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# QPrinter Class Reference

The QPrinter class is a paint device that paints on a printer. More...

    #include <QPrinter>

Inherits QPaintDevice.

- List of all members, including inherited members
- Compatibility members

### Public Types

- enum ColorMode { Color, GrayScale }
- enum Orientation { Portrait, Landscape }
- enum PageOrder { FirstPageFirst, LastPageFirst }
- enum PageSize { A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, ..., Custom }
- enum PaperSource { OnlyOne, Lower, Middle, Manual, Envelope, ..., FormSource }
- enum PrinterMode { ScreenResolution, PrinterResolution, HighResolution }
- enum PrinterState { Idle, Active, Aborted, Error }

### Public Functions

- QPrinter ( PrinterMode mode = ScreenResolution )
- ~QPrinter ()
- bool abort ()
- ColorMode colorMode () const
- QString creator () const
- QString docName () const
- bool fullPage () const
- bool newPage ()
- int numCopies () const
- Orientation orientation () const
- QString outputFileName () const
- bool outputToFile () const
- PageOrder pageOrder () const
- QRect pageRect () const
- PageSize pageSize () const
- virtual QPaintEngine * paintEngine () const
- QRect paperRect () const
- PaperSource paperSource () const
- QString printProgram () const
- QString printerName () const
- QString printerSelectionOption () const
- PrinterState printerState () const
- int resolution () const
- void setColorMode ( ColorMode newColorMode )
- void setCreator ( const QString & creator )
- void setDocName ( const QString & name )
- void setFullPage ( bool fp )
- void setNumCopies ( int numCopies )
- void setOrientation ( Orientation orientation )
- void setOutputFileName ( const QString & fileName )
- void setOutputToFile ( bool enable )
- void setPageOrder ( PageOrder pageOrder )
- void setPageRect ( const QRect & pageRect )
- void setPageSize ( PageSize newPageSize )
- void setPaperRect ( const QRect & paperRect )
- void setPaperSource ( PaperSource source )
- void setPrintProgram ( const QString & printProg )
- void setPrinterName ( const QString & name )
- void setPrinterSelectionOption ( const QString & option )
- void setResolution ( int dpi )
- void setWinPageSize ( short pageSize )
- QList<int> supportedResolutions () const
- short winPageSize () const

- 2 public functions inherited from QPaintDevice

## Detailed Description

The QPrinter class is a paint device that paints on a printer.

On Windows it uses the built-in printer drivers. On X11 it generates postscript and sends that to lpr, lp, or another printProgram().

QPrinter is used in much the same way as QWidget and QPixmap are used. The big difference is that you must keep track of the pages.

QPrinter supports a number of settable parameters, most of which can be changed by the end user through a QPrintDialog.

The most important parameters are:

- setOrientation() tells QPrinter which page orientation to use (virtual).
- setPageSize() tells QPrinter what page size to expect from the printer.
- setResolution() tells QPrinter what resolution you wish the printer to provide (in dots per inch -- dpi).
- setFullPage() tells QPrinter whether you want to deal with the full page or just with the part the printer can draw on. The default is false, so that by default you should be able to paint on (0,0). If true the origin of the coordinate system will be in the top left corner of the paper and most probably the printer will not be able to paint something there due to it's physical margins.
- setNumCopies() tells QPrinter how many copies of the document it should print.
- setMinMax() tells QPrinter and QPrintDialog what the allowed range for fromPage() and toPage() are.

Except where noted, you can only call the set functions before setup(), or between QPainter::end() and setup(). (Some may take effect between setup() and begin(), or between begin() and end(), but that's strictly undocumented and such behaviour may differ between platforms.)

There are also some settings that the user sets (through the printer dialog) and that applications are expected to obey:

- pageOrder() tells the application program whether to print first-page-first or last-page-first.
- colorMode() tells the application program whether to print in color or grayscale. (If you print in color and the printer does not support color, Qt will try to approximate. The document may take longer to print, but the quality should not be made visibly poorer.)
- fromPage() and toPage() indicate what pages the application program should print.
- paperSource() tells the application progam which paper source to print from.

