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pod::Prima::Printer(3) |
User Contributed Perl Documentation |
pod::Prima::Printer(3) |
Prima::Printer - system printing services
my $printer = $::application-> get_printer;
print "printing to ", $printer->printer, "...\n";
$p-> options( Orientation => 'Landscape', PaperSize => 'A4');
if ( $p-> begin_doc) {
$p-> bar( 0, 0, 100, 100);
print "another page...\n";
$p-> new_page or die "new_page:$@";
$p-> ellipse( 100, 100, 200, 200);
(time % 1) ? # depending on the moon phase, print it or cancel out
$p-> end_doc :
$p-> abort_doc;
} else {
print "failed:$@\n";
}
Prima::Printer is a descendant of Prima::Drawable class. It
provides access to the system printing services, where available. If the
system provides no graphics printing, the default PostScript (tm) interface
module Prima::PS::Printer is used instead.
Prima::Printer objects are never created directly. During the life of a
program, there exists only one instance of a printer object, created
automatically by Prima::Application. Prima::Printer object is
created only when the system provides graphic printing capabilities - drawing
and painting procedures on a graphic device. If there are no such API,
Prima::Application creates an instance of Prima::PS::Printer
instead, which emulates a graphic device, producing PostScript output. The
discretion between Prima::Printer and Prima::PS::Printer is
transparent for both the user and the programmer, unless printer device
specific adjustments desired.
A printing session is started by
"begin_doc()", which switches the object
into the painting state. If finished by
"end_doc()", the document is delivered to
a printer device. Alternative finishing method,
"abort_doc()", terminates the printing
session with no information printed, unless the document is multi-paged and
pages were sent to the printer via
"new_page()".
A printer object ( that means, both Prima::Printer and
Prima::PS::Printer ) provides selection of the printer mechanism.
"printers()" method returns array of
hashes, each describing a printer device;
"get_default_printer()" returns a default
printer string identifier. A printer device can be selected via the
"::printer" property.
The capabilities of the selected printer can be adjusted via
"setup_dialog()" method, that invokes a
system-provided ( or, in case of Prima::PS::Printer, toolkit-provided
) printer setup dialog, so the user can adjust settings of a printer device.
It depends on the system, whether the setup changes only the instance
settings, or the default behavior of a printer driver is affected for all
programs.
Some printer capabilities can be queried by the
"::size()" property, that reports the
dimension of the page, the
"::resolution()" property, that reports
the DPI resolution selected by a printer driver and font list ( by
"fonts()" method ), available for
usage.
Typical code that prints the document looks like
my $p = $::application-> get_printer;
if ( $p-> begin_doc) {
... draw ...
$p-> end_doc;
} else {
print "failed:$@\n";
}
In addition, a standard package Prima::Dialog::PrintDialog
can be recommended so the user can select a printer device and adjust its
setup interactively.
- printer STRING
- Selects a printer device, specified by its STRING identifier. Can not
select a device if a printing session is started.
- resolution X, Y
- A read-only property; returns a DPI horizontal and vertical resolution,
currently selected for a printer device. The user can change this, if the
printer device supports several resolutions, inside
"setup_dialog()".
- size WIDTH, HEIGHT
- A read-only property; returns dimensions of a printer device page. The
user can change this, if the printer device supports several resolutions
or page formats, inside
"setup_dialog()".
- abort_doc
- Stops the printing session, returns the object to the disabled painting
state. Since the document can be passed to the system spooler, parts of it
could have been sent to a printing device when
"abort_doc()" is called, so some
information could still been printed.
- begin_doc DOCUMENT_NAME = ""
- Initiates the printing session, and triggers the object into the enabled
painting state. The document is assigned DOCUMENT_NAME string identifier.
Returns success flag; if failed, $@
contains the error.
- begin_paint
- Identical to "begin_doc("")"
call.
- begin_paint_info
- Triggers the object into the information painting state. In this state,
all graphic functions can be accessed, but no data is printed. Neither
"new_page()" and
"abort_doc()" methods work. The
information mode is exited via
"end_paint_info()" method.
- end_doc
- Quits the printing session and delivers the document to a printer device.
Does not report eventual errors, occurred during the spooling process -
the system is expected to take care about such situations.
- end_paint
- Identical to "abort_doc()".
- end_paint_info
- Quits the information painting mode, initiated by
"begin_paint_info()" and returns the
object into the disabled painting state.
- font_encodings
- Returns array of encodings, represented by strings, that are recognized by
the system and available in at least one font. Each system provides
different sets of encoding strings; the font encodings are not
portable.
- fonts NAME = '', ENCODING = ''
- Returns hash of font hashes ( see Prima::Drawable, Fonts section )
describing fonts of NAME font family and of ENCODING. If NAME is '' or
"undef", returns one fonts hash for each
of the font families that match the ENCODING string. If ENCODING is '' or
"undef", no encoding match is performed.
If ENCODING is not valid ( not present in
"font_encodings" result), it is treated
as if it was '' or "undef".
In the special case, when both NAME and ENCODING are '' or
"undef", each font metric hash
contains element "encodings", that
points to array of the font encodings, available for the fonts of NAME
font family.
- new_page
- Finalizes the current page and starts a new blank page.
Returns success flag; if failed, $@
contains the error.
- options [ OPTION, [ VALUE, [ ... ]]]
- Queries and sets printer-specific setup options, such as orientation,
paper size, etc. If called without parameters, returns list of options the
printer supports. If called with one parameter, treats is as the option
name and return the corresponsing value. Otherwise, treats parameters as a
list of key-value pairs, and sets the printer options. Returns number of
options that were successfully set.
The compatibility between options and values used by different
OSes is low here. The only fully compatible options are
"Orientation"["Portrait|Landscape"],
"Color"["Color|Monochrome"],
"Copies"["integer"],
and
"PaperSize"["Ainteger|Binteger|Executive|Folio|Ledger|Legal|Letter|Tabloid"].
The other options are OS-dependant. For win32, consult Microsoft manual
on DEVMODE structure
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/gdi/prntspol_8nle.asp>;
for Prima's own PostScript printer, consult Prima::PS::Printer.
- printers
- Returns array of hashes, where each entry describes a printer device. The
hash consists of the following entries:
- name
- A printer device name
- device
- A physical device name, that the printer is connected to
- defaultPrinter
- A boolean flag, 1 if the printer is default, 0 otherwise.
- setup_dialog
- Invokes the system-provided printer device setup dialog. In this setup,
the user can adjust the capabilities of the printer, such as page setup,
resolution, color, etc etc.
- get_default_printer
- Returns a string, identifying a default printer device.
- get_handle
- Returns a system handle for a printer object.
Dmitry Karasik, <dmitry@karasik.eu.org>.
Prima, Prima::Drawable, Prima::PS::Printer
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