C# – Sending PDF to Thermal Printer (Zebra) using c#

cthermal-printer

I am trying to send a PDF to a thermal printer using c#. I have looked at the RawPrinterHelper class here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322091 but the SendFileToPrinter is not printing the file.

There is no error and the file appears to be printing from the print queue but nothing happens.

The printer works fine as I have been able to print other items on it.

Does anyone know how I can send a PDF to print or how I can possibly use the SendFileToPrinter to work for me.

I am working on Windows 7.

Here is a sample of the code I am using to call the SendFileToPrinter method.

try
        {
            RawPrinterHelper.SendFileToPrinter(PrinterName,@"C:\test.pdf");

        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(" EXCEPTION: {0}", ex.Message);
        }

Update:
Ok, maybe I spoke too soon. I am able to print the PDF to the thermal printer but the issue now is that this is taking a couple of seconds to print and I am looking for something that is "quick". The reason it is slow is that Adobe needs to open up first.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get around this?

Best Answer

Ok, actaully got it sorted.

I was able to do the following and it works perfectly.

string tempFile = @"C:\test.pdf";
            try
            {
                ProcessStartInfo gsProcessInfo;
                Process gsProcess;
                string printerName = PrinterName; 

                gsProcessInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
                gsProcessInfo.Verb = "PrintTo";
                gsProcessInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
                gsProcessInfo.FileName = tempFile;
                gsProcessInfo.Arguments = "\"" + printerName + "\"";
                gsProcess = Process.Start(gsProcessInfo);
                if (gsProcess.HasExited == false)
                {

                    gsProcess.Kill();
                }
                gsProcess.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

                gsProcess.Close();
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
            }

@DavidCrowell, thats for the assistance.

Noel.

Related Solutions

C# – Print raw data to a thermal-printer using .NET

Quick step by step solution

Because code was not provided, I make it work with help of provided links, and here is the code:

Code

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows;

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct DOCINFO {
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]
    public string pDocName;
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] 
    public string pOutputFile;
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] 
    public string pDataType;
}

public class PrintDirect {
    [DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = false, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern long OpenPrinter(string pPrinterName, ref IntPtr phPrinter, int pDefault);

    [DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = false, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern long StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, int Level, ref DOCINFO pDocInfo);

    [DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern long StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

    [DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern long WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, string data, int buf, ref int pcWritten);

    [DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern long EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

    [DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern long EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

    [DllImport("winspool.drv", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern long ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);
}

private void Print(String printerAddress, String text, String documentName) {
    IntPtr printer = new IntPtr();

    // A pointer to a value that receives the number of bytes of data that were written to the printer.
    int pcWritten = 0;

    DOCINFO docInfo = new DOCINFO();
    docInfo.pDocName = documentName;
    docInfo.pDataType = "RAW";

    PrintDirect.OpenPrinter(printerAddress, ref printer, 0);
    PrintDirect.StartDocPrinter(printer, 1, ref docInfo);
    PrintDirect.StartPagePrinter(printer);

    try {
    PrintDirect.WritePrinter(printer, text, text.Length, ref pcWritten);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    }

    PrintDirect.EndPagePrinter(printer);
    PrintDirect.EndDocPrinter(printer);
    PrintDirect.ClosePrinter(printer);
}

Usage

String printerAddress = "\\\\ComputerName\\PrinterName";
String documentName = "My document";
String documentText = "This is an example of printing directly to a printer.";

this.Print(printerAddress, documentText, documentName);

Sources:

~~How to send raw data to a printer by using Visual C# .NET~~ (link is no longer active)
HOWTO: Send Raw Data to a Printer by Using the Win32 API

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