You can of course call these functions to establish defaults before you ask the user through QPrintDialog.

Once you start printing, calling newPage() is essential. You will probably also need to look at the QPaintDeviceMetrics for the printer (see the print function in the Application walk-through). Note that the paint device metrics are valid only after the QPrinter has been set up, i.e. after setup() has returned successfully.

If you want to abort the print job, abort() will try its best to stop printing. It may cancel the entire job or just part of it.

If your current locale converts "," to ".", you will need to set a locale that doen't do this (e.g. the "C" locale) before using QPrinter.

The TrueType font embedding for Qt's postscript driver uses code by David Chappell of Trinity College Computing Center.

Copyright 1995, Trinity College Computing Center. Written by David Chappell.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

TrueType font support. These functions allow PPR to generate PostScript fonts from Microsoft compatible TrueType font files.

The functions in this file do most of the work to convert a TrueType font to a type 3 PostScript font.

Most of the material in this file is derived from a program called "ttf2ps" which L. S. Ng posted to the usenet news group "comp.sources.postscript". The author did not provide a copyright notice or indicate any restrictions on use.

Last revised 11 July 1995.

## Member Type Documentation

### enum QPrinter::ColorMode

This enum type is used to indicate whether QPrinter should print in color or not.

`QPrinter::Color` | print in color if available, otherwise in grayscale.
`QPrinter::GrayScale` | print in grayscale, even on color printers. Might be a little faster than `Color`. This is the default.

### enum QPrinter::Orientation

This enum type (not to be confused with `Orientation`) is used to specify each page's orientation.

`QPrinter::Portrait` | the page's height is greater than its width (the default).
`QPrinter::Landscape` | the page's width is greater than its height.

This type interacts with QPrinter::PageSize and QPrinter::setFullPage() to determine the final size of the page available to the application.

### enum QPrinter::PageOrder

This enum type is used by QPrinter to tell the application program how to print.

`QPrinter::FirstPageFirst` | the lowest-numbered page should be printed first.
`QPrinter::LastPageFirst` | the highest-numbered page should be printed first.

### enum QPrinter::PageSize

This enum type specifies what paper size QPrinter should use. QPrinter does not check that the paper size is available; it just uses this information, together with QPrinter::Orientation and QPrinter::setFullPage(), to determine the printable area (see QPaintDeviceMetrics).

The defined sizes (with setFullPage(TRUE)) are:

`QPrinter::A0` | 841 x 1189 mm
`QPrinter::A1` | 594 x 841 mm
`QPrinter::A2` | 420 x 594 mm
`QPrinter::A3` | 297 x 420 mm
`QPrinter::A4` | 210 x 297 mm, 8.26 x 11.69 inches
`QPrinter::A5` | 148 x 210 mm
`QPrinter::A6` | 105 x 148 mm
`QPrinter::A7` | 74 x 105 mm
`QPrinter::A8` | 52 x 74 mm
`QPrinter::A9` | 37 x 52 mm
`QPrinter::B0` | 1030 x 1456 mm
`QPrinter::B1` | 728 x 1030 mm
`QPrinter::B10` | 32 x 45 mm
`QPrinter::B2` | 515 x 728 mm
`QPrinter::B3` | 364 x 515 mm
`QPrinter::B4` | 257 x 364 mm
`QPrinter::B5` | 182 x 257 mm, 7.17 x 10.13 inches
`QPrinter::B6` | 128 x 182 mm
`QPrinter::B7` | 91 x 128 mm
`QPrinter::B8` | 64 x 91 mm
`QPrinter::B9` | 45 x 64 mm
`QPrinter::C5E` | 163 x 229 mm
`QPrinter::Comm10E` | 105 x 241 mm, US Common 10 Envelope
`QPrinter::DLE` | 110 x 220 mm
`QPrinter::Executive` | 7.5 x 10 inches, 191 x 254 mm
`QPrinter::Folio` | 210 x 330 mm
`QPrinter::Ledger` | 432 x 279 mm
`QPrinter::Legal` | 8.5 x 14 inches, 216 x 356 mm
`QPrinter::Letter` | 8.5 x 11 inches, 216 x 279 mm
`QPrinter::Tabloid` | 279 x 432 mm
`QPrinter::Custom` | With setFullPage(FALSE) (the default), the metrics will be a bit smaller; how much depends on the printer in use.

