Printing Without Formfeed

[Thomas Dandrea]

I have an application that prints labels in various formats.
Label printing on laserjet or inkjet stock where each series
of labels is on a separate page is not a problem. But, for
those using a sprocket-feed type of label stock, each time any
number of labels is printed, a formfeed is output and the
sprocket-fed forms "eject" the length of a full page instead of
just stopping at the end of the last-printed label.

Referencing Charles Petzold's "Programming Windows, Fifth Edition",
his simplest printing program (StartDoc, StartPage, EndPage,
EndDoc) does just that; eject a blank page.

The question is if it is even possible to send printed output to
the printer without causing an entire "page" to be ejected as soon
as EndDoc is submitted. I've been told there are Windows
applications that do this, but I haven't found a way so far.


Tom



------------------
Tom Dandrea
EQF Software

[Lance Edmonds]

Yes it certainly can be done... I've even done it myself.

The "trick" is that you have to set the page height in your DEVMODE structure then create your device context.

' Pseudocode to show concept only
DIM pDevMode AS DEVMODE PTR
DIM PD       AS PRINTDLGAPI
...
' Get your default DC here from say, PrintDlg() with %PD_RETURNDC
' At this point, PD contains a handle of a DEVMODE structure.
...
pDevMode = GlobalLock(PD.hDevMode)
IF pDevMode THEN
  @pDevMode.dmFields      = @pDevMode.dmFields OR %DM_PAPERSIZE OR %DM_PAPERLENGTH OR %DM_PAPERWIDTH
  @pDevMode.dmPaperSize   = %DMPAPER_USER
  @pDevMode.dmPaperLength = 1000& ' 100mm in deci-mm
  @pDevMode.dmPaperWidth  = 4 * 254 ' 8" in deci-mm
  GlobalUnlock PD.hDevNames
END IF
...

Finally, use this modified DEVMODE with CreateDC, etc. Don't forget to GlobalLock/GlobalFree the structure first if you are working that way.

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>