Microsoft KB Archive/255115

Knowledge Base

BUG: Printer.ForeColor Property Does Not Work Correctly

Article ID: 255115

Article Last Modified on 5/12/2003

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APPLIES TO

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

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This article was previously published under Q255115

SYMPTOMS

You can use the Printer.ForeColor property to print color text. However, if you set this property before you print anything on a new page, it may have no effect.

CAUSE

This problem stems from the way in which the Visual Basic Printer object calls the underlying API functions, StartPage and EndPage.

• In Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me, the StartPage function call resets the Printer's Device Context attributes to default values and so it is required to set the fore color and re-select objects every time the StartPage function is called.
• In Microsoft Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 2000, the StartPage function call does not reset the Device Context attributes so that Device Context attributes remain constant across subsequent pages. However, it is required to set the fore color and select objects the first time the StartPage function is called.
• The Printer object for Visual Basic does not set the fore color automatically after the StartPage function call.
• The Printer object calls the StartPage function only when the Printer.Print method is called to eliminate unnecessary blank pages. The Printer.NewPage method only calls the EndPage function.

RESOLUTION

To work around the problem, you need to force a call to the StartPage function with the Printer.Print method and then set the Printer.ForeColor property yourself.

You need to do this for the first page only if your application only targets on Windows NT and Windows 2000.

You need to do this for each page if your application is to be delivered to Windows 9x and Windows Me platforms.

NOTE: This workaround requires that you issue the Printer.NewPage function call explicitly by calculating when a new page should be started. If Visual Basic automatically starts a new page for you, you do not have a chance to apply the workaround for Windows 9x.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Install a color printer to your computer and set it as the default printer.
2. Create a new Standard EXE project with Visual Basic 6.0. Form1 is created automatically.

3. Add the following code to the code window of Form1:

   Private Sub Form_Load()
       Printer.ColorMode = 2
       Printer.ForeColor = vbRed
       Printer.Print "page 1"
       Printer.NewPage
       Printer.Print "Page 2"
       Printer.EndDoc
   End Sub
                       

4. Press the F5 key to run the project and note that both page 1 and page 2 are printed in black.

5. Return to design mode and change the code for Form1 to be:

   Private Sub Form_Load()
       Printer.ColorMode = 2
       Printer.Print " ";  ' force a call to StartPage
       Printer.CurrentX = 0  ' restore the position
       Printer.ForeColor = vbRed
       Printer.Print "Page 1"
       Printer.NewPage  ' VB only calls EndPage here
       ' The following three lines are not necessary for NT/Windows 2000
       ' But you need them if you want to make the code work under Windows 9x or Windows Me
       Printer.Print " ";  ' force a call to StartPage
       Printer.CurrentX = 0  ' restore the position
       Printer.ForeColor = vbRed
       Printer.Print "Page 2"
       Printer.EndDoc
   End Sub
                       

6. Press F5 to run it again and note that it works as expected.

REFERENCES

MSDN Platform SDK: StartPage

Keywords: kbbug kbnofix kbprint KB255115

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