Microsoft KB Archive/125692

{|
 * width="100%"|

INFO: Printer Escapes Under Windows 95

 * }

Q125692

4.00 WINDOWS kbprint

-

The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), used with:
 * Microsoft Windows 95

-

SUMMARY
Printer escapes are used to access special printer device features and have been used widely in Windows version 3.x. With Windows 95, Microsoft is encouraging application developers to move away from these escapes by providing GDI functionality to replace them.

For example, a Win32-based application should not call the NEXTBAND and BANDINFO escapes. Banding is no longer needed in Windows 95. Most of these escapes, however, are still provided for 16-bit-based applications for backwards compatibility. The only recommended escapes for 32-bit, Windows 95-based applications are the QUERYESCSUPPORT and PASSTHROUGH escapes.

MORE INFORMATION
Applications written for Windows version 3.x can use the QUERYESCSUPPORT and the PASSTHROUGH escapes, as well as the following 10 escapes. It is important to note that these escapes are only supported for backwards compatibility. All new Windows 95-based applications should use Win32 API that replaces these escapes:

  ABORTDOC ENDDOC GETPHYSPAGESIZE GETPRINTINGOFFSET GETSCALINGFACTOR NEWFRAME NEXTBAND SETABORTPROC SETCOPYCOUNT STARTDOC The following functions should always be used in place of a printer escape:

  Function       Printer Escape Replaced AbortDoc      ABORTDOC EndDoc        ENDDOC EndPage       NEWFRAME SetAbortProc  SETABORTPROC StartDoc      STARTDOC Windows 95 provides six new indexes for the GetDeviceCaps function that replace some additional printer escapes:

  Index for GetDeviceCaps   Printer Escape Replaced PHYSICALWIDTH            GETPHYSPAGESIZE PHYSICALHEIGHT           GETPHYSPAGESIZE PHYSICALOFFSETX          GETPRINTINGOFFSET PHYSICALOFFSETY          GETPRINTINGOFFSET SCALINGFACTORX           GETSCALINGFACTOR SCALINGFACTORY           GETSCALINGFACTOR

Although a lot of the escapes have been replaced with Win32 GDI equivalent APIs, not all device-dependent escapes have been replaced. It is up to the printer driver manufacturer to decide whether or not its Windows 95-based driver will contain device-specific escapes that were present in its Windows version 3.x driver. An example of a device-specific escape would be the Windows version 3.x PostScript driver's POSTSCRIPT_IGNORE escape. Before calling any of these escapes, an application must first call the QUERESCSUPPORT escape to find out if the escape is supported or not.

Additional query words: 4.00

Keywords : kbSDKWin32 kbOSWin95 kbDSupport

Issue type : kbinfo

Technology : kbAudDeveloper kbWin32sSearch kbWin32API