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Choosing a printer when printing from Crystal Reports in C#

2.98/5 (24 votes)
7 Dec 20051 min read 3   8.8K  
How to choose a printer when printing from Crystal Reports in C#.

Image 1

Introduction

I use Crystal Reports 9 in my project. I once encountered an issue with printing a report. Then, I searched the Internet and found a code from this website that showed me how to send a report to the printer without previewing it, but the code did not allow me to choose the printer. In this article, I have customized the code to use a Print Dialog to choose the printer.

Using the Code

I use the Print Dialog to get the printer name. Then, I assign it to the report. To print the report, I use the method:

C#
crReportDocument.PrintToPrinter(nCopy, false, sPage, ePage);

to send the data from the report to the printer.

The code below shows how to choose the printer to print the report:

C#
private void button2_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    //Open the PrintDialog
    this.printDialog1.Document = this.printDocument1;
    DialogResult dr = this.printDialog1.ShowDialog();
    if(dr == DialogResult.OK)
    {
        //Get the Copy times
        int nCopy = this.printDocument1.PrinterSettings.Copies;
        //Get the number of Start Page
        int sPage = this.printDocument1.PrinterSettings.FromPage;
        //Get the number of End Page
        int ePage = this.printDocument1.PrinterSettings.ToPage;
        //Get the printer name
        string PrinterName = this.printDocument1.PrinterSettings.PrinterName;

        crReportDocument = new ReportDocument();
        //Create an instance of a report
        crReportDocument = new Chart();
        try
        {
            //Set the printer name to print the report to. By default the sample
            //report does not have a default printer specified. This will tell the
            //engine to use the specified printer to print the report. Print out 
            //a test page (from Printer properties) to get the correct value.

            crReportDocument.PrintOptions.PrinterName = PrinterName;

            //Start the printing process. Provide details of the print job
            //using the arguments.
            crReportDocument.PrintToPrinter(nCopy, false, sPage, ePage);

            //Let the user know that the print job is completed
            MessageBox.Show("Report finished printing!");
        }
        catch(Exception err)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(err.ToString());
        }
    }
}

Points of Interest

I think the important thing in this article is it shows how to get the names of printers in your computer or your local network.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it, but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt, please contact the author via the discussion board below. A list of licenses authors might use can be found here.