### enum QPrinter::PaperSource

This enum type specifies what paper source QPrinter is to use. QPrinter does not check that the paper source is available; it just uses this information to try and set the paper source. Whether it will set the paper source depends on whether the printer has that particular source.

Warning: This is currently only implemented for Windows.

`QPrinter::OnlyOne` |
`QPrinter::Lower` |
`QPrinter::Middle` |
`QPrinter::Manual` |
`QPrinter::Envelope` |
`QPrinter::EnvelopeManual` |
`QPrinter::Auto` |
`QPrinter::Tractor` |
`QPrinter::SmallFormat` |
`QPrinter::LargeFormat` |
`QPrinter::LargeCapacity` |
`QPrinter::Cassette` |
`QPrinter::FormSource` |

### enum QPrinter::PrinterMode

This enum describes the mode the printer should work in. It basically presets a certain resolution and working mode.

`QPrinter::ScreenResolution`

Sets the resolution of the print device to the screen resolution. This has the big advantage that the results obtained when painting on the printer will match more or less exactly the visible output on the screen. It is the easiest to use, as font metrics on the screen and on the printer are the same. This is the default value. ScreenResolution will produce a lower quality output than HighResolution and should only be used for drafts.

`QPrinter::PrinterResolution` | This value is deprecated. Is is equivalent to ScreenResolution on Unix and HighResolution on Windows and Mac. Due do the difference between ScreenResolution and HighResolution, use of this value may lead to non-portable printer code.
`QPrinter::HighResolution` | Use printer resolution on Windows, and set the resolution of the Postscript driver to 600dpi.

### enum QPrinter::PrinterState

`QPrinter::Idle` |
`QPrinter::Active` |
`QPrinter::Aborted` |
`QPrinter::Error` |

## Member Function Documentation

### QPrinter::QPrinter ( PrinterMode mode = ScreenResolution )

Creates a new printer object with the given mode.

### QPrinter::~QPrinter ()

Destroys the printer object and frees any allocated resources. If the printer is destroyed while a print job is in progress this may or may not affect the print job.

### bool QPrinter::abort ()

Aborts the current print run. Returns true if the print run was successfully aborted; otherwise returns false.

It is not always possible to abort a print job. For example, if all the data has gone to the printer but the printer cannot or will not cancel the job when asked to.

### ColorMode QPrinter::colorMode () const

Returns the current color mode. The default color mode is `GrayScale`.

See also setColorMode().

### QString QPrinter::creator () const

Returns the name of the application that created the document.

See also setCreator().

### QString QPrinter::docName () const

Returns the document name.

See also setDocName().

### bool QPrinter::fullPage () const

Returns true if the origin of the printer's coordinate system is at the corner of the page and false if it is at the edge of the printable area.

See setFullPage() for details and caveats.

See also setFullPage(), PageSize, and QPaintDeviceMetrics.

### bool QPrinter::newPage ()

Tells the printer to eject the current page and to continue printing on a new page. Returns true if this was successful; otherwise returns false.

### int QPrinter::numCopies () const

Returns the number of copies to be printed. The default value is 1.

After a call to setup(), this value will return the number of times the application is required to print in order to match the number specified in the printer setup dialog. This has been done since some printer drivers are not capable of buffering up the copies and in those cases the application must make an explicit call to the print code for each copy.

See also setNumCopies().

### Orientation QPrinter::orientation () const

Returns the orientation setting. The default value is `QPrinter::Portrait`.

