Print Using the Windows Fax and Picture Preview

Introduction

I often admired the Windows Print and Fax Viewer for printing images. I often would ignore the individual application's print facilities and go to the Windows Print and Fax Viewer for printing images. If you want to add an excellent print facility to your project, the following code will do that:

'------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'PREVIEW AND PRINTING A BITMAP 
'______________________________________________________________________________

Private Sub PrintPreviewToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
        ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles PrintPreviewToolStripMenuItem.Click

    ' create unique file in directory so load Print and Fax is minimized
    ' This project has a directory reserved for preview,
    ' this avoids loading multiple previews which causes delay

    ' a file is required so a preliminary save of bitmap
    ' is made which isnt a bad preprint philosophy
    bm.Save(D2007DirDefault & "\prj\PrintScratch\PrintPreview.bmp")

    Dim procid
    procid = Shell("rundll32.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\shimgvw.dll," & _ 
                   "ImageView_Fullscreen " & _
                   D2007DirDefault & "\prj\PrintScratch\PrintPreview.bmp")

End Sub

'----------------------------------------------------------
'Previewing a predetermined directory
'____________________________________________________

Private Sub PreviewDesignsWindowsPictureAndFaxViewerToolStripMenuItem_Click(_
        ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
        Handles PreviewDesignsWindowsPictureAndFaxViewerToolStripMenuItem.Click
    Dim procid
    procid = Shell("rundll32.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\shimgvw.dll," & _
                   "ImageView_Fullscreen " & _
                   SObj.DP.designs ' directory with images)
End Sub

'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Previewing a user selected Directory
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Private Sub SelectDirectoryToPreviewWindowPictureAndFaxViewerToolStripMenuItem_Click(ByVal _
        sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
        SelectDirectoryToPreviewWindowPictureAndFaxViewerToolStripMenuItem.Click
    Dim newfile As String
    Me.FolderBrowserDialog1.ShowNewFolderButton = False
    Me.FolderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath = "C:\"
    If Me.FolderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog() <> DialogResult.OK Then Exit Sub
    newfile = Me.FolderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath
    Dim procid
    procid = Shell("rundll32.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\shimgvw.dll," & _ 
                   "ImageView_Fullscreen " & newfile)
End Sub

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)