for reading this setting and printing accordingly.

See also setFromTo() and toPage().

Returns TRUE if the origin of the printer's coordinate system is at the corner of the sheet and FALSE if it is at the edge of the printable area.

See setFullPage() for details and caveats.

See also setFullPage(), PageSize, and QPaintDeviceMetrics.

Returns TRUE if the printer option with identifier option is enabled; otherwise returns FALSE.

See also setOptionEnabled().

Returns the width of the left margin and the height of the top margin of the printer. On Unix, this is a best-effort guess, not based on perfect knowledge.

If you have called setFullPage( TRUE ), margins().width() may be treated as the smallest sane left margin you can use, and margins().height() as the smallest sane top margin you can use.

If you have called setFullPage( FALSE ) (this is the default), margins() is automatically subtracted from the pageSize() by QPrinter.

See also setFullPage(), QPaintDeviceMetrics, and PageSize.

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Sets top, left, bottom and right to the margins of the printer. On Unix, this is a best-effort guess, not based on perfect knowledge.

If you have called setFullPage( TRUE ), the four values specify the smallest sane margins you can use.

If you have called setFullPage( FALSE ) (this is the default), the margins are automatically subtracted from the pageSize() by QPrinter.

See also setFullPage(), QPaintDeviceMetrics, and PageSize.

Returns the max-page setting. A user can't choose a higher page number than maxPage() when they select a print range. The default value is 0.

See also minPage(), setMinMax(), and setFromTo().

Returns the min-page setting, i.e. the lowest page number a user is allowed to choose. The default value is 0.

See also maxPage(), setMinMax(), and setFromTo().

Advances to a new page on the printer. Returns TRUE if successful; otherwise returns FALSE.

Examples:

Returns the number of copies to be printed. The default value is 1.

This value will return the number of times the application is required to print in order to match the number specified in the printer setup dialog. This has been done since some printer drivers are not capable of buffering up the copies and the application in those cases have to make an explicit call to the print code for each copy.

See also setNumCopies().

Returns the orientation setting. The default value is QPrinter::Portrait.

See also setOrientation().

Returns the name of the output file. There is no default file name.

See also setOutputFileName() and setOutputToFile().

Returns TRUE if the output should be written to a file, or FALSE if the output should be sent directly to the printer. The default setting is FALSE.

This function is currently only supported under X11 and Mac OS X.

See also setOutputToFile() and setOutputFileName().

Returns the current page order.

The default page order is FirstPageFirst.

Bugs and limitations:

This value is not kept in sync with the Windows or Mac OS X printer dialogs.

Returns the printer page size. The default value is system-dependent.

See also setPageSize().

Returns the currently set paper source of the printer.

See also setPaperSource().

Returns the name of the program that sends the print output to the printer.

The default is to return a null string; meaning that QPrinter will try to be smart in a system-dependent way. On X11 only, you can set it to something different to use a specific print program.

On Windows, this function returns the name of the printer device driver.

See also setPrintProgram() and setPrinterSelectionOption().

Returns the PageRange of the QPrinter. After the print setup dialog has been opened, this function returns the value selected by the user.

See also setPrintRange().

Returns the printer name. This value is initially set to the name of the default printer.

See also setPrinterName().

Returns the printer options selection string. This is useful only if the print command has been explicitly set.

The default value (a null string) implies that the printer should be selected in a system-dependent manner.

Any other value implies that the given value should be used.

See also setPrinterSelectionOption().

Returns the current assumed resolution of the printer, as set by setResolution() or by the printer subsystem.

See also setResolution().

Sets the printer's color mode to newColorMode, which can be either Color or GrayScale (the default).

See also colorMode().

Sets the name of the application that created the document to creator.

This function is only applicable to the X11 version of Qt. If no creator name is specified, the creator will be set to "Qt" followed by some version number.

See also creator().

Sets the document name to name.

Sets the from-page and to-page settings to fromPage and toPage respectively.

The from-page and to-page settings specify what pages to print.

If fromPage() and toPage() both return 0 this signifies 'print the whole document'.

This function is useful mostly to set a default value that the user can override in the print dialog when you call setup().

See also fromPage(), toPage(), setMinMax(), and setup().

Sets QPrinter to have the origin of the coordinate system at the top-left corner of the paper if fp is TRUE, or where it thinks the top-left corner of the printable area is if fp is FALSE.

The default is FALSE. You can (probably) print on (0,0), and QPaintDeviceMetrics will report something smaller than the size indicated by PageSize. (Note that QPrinter may be wrong on Unix systems - it does not have perfect knowledge of the physical printer.)

