Knowledge Base

How To Use a PictureBox to Control Orientation Printing a Form

Article ID: 178076

Article Last Modified on 7/13/2004

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

This article was previously published under Q178076

SUMMARY

When using the PrintForm method to print a Form, you have no control over the orientation. This article describes a way to use a PictureBox to print the client area of a Form in either orientation.

MORE INFORMATION

The PrintForm method creates its own Device Context and therefore ignores any Printer object settings. It will just use the default orientation of the current default printer. Because you cannot change how PrintForm behaves, you must print another way. You could change printer settings with APIs, print the Form, then change them back, but a simpler approach is to print from a PictureBox. The drawback to this method of using PictureBoxes is that you are printing a Bitmap graphic, so the quality is less than the PrintForm methods. The process described here uses two PictureBoxes, each one covering the Form. The second PictureBox is to avoid a shadowing effect caused by a small offset of the redraw on a single PictureBox. This same technique can be used to print any group of controls or to print the client area of a Form that is larger than the screen. It also allows you to print text or other images onto the same page as the form's (PictureBox's) image.

Example of Using a PictureBox to Print a Form in Any Orientation

Create a new Standard EXE Project. Form1 is created by default.
Add two PictureBoxes to Form1 so that each nearly covers the Form.

NOTE: Avoid drawing the second PictureBox within the first. Doing so makes the second PictureBox a member of the first. A simple way to avoid the problem is to place the origin point of the second PictureBox to the left of the origin point of the first PictureBox. Once the second box is drawn, you can resize it so that it is the same size as the first PictureBox.
Right-mouse click on Picture2 and choose "Send to Back."
Place Picture1 on top of Picture2, covering Picture2.
Add a CommandButton and some other controls to Picture1, leaving Picture2 empty.

Place this code in the Declarations Section of the module of the Form:

      Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _
         "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, _
         ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long

      Private Const WM_PAINT = &HF
      Private Const WM_PRINT = &H317
      Private Const PRF_CLIENT = &H4&    ' Draw the window's client area
      Private Const PRF_CHILDREN = &H10& ' Draw all visible child windows
      Private Const PRF_OWNED = &H20&    ' Draw all owned windows

      Private Sub Command1_Click()
       Dim rv As Long
       Picture1.SetFocus  ' So that the button doesn't look pressed
       Picture2.AutoRedraw = True
       rv = SendMessage(Picture1.hwnd, WM_PAINT, Picture2.hDC, 0)
       rv = SendMessage(Picture1.hwnd, WM_PRINT, Picture2.hDC, _
          PRF_CHILDREN + PRF_CLIENT + PRF_OWNED)
       Picture2.Picture = Picture2.Image
       Picture2.AutoRedraw = False
       Printer.Orientation = vbPRORLandscape   ' 2
       Printer.Print ""
       Printer.PaintPicture Picture2.Picture, 0, 0
       Printer.CurrentY = Picture2.Height + 200   ' get below image
       Printer.Print "Text on the same page as the image!"
       Printer.EndDoc

       Command1.SetFocus  ' Return Focus
      End Sub

      Private Sub Form_Load()
       Me.Show
       Command1.Caption = "Print Form"
      End Sub

Run the Project and click on the "Print Form" button. Note that when you click on Command1, "Print Form", it will print the PictureBox and the controls it contains in Landscape orientation.

REFERENCES

If you need to print more than just the client area of a Form or if you need to scale the printout, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

161299 How To Capture and Print the Screen, a Form, or Any Window

For more information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

230502 How To Print a Form That is Too Large for the Screen or Page

194580 How To Print a Composite Image From a RichTextBox

146022 How To Set Up the RichTextBox Control for WYSIWYG Printing

242483 BUG: Error 486 or 482 Occurs When Using PrintForm

198901 SAMPLE: PageSet.exe Programmatically Changes Default Printer Orientation

Additional query words: portrait KBPRINTING

Keywords: kbhowto KB178076

Microsoft KB Archive/178076

Contents