Printer Object

Parents, Children, Properties, Methods, Events

Purpose: To provide printer output.

Description

The PName property is a character vector which specifies the name of an installed printer and the device to which it is attached. The name and device are separated by a comma (,). All valid values of PName can be obtained from the PrintList property of the Root object.

If not specified, the default value of PName is (⊃'.' ⎕WG 'PrintList').

The DevCaps property reports the size of the printable area of the page in pixels (dots) and in millimetres. It also reports the number of colours available. This is 2 on a monochrome printer (black and white), although grey scales may be available.

The FontList property provides a list of fonts that are applicable and includes TrueType and printer fonts. This list is typically different from that obtained from the FontList property on the Root object which lists those fonts that apply to the screen.

The Orientation property specifies the orientation of the page and may be either 'Portrait' or 'Landscape'.

The graphics objects listed above may be printed in much the same way as they may be displayed on a Form or Static. The differences are :

Once an object has been created, it will be printed, even if its name is subsequently expunged.

An object does not replace an existing one which has the same name.

The act of changing one or more properties of a named object causes the object to be printed a second time. For example, changing the Posn of an object will print it again at a different place.

In general it is recommended that you use unnamed objects for printing.

The Printer object five methods :

Name	Event	Description
Print	100	Sends output to print spooler
Setup	101	Displays Printer Set-up dialog box
NewPage	102	Throws a new page
Abort	103	Aborts the print job
RTFPrintSetup	460	Displays Printer Set-up dialog box

Examples

Start a print job on the default printer

      'PR1' ⎕WC 'Printer'

Write a centred heading at the top of the page using a proportional font

      'PR1.' ⎕WC 'Text' 'Report Title' (0 50)('HAlign' 1) ('FontObj' 'Roman' 64)

Draw a line across the page, 2 pixels wide

      'PR1.' ⎕WC 'Poly' (2(0 100)) ('LWidth' 2)

Print a character matrix. Note that a fixed width font is used.

      REPORT ← 'I6' ⎕FMT ?20 6⍴1000
      'PR1.' ⎕WC 'Text' REPORT (10 0)('FontObj' 'DyalogAPL')

Throw a new page

      PR1.NewPage

Spool output

      ⎕EX 'PR1'