Delphi Basics : Printer command

DelphiBasics

Printer
Function

Returns a reference to the global Printer object

Printers unit

function Printer():TPrinter;

Description

The Printer function returns a reference to the global Printer (TPrinter) object.

This object has many methods and properties that you can use to manage printing. In particular:

BeginDoc	: Start printing
EndDoc	: Finish printing
NewPage	: Start a new page
PageHeight	: The page canvas height in pixels
PageWidth	: The page canvas width in pixels
Canvas.Font	: Used to set font size/colour etc
Canvas.Draw	: Draw a graphic on the page
Canvas.TextOut	: Write text to the page

You should use TPrintDialog to show the user a printer selection and configuration dialog before printing, as in the example.

Related commands

TObject

The base class type that is ancestor to all other classes

Download this web site as a Windows program.

Example code : Printing the page width and height text strings onto a page

var
  printDialog : TPrintDialog;
  myPrinter   : TPrinter;

begin
  // Create a printer selection dialog
  printDialog := TPrintDialog.Create(Form1);

  // If the user has selected a printer (or default), then print!
  if printDialog.Execute then
  begin
    // Use the Printer function to get access to the
    // global TPrinter object.
    // All references below are to the TPrinter object
    myPrinter := Printer;
    with myPrinter do
    begin
      // Start printing
      BeginDoc;

      // Set up a large blue font
      Canvas.Font.Size   := 20;
      Canvas.Font.Color  := clBlue;

      // Write out the page size
      Canvas.TextOut(20,  20, 'Page  width = '+IntToStr(PageWidth));
      Canvas.TextOut(20, 150, 'Page height = '+IntToStr(PageHeight));

      // Finish printing
      EndDoc;
    end;
  end;
end;

Show full unit code

  A page will be printed with big blue text at the top left:

  Page width = 2400
  Page height = 3357