PrintForm Component

(Visual Basic)
 07/20/2015  3 minutes to read Contributors all

In this article
PrintForm Component Overview
Example
See Also

The PrintForm component for Visual Basic enables you to print

an image of a Windows Form at run time. Its behavior replaces
that of the PrintForm method in earlier versions of Visual
Basic.

The PowerPack controls are no longer included in Visual

Studio, but you can download them from the Download
Center.

PrintForm Component Overview

A common scenario for Windows Forms is to create a form that
is formatted to resemble a paper form or a report, and then to
print an image of the form. Although you can use a
PrintDocument component to do this, it would require a lot of
code. The PrintForm component enables you to print an image
of a form to a printer, to a print preview window, or to a file
without using a PrintDocument component.

The PrintForm component is located on the Visual Basic

PowerPacks tab of the Toolbox. When it is dragged onto a
form it appears in the component tray, the small area under
the bottom border of the form. When the component is
selected, properties that define its behavior can be set in the
Properties window. All of these properties can also be set in
code. You can also create an instance of the PrintForm
component in code without adding the component at design
time.
When you print a form, everything in the client area of the
form is printed. This includes all controls and any text or
graphics drawn on the form by graphics methods. By default,
the form's title bar, scroll bars, and border are not printed. Also
by default, the PrintForm component prints only the visible
part of the form. For example, if the user resizes the form at run
time, only the controls and graphics that are currently visible
are printed.

The default printer used by the PrintForm component is

determined by the operating system's Control Panel settings.

After printing is initiated, a standard PrintDocument printing

dialog box is displayed. This dialog box enables users to cancel
the print job.

Key Methods, Properties, and Events

The key method of the PrintForm component is the Print

method, which prints an image of the form to a printer, print
preview window, or file. There are two versions of the Print
method:

A basic version without parameters: Print()

An overloaded version with parameters that specify

printing behavior:
Print(printForm As Form, printFormOption As
PrintOption)

The PrintOption parameter of the overloaded method

determines the underlying implementation used to print
the form, whether the form's title bar, scroll bars, and
border are printed, and whether scrollable parts of the
form are printed.

The PrintAction property is a key property of the PrintForm

component. This property determines whether the output is
sent to a printer, displayed in a print preview window, or saved
as an Encapsulated PostScript file. If the PrintAction property is
set to PrintToFile, the PrintFileName property specifies the path
and file name.

The PrinterSettings property provides access to an underlying

PrinterSettings object that enables you to specify such settings
as the printer to use and the number of copies to print. You
can also query the printer's capabilities, such as color or duplex
support. This property does not appear in the Properties
window; it can be accessed only from code.

The Form property is used to specify the form to print when

you invoke the PrintForm component programmatically. If the
component is added to a form at design time, that form is the
default.

Key events for the PrintForm component include the following:

BeginPrint event. Occurs when the Print method is called

and before the first page of the document prints.

EndPrint event. Occurs after the last page is printed.

QueryPageSettings event. Occurs immediately before

each page is printed.

Remarks

If a form contains text or graphics drawn by Graphics methods,

use the basic Print ( Print() ) method to print it. Graphics may
not render on some operating systems when the overloaded
Print method is used.

If the width of a form is wider than the width of the paper in

the printer, the right side of the form might be cut off. When
you design forms for printing, make sure that the form fits on
standard-sized paper.

Example
The following example shows a common use of the PrintForm
component.
 Copy

' Visual Basic.

Dim pf As New PrintForm
pf.Form = Me
pf.PrintAction = PrintToPrinter
pf.Print()

See Also
Print
PrintAction
How to: Print a Form by Using the PrintForm Component
How to: Print the Client Area of a Form
How to: Print Client and Non-Client Areas of a Form
How to: Print a Scrollable Form