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QPrinter Class Reference


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

#include <qprinter.h>

Inherits QPaintDevice.

List of all member functions.

Public Members

Protected Members

Detailed Description

The QPrinter class is a paint device that prints graphics on a printer.

All window systems that Qt supports, except X11, have built-in printer drivers. For X11, Qt provides PostScript (tm) printing.

Drawing graphics on a printer is almost identical to drawing graphics in a widget or a pixmap. The only difference is that the programmer must think about dividing the document into pages and handling abort commands.

The default coordinate system of a printer is a 72 dpi (dots per inch) system with (0,0) at the upper left corner, with increasing values to the right and downwards. This causes printer output to be roughly the same size as screen output on most screens. You can easily change the coordinate system using QPainter::setViewport(). QPainter::setWindow() and/or QPainter::setWorldMatrix().

The newPage() function should be called to finish the current page and start printing a new page.

If the user decides to abort printing, aborted() will return TRUE. The QPrinter class handles abortion automatically, but the programmer should from time to time check the aborted() flag and stop painting if the print job has been aborted.

Example (a complete application): 

    #include <qapplication.h>
    #include <qpainter.h>
    #include <qprinter.h>
    #include <qprintdialog.h>

    int main( int argc, char **argv )
    {
        QApplication a( argc, argv );

        QPrinter prt;
        if ( prt.setup() ) {
            QPainter p;
            p.begin( &prt );
            p.rotate( 55 );
            p.setFont( QFont("times", 144, QFont::Bold) );
            p.drawText( 80,30, "Hello, world!" );
            p.end();
        }
        return 0;
    }

Examples: drawdemo/drawdemo.cpp application/application.cpp

Member Function Documentation

QPrinter::QPrinter ()

Constructs a printer paint device.

QPrinter::~QPrinter ()

Destroys the printer paint device and cleans up.

bool QPrinter::abort ()

Aborts the print job. Returns TRUE if successful, otherwise FALSE.

See also: aborted().

bool QPrinter::aborted () const

Returns TRUE is the printer job was aborted, otherwise FALSE.

See also: abort().

bool QPrinter::cmd ( int c, QPainter * paint, QPDevCmdParam * p ) [virtual protected]

For internal use only.

Reimplemented from QPaintDevice.

QPrinter::ColorMode QPrinter::colorMode() const

Returns the current color mode. The default color more is Color.

See also: setColorMode().

const char * QPrinter::creator () const

Returns the creator name.

See also: setCreator().

const char * QPrinter::docName () const

Returns the document name.

See also: setDocName().

int QPrinter::fromPage () const

Returns the from-page setting. The default value is 0.

The programmer is responsible for reading this setting and print accordingly.

See also: setFromTo() and toPage().

int QPrinter::maxPage () const

Returns the max-page setting. The default value is 0.

See also: minPage() and setMinMax().

int QPrinter::metric ( int m ) const [virtual protected]

Internal implementation of the virtual QPaintDevice::metric() function.

Use the QPaintDeviceMetrics class instead.

Reimplemented from QPaintDevice.

int QPrinter::minPage () const

Returns the min-page setting. The default value is 0.

See also: maxPage() and setMinMax().

bool QPrinter::newPage ()

Advances to a new page on the printer. Returns TRUE if successful, otherwise FALSE.

int QPrinter::numCopies () const

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

See also: setNumCopies().

Orientation QPrinter::orientation () const

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

See also: setOrientation().

const char * 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.

This function is currently only supported under X11.

See also: setOutputToFile() and setOutputFileName().

QPrinter::PageOrder QPrinter::pageOrder() const

Returns the current page order.

The default page order is FirstPageFirst.

PageSize QPrinter::pageSize () const

Returns the printer page size. The default value is QPrinter::A4.

See also: setPageSize().

const char * QPrinter::printProgram () const

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

The default print program is "lpr" under X11. This function returns 0 for all other window systems.

See also: setPrintProgram().

const char * QPrinter::printerName () const

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

See also: setPrinterName().

void QPrinter::setColorMode ( ColorMode newColorMode )

Sets the printer's color mode to newColorMode, which can be one of Color (the default) and GrayScale.

A future version of Qt will modify its printing accordingly. At present, QPrinter behaves as if Color is selected.

See also: colorMode().

void QPrinter::setCreator ( const char * creator )

Sets the creator name.

Calling this function only has effect for the X11 version of Qt. The creator name is the name of the application that created the document. If no creator name is specified, then the creator will be set to "Qt".

See also: creator().

void QPrinter::setDocName ( const char * name )

Sets the document name.

void QPrinter::setFromTo ( int fromPage, int toPage )

Sets the from page and to page.

The from-page and to-page settings specify what pages to print.

See also: fromPage(), toPage(), setMinMax() and setup().

void QPrinter::setMinMax ( int minPage, int maxPage )

Sets the min page and max page.

The min-page and max-page restrict the from-page and to-page settings. When the printer setup dialog comes up, the user cannot select from and to that are outsize the range specified by min and max pages.

See also: minPage(), maxPage(), setFromTo() and setup().

void QPrinter::setNumCopies ( int numCopies )

Sets the number of pages to be printed.

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

See also: numCopies() and setup().

void QPrinter::setOrientation ( Orientation orientation )

Sets the print orientation.

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

The printer driver reads this setting and prints using the specified orientation.

See also: orientation().

void QPrinter::setOutputFileName ( const char * fileName )

Sets the name of the output file.

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

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.

This function is currently only supported under X11.

See also: outputToFile() and setOutputFileName().

void QPrinter::setPageOrder ( PageOrder newPageOrder )

Sets the page order to newPageOrder.

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

void QPrinter::setPageSize ( PageSize newPageSize )

Sets the printer page size to newPageSize.

The page size can be one of

See also: pageSize().

void QPrinter::setPrintProgram ( const char * printProg )

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

If an output file has been defined, the printer driver will print to the output file instead of directly to the printer.

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 char * name )

Sets the printer name.

The default printer will be used if no printer name is set.

Under X11, the PRINTER environment variable defines the default printer. Under any other window system, the window system defines the default printer.

See also: printerName().

bool QPrinter::setup ( QWidget * parent = 0 )

Opens a printer setup dialog and asks the user to specify what printer to use and miscellaneous printer settings.

Returns TRUE if the user pressed "Ok" to print, or FALSE if the user cancelled the operation.

Examples: drawdemo/drawdemo.cpp

int QPrinter::toPage () const

Returns the to-page setting. The default value is 0.

The programmer is responsible for reading this setting and print accordingly.

See also: setFromTo() and fromPage().

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