I'm using Graphics.ScaleTransform to stretch lines of text so they fit the width of the page, and then printing that page. However, this converts the print job to a bitmap - for a print with many pages this causes the size of the print job to rise to obscene proportions, and slows down printing immensely.
If I don't scale like this, the print job remains very small as it is just sending text print commands to the printer.
My question is, is there any way other than using Graphics.ScaleTransform to stretch the width of the text?
Sample code to demonstrate this is below (would be called with Print.Test(True) and Print.Test(False) to show the effects of scaling on print job):
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing.Printing
Imports System.Drawing.Imaging
Public Class Print
Dim FixedFont As Font
Dim Area As RectangleF
Dim CharHeight As Double
Dim CharWidth As Double
Dim Scale As Boolean
Const CharsAcross = 80
Const CharsDown = 66
Const TestString = "!""#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~"
Private Sub PagePrinter(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As PrintPageEventArgs)
Dim G As Graphics = e.Graphics
If Scale Then
Dim ws = Area.Width / G.MeasureString(Space(CharsAcross).Replace(" ", "X"), FixedFont).Width
G.ScaleTransform(ws, 1)
End If
For CurrentLine = 1 To CharsDown
G.DrawString(Mid(TestString & TestString & TestString, CurrentLine, CharsAcross), FixedFont, Brushes.Black, 0, Convert.ToSingle(CharHeight * (CurrentLine - 1)))
Next
e.HasMorePages = False
End Sub
Public Shared Sub Test(ByVal Scale As Boolean)
Dim OutputDocument As New PrintDocument
With OutputDocument
Dim DP As New Print
.PrintController = New StandardPrintController
.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape = False
DP.Area = .DefaultPageSettings.PrintableArea
DP.CharHeight = DP.Area.Height / CharsDown
DP.CharWidth = DP.Area.Width / CharsAcross
DP.Scale = Scale
DP.FixedFont = New Font("Courier New", DP.CharHeight / 100, FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Inch)
.DocumentName = "Test print (with" & IIf(Scale, "", "out") & " scaling)"
AddHandler .PrintPage, AddressOf DP.PagePrinter
.Print()
End With
End Sub
End Class