If you set fp to TRUE, QPaintDeviceMetrics will report the exact same size as indicated by PageSize, but you cannot print on all of that - you must take care of the output margins yourself.

See also PageSize, setPageSize(), QPaintDeviceMetrics, and fullPage().

Examples:

Sets the printer margins to the sizes specified in top, left, bottom and right.

This function currently only has an effect on Unix systems.

See also margins().

Sets the min-page and max-page settings to minPage and maxPage respectively.

The min-page and max-page restrict the from-page and to-page settings. When the printer setup dialog appears, the user cannot select a from page or a to page that are outside the range specified by min and max pages.

See also minPage(), maxPage(), setFromTo(), and setup().

Sets the number of copies to be printed to numCopies.

The printer driver reads this setting and prints the specified number of copies.

See also numCopies() and setup().

Enables the printer option with the identifier option if enable is TRUE, and disables option option if enable is FALSE.

See also isOptionEnabled().

Sets the print orientation to orientation.

The orientation can be either QPrinter::Portrait or QPrinter::Landscape.

The printer driver reads this setting and prints using the specified orientation. On Windows this setting won't take effect until the printer dialog is shown (using QPrinter::setup()).

Windows only! This option can be changed while printing and will take effect from the next call to newPage()

See also orientation().

Sets the name of the output file to fileName.

Setting a null or empty name (0 or "") disables output to a file, i.e. calls setOutputToFile(FALSE). Setting a non-empty name enables output to a file, i.e. calls setOutputToFile(TRUE).

This function is currently only supported under X11.

See also outputFileName() and setOutputToFile().

Specifies whether the output should be written to a file or sent directly to the printer.

Will output to a file if enable is TRUE, or will output directly to the printer if enable is FALSE.

This function is currently only supported under X11 and Mac OS X.

See also outputToFile() and setOutputFileName().

Sets the page order to newPageOrder.

The page order can be QPrinter::FirstPageFirst or QPrinter::LastPageFirst. The application programmer is responsible for reading the page order and printing accordingly.

This function is useful mostly for setting a default value that the user can override in the print dialog when you call setup().

Bugs and limitations:

This value is not kept in sync with the Windows or Mac OS X printer dialogs.

Sets the printer page size to newPageSize if that size is supported. The result if undefined if newPageSize is not supported.

The default page size is system-dependent.

This function is useful mostly for setting a default value that the user can override in the print dialog when you call setup().

See also pageSize(), PageSize, setFullPage(), and setResolution().

Sets the paper source setting to source.

Windows only! This option can be changed while printing and will take effect from the next call to newPage()

See also paperSource().

Sets the name of the program that should do the print job to printProg.

On X11, this function sets the program to call with the PostScript output. On other platforms, it has no effect.

See also printProgram().

Sets the default selected page range to be used when the print setup dialog is opened to range. If the PageRange specified by range is currently disabled the function does nothing.

See also printRange().

Sets the printer name to name.

The default printer will be used if no printer name is set.

Under X11, the PRINTER environment variable defines the default printer. Under any other window system, the window system defines the default printer.

See also printerName().

Sets the printer to use option to select the printer. option is null by default (which implies that Qt should be smart enough to guess correctly), but it can be set to other values to use a specific printer selection option.

If the printer selection option is changed while the printer is active, the current print job may or may not be affected.

See also printerSelectionOption().

Requests that the printer prints at dpi or as near to dpi as possible.

This setting affects the coordinate system as returned by, for example, QPaintDeviceMetrics and QPainter::viewport().

The value depends on the PrintingMode used in the QPrinter constructor. By default, the dpi value of the screen is used.

This function must be called before setup() to have an effect on all platforms.

See also resolution() and setPageSize().

Windows only, using this function is not portable! Sets the windows page size value that is used by the DEVMODE struct. The winPageSize value must be one of the DMPAPER_ defines from wingdi.h.

Opens a printer setup dialog, with parent parent, and asks the user to specify which printer they wish to use and what settings it should have.

Returns TRUE if the user pressed "OK" to print, or FALSE if the user canceled the operation.

Examples:

Returns the to-page setting. The default value is 0.

If fromPage() and toPage() both return 0 this signifies 'print the whole document'.

The programmer is responsible for reading this setting and printing accordingly.

See also setFromTo() and fromPage().

Returns the Windows page size value as used by the DEVMODE struct (Windows only). Using this function is not portable.

Use pageSize() to get the PageSize, e.g. 'A4', 'Letter', etc.

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