See also setOrientation().

### QString QPrinter::outputFileName () const

Returns the name of the output file. There is no default file name.

See also setOutputFileName() and setOutputToFile().

### bool QPrinter::outputToFile () const

Returns true if the output should be written to a file, or false if the output should be sent directly to the printer. The default setting is false.

Warning: This function is currently only supported under X11.

See also setOutputToFile() and setOutputFileName().

### PageOrder QPrinter::pageOrder () const

Returns the current page order.

The default page order is `FirstPageFirst`.

### QRect QPrinter::pageRect () const

Returns the page's rectangle; this is usually smaller than the paperRect() since the page normally has margins between its borders and the paper.

See also pageSize() and setPageRect().

### PageSize QPrinter::pageSize () const

Returns the printer page size. The default value is system-dependent.

See also setPageSize(), pageRect(), and paperRect().

### QPaintEngine * QPrinter::paintEngine () const `[virtual]`

Returns the paint engine used by the printer.

Reimplemented from QPaintDevice.

### QRect QPrinter::paperRect () const

Returns the paper's rectangle; this is usually larger than the pageRect().

See also setPaperRect() and setPageSize().

### PaperSource QPrinter::paperSource () const

Returns the printer's paper source. This is `Manual` or a printer tray or paper cassette.

### QString QPrinter::printProgram () const

Returns the name of the program that sends the print output to the printer.

The default is to return a null string; meaning that QPrinter will try to be smart in a system-dependent way. On X11 only, you can set it to something different to use a specific print program. On Windows, this function returns the name of the printer device driver.

See also setPrintProgram() and setPrinterSelectionOption().

### QString QPrinter::printerName () const

Returns the printer name. This value is initially set to the name of the default printer.

See also setPrinterName().

### QString QPrinter::printerSelectionOption () const

Returns the printer options selection string. This is only useful if the print command has been explicitly set.

The default is an empty string which signifies that the printer should be selected in a system-dependent manner.

Any other value implies that the given value should be used.

See also setPrinterSelectionOption().

### PrinterState QPrinter::printerState () const

Returns the current state of the printer. This may not always be accurate (for example if the printer doesn't have the capability of reporting its state to the operating system).

### int QPrinter::resolution () const

Returns the current assumed resolution of the printer, as set by setResolution() or by the printer subsystem.

See also setResolution().

### void QPrinter::setColorMode ( ColorMode newColorMode )

Sets the printer's color mode to newColorMode, which can be either `Color` or `GrayScale` (the default).

See also colorMode().

### void QPrinter::setCreator ( const QString & creator )

Sets the name of the application that created the document to creator.

This function is only applicable to the X11 version of Qt. If no creator name is specified, the creator will be set to "Qt" followed by some version number.

See also creator().

### void QPrinter::setDocName ( const QString & name )

Sets the document name to name.

### void QPrinter::setFullPage ( bool fp )

Sets QPrinter to have the origin of the coordinate system at the top-left corner of the paper if fp is TRUE, or where it thinks the top-left corner of the printable area is if fp is false.

The default is false. You can (probably) print on (0,0), and QPaintDeviceMetrics will report something smaller than the size indicated by PageSize. (Note that QPrinter may be wrong on Unix systems: it does not have perfect knowledge of the physical printer.)

If fp is true, QPaintDeviceMetrics will report the exact same size as indicated by `PageSize`. It probably isn't possible to print on the entire page because of the printer's physical margins, so the application must account for the margins itself.

See also PageSize, setPageSize(), QPaintDeviceMetrics, and fullPage().

### void QPrinter::setNumCopies ( int numCopies )

Sets the number of copies to be printed to numCopies.

The printer driver reads this setting and prints the specified number of copies.

See also numCopies().

### void QPrinter::setOrientation ( Orientation orientation )

Sets the print orientation to orientation.

The orientation can be either `QPrinter::Portrait` or `QPrinter::Landscape`.

