Ini mungkin agak mengerikan bagi sebagian orang yang tidak tau bagaimana melakukannya. Mungkin hal ini bisa dilakukan dengan crystal report. Tapi bagimana dengan client yang mendambakan speed. Apakah crystal report dapat melakukannya? Karena jika menggunakan crystal report akan dianggap sebagai gambar(graphic) sehingga akan memperlambat kinerja mencetak.
Oleh karena itu harus dilakukan dengan font default bawaan printer dan kalau perlu set ke mode DRAFT biar makin cepat ngeprintnya. Dibawah ini saya akan mendemokan bagaimana cara mencetak ke printer dot matrix. Ingat cara ini hanya bekerja di printer dot matrix. Jika anda mengeprint menggunakan printer tinta tidak bisa.
Sebenarnya caranya cukup simpel. Anda tinggal menggunakan class dibawah ini. Class ini saya dapatkan dari sini
Public Class RawPrinterHelper ' Structure and API declarions: _ Structure DOCINFOW Public pDocName As String Public pOutputFile As String Public pDataType As String End Structure _ Public Shared Function OpenPrinter(ByVal src As String, ByRef hPrinter As IntPtr, ByVal pd As Long) As Boolean End Function _ Public Shared Function ClosePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Boolean End Function _ Public Shared Function StartDocPrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr, ByVal level As Int32, ByRef pDI As DOCINFOW) As Boolean End Function _ Public Shared Function EndDocPrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Boolean End Function _ Public Shared Function StartPagePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Boolean End Function _ Public Shared Function EndPagePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr) As Boolean End Function _ Public Shared Function WritePrinter(ByVal hPrinter As IntPtr, ByVal pBytes As IntPtr, ByVal dwCount As Int32, ByRef dwWritten As Int32) As Boolean End Function ' SendBytesToPrinter() ' When the function is given a printer name and an unmanaged array of ' bytes, the function sends those bytes to the print queue. ' Returns True on success or False on failure. Public Shared Function SendBytesToPrinter(ByVal szPrinterName As String, ByVal pBytes As IntPtr, ByVal dwCount As Int32) As Boolean Dim hPrinter As IntPtr ' The printer handle. Dim dwError As Int32 ' Last error - in case there was trouble. Dim di As DOCINFOW ' Describes your document (name, port, data type). Dim dwWritten As Int32 ' The number of bytes written by WritePrinter(). Dim bSuccess As Boolean ' Your success code. ' Set up the DOCINFO structure. With di .pDocName = "My Visual Basic .NET RAW Document" .pDataType = "RAW" End With ' Assume failure unless you specifically succeed. bSuccess = False If OpenPrinter(szPrinterName, hPrinter, 0) Then If StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, di) Then If StartPagePrinter(hPrinter) Then ' Write your printer-specific bytes to the printer. bSuccess = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, dwCount, dwWritten) EndPagePrinter(hPrinter) End If EndDocPrinter(hPrinter) End If ClosePrinter(hPrinter) End If ' If you did not succeed, GetLastError may give more information ' about why not. If bSuccess = False Then dwError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error() End If Return bSuccess End Function ' SendBytesToPrinter() ' SendFileToPrinter() ' When the function is given a file name and a printer name, ' the function reads the contents of the file and sends the ' contents to the printer. ' Presumes that the file contains printer-ready data. ' Shows how to use the SendBytesToPrinter function. ' Returns True on success or False on failure. Public Shared Function SendFileToPrinter(ByVal szPrinterName As String, ByVal szFileName As String) As Boolean ' Open the file. Dim fs As New FileStream(szFileName, FileMode.Open) ' Create a BinaryReader on the file. Dim br As New BinaryReader(fs) ' Dim an array of bytes large enough to hold the file's contents. Dim bytes(fs.Length) As Byte Dim bSuccess As Boolean ' Your unmanaged pointer. Dim pUnmanagedBytes As IntPtr ' Read the contents of the file into the array. bytes = br.ReadBytes(fs.Length) ' Allocate some unmanaged memory for those bytes. pUnmanagedBytes = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(fs.Length) ' Copy the managed byte array into the unmanaged array. Marshal.Copy(bytes, 0, pUnmanagedBytes, fs.Length) ' Send the unmanaged bytes to the printer. bSuccess = SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pUnmanagedBytes, fs.Length) ' Free the unmanaged memory that you allocated earlier. Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pUnmanagedBytes) Return bSuccess End Function ' SendFileToPrinter() ' When the function is given a string and a printer name, ' the function sends the string to the printer as raw bytes. Public Shared Function SendStringToPrinter(ByVal szPrinterName As String, ByVal szString As String) Dim pBytes As IntPtr Dim dwCount As Int32 ' How many characters are in the string? dwCount = szString.Length() ' Assume that the printer is expecting ANSI text, and then convert ' the string to ANSI text. pBytes = Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemAnsi(szString) ' Send the converted ANSI string to the printer. SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pBytes, dwCount) Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pBytes) End Function End Class
Ada 2 method yang perlu diperhatikan:
Pertama
RawPrinterHelper.SendStringToPrinter(namaPrinter, s)
Method diatas akan mencetak string pada variabel s pada printer dot matrix. Variabel namaPrinter adalah nama printer anda. Contoh: “EPSON LX-300+ /II” tanpa tanda petik
Kedua
RawPrinterHelper.SendFileToPrinter(namaPrinter, namaFile)
Mirip dengan method pertama. Hanya saja ini akan langsung mencetak text file dengan memberikan alamat text file. Contoh: namaFile=”C:\test.txt”. Maka akan mencetak semua text yang ada di test.txt