The printer driver reads this setting and prints using the specified orientation. On Windows this setting won't take effect until the printer dialog is shown (using QPrintDialog).

Windows only: This option can be changed while printing and will take effect from the next call to newPage().

See also orientation().

### void QPrinter::setOutputFileName ( const QString & fileName )

Sets the name of the output file to fileName.

Setting a null or empty name (0 or "") disables output to a file, i.e. calls setOutputToFile(FALSE). Setting a non-empty name enables output to a file, i.e. calls setOutputToFile(TRUE).

Warning: This function is currently only supported under X11.

See also outputFileName() and setOutputToFile().

### void QPrinter::setOutputToFile ( bool enable )

Specifies whether the output should be written to a file or sent directly to the printer.

Will output to a file if enable is true, or will output directly to the printer if enable is false.

Warning: This function is currently only supported under X11.

See also outputToFile() and setOutputFileName().

### void QPrinter::setPageOrder ( PageOrder pageOrder )

Sets the page order to pageOrder.

The page order can be `QPrinter::FirstPageFirst` or `QPrinter::LastPageFirst`. The application is responsible for reading the page order and printing accordingly.

This function is mostly useful for setting a default value that the user can override in the print dialog when you call setup().

### void QPrinter::setPageRect ( const QRect & pageRect )

Sets the page rectangle to pageRect. This should normally be smaller than the paperRect() since most printers cannot print right to the edge on every side.

See also setPageSize() and pageRect().

### void QPrinter::setPageSize ( PageSize newPageSize )

Sets the printer page size to newPageSize if that size is supported. The result if undefined if newPageSize is not supported.

The default page size is system-dependent.

This function is useful mostly for setting a default value that the user can override in the print dialog when you call setup().

See also pageSize(), PageSize, setFullPage(), setResolution(), pageRect(), and paperRect().

### void QPrinter::setPaperRect ( const QRect & paperRect )

Sets the paper's rectangle to paperRect. It is usually best to use setPageSize() to set a standard paper size.

See also pageSize() and paperRect().

### void QPrinter::setPaperSource ( PaperSource source )

Sets the paper source setting to source.

Windows only: This option can be changed while printing and will take effect from the next call to newPage()

See also paperSource().

### void QPrinter::setPrintProgram ( const QString & printProg )

Sets the name of the program that should do the print job to printProg.

On X11, this function sets the program to call with the PostScript output. On other platforms, it has no effect.

See also printProgram().

### void QPrinter::setPrinterName ( const QString & name )

Sets the printer name to name.

See also printerName().

### void QPrinter::setPrinterSelectionOption ( const QString & option )

Sets the printer to use option to select the printer. option is an empty string by default (which implies that Qt should be smart enough to guess correctly), but it can be set to other values to use a specific printer selection option.

If the printer selection option is changed while the printer is active, the current print job may or may not be affected.

See also printerSelectionOption().

### void QPrinter::setResolution ( int dpi )

Requests that the printer prints at dpi or as near to dpi as possible.

This setting affects the coordinate system as returned by, for example, QPaintDeviceMetrics and QPainter::viewport().

The value depends on the `PrintingMode` used in the QPrinter constructor. By default, the the screen's dpi value is used.

This function must be called before setup() to have an effect on all platforms.

See also resolution() and setPageSize().

### void QPrinter::setWinPageSize ( short pageSize )

Sets the page size to be used by the printer under Windows to pageSize.

Warning: This function is not portable so you may prefer to use setPageSize() instead.

See also winPageSize().

### QList<int> QPrinter::supportedResolutions () const

Returns a list of the resolutions (a list of dots-per-inch integers) that the printer says it supports.

For X11 where all printing is directly to postscript, this function will always return a one item list containing only the postscript resolution, i.e., 72 (72 dpi -- but see `PrinterMode`).

### short QPrinter::winPageSize () const

Returns the page size used by the printer under Windows.

Warning: This function is not portable so you may prefer to use pageSize() instead.

See also setWinPageSize().