Printing - Imageable Area, Printer Margins, etc.

Use the document attribute javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaPrintableArea.

This link gives a nice explanation of why they're not equal:
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2000/jw-1020-print.html


I'm looking at the api docs for the MediaPrintableArea now...

Have you used this before?  I'm not really sure how to use it...  It does appear to be what I'm looking for...

No haven't used it, looks like you you specify it's value in the attribute set.

>>This link gives a nice explanation of why they're not equal:

Yes - i'm not suggesting that they're *logically* equivalent, hence my use of the word 'effectively'. It's just that i'd be agreeably surprised [please let me know if i'm wrong]if these metrics can be queried accurately and reliably by Java and therefore you might take a route of less resistance.

whats the definition of 'effectively' equivalent :)

> [please let me know if i'm wrong]

That usually just ends in a lond winded circular discussion :)

My suggestion was merely getting at using one tangible-sounding property to stand for others that are far more dubious.

Forgive me if I sound sceptical ShawnCurry, but it's only comparatively recently I've seen Word/Windoze able to print labels properly so I'm a little less than 100% confident when I see diagrams dissecting margin subsets in Java articles.

>>

> [please let me know if i'm wrong]

That usually just ends in a lond winded circular discussion :)

>>

I'd be quite happy with a demo - no discussion necessary.

This is really frustrating.  I haven't tried the MediaPrintableArea yet.  I did run some tests on the setImageableArea(...) method for the Paper and PageFormat objects, now using a second printer..  Also tried the pageDialog() method.  Somehow, despite *appearing* to have something to do with the imageable area of the page, sadly they seem to have nothing to do with it.  It prints a perfect 1 inch margin every time, across 2 different printers so far..  I have 2 more printers I could hook up, but I'm sure I'll find the exact same thing.

The printer I'm trying now is a Canon i450 inkjet.  This printer (according to the manual) is capable of printing edge to edge - no margins at all !!

Guess I'll do some diving into that MediaPrintableArea; although I can't find where it connects to.

I really want to do this..  I don't know how to do anything in MFC.  I thought it would be a quick little 2 week project with my GUI engine and all.  I'm 100% confident it's in there somewhere - Sun seems to be able to get perfect 1 inch margins across different printers.

Hmm...  Think I might have to boot into Linux and test this again..

Ah well, when I do find the solution I'll post some snippets.

> although I can't find where it connects to.

depends how you are printing, eg. you can pass it to the print() method of PrinterJob.

I knew I could get it to work!!!  There were actually 2 ways to do it:

1. Set the PageFormat when you invoke setPrintable()   (doesn't work if you do it anywhere else)
2. Set the PrintRequestAttributes when you invoke print()   (MediaPrintableArea(thanks))

I did come across a really annoying bug with the PrintService, however; although I'm not sure who's bug it is.

I'm working on a helper class (PrinterConstraints) in which I intend to query for the *maximum* ImageableArea of media x for printer y, so I can adjust my margins accordingly.  So, I'm querying the PrintService for this data.  I would like to store the MediaSizeName, but it seems you can't get this value from the map - you have to call getSupportedAttributeCategories() on the PrintService, and search the array for it.  You can pull the rest of them out just fine, however..  Also, it seems the final PrintRequestAttribute doesn't have a Class.  It appears that  when it's placed in the array, it's not null, but if you invoke getClass() on it, it returns null !!!

I'm running WinXP Pro, an Epson i450 inkjet, and J2SE 1.4.1_01.
I also have RedHat 9 with 1.4.2_02 and a couple old printers;  I'll test these and post the results.
If you have another setup, I would be interested in finding out whether it's the printer or the OS (or Sun)

java.awt.print.PrinterJob printJob = java.awt.print.PrinterJob.getPrinterJob();
javax.print.PrintService ps = printJob.getPrintService();
Class[] attrs = ps.getSupportedAttributeCategories();
System.out.println( "Attribute Categories" );
for( int i = 0; i < attrs.length; i++ )
{
      if( attrs[i] != null ) {
            System.out.println( ps.getDefaultAttributeValue( attrs[i] )  .getClass().toString() );
            System.out.println( ps.getDefaultAttributeValue(
                  attrs[i] ) );
                  //Class.forName( "javax.print.attribute.standard.PageRanges" ) ) );
                  //Class.forName( "javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaSizeName" ) ) );
                  //Class.forName( "javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaPrintableArea" ) ) );
      }
      else System.out.println( "Attribute was null" );
}
javax.print.attribute.PrintServiceAttributeSet psas = ps.getAttributes();
javax.print.attribute.Attribute[] a = psas.toArray();
System.out.println( "Attributes" );
for( int i = 0; i < a.length; i++ )
      System.out.println( a[i].getName() );


Also, when I'm done with the PrinterConstraints, I'll post that too.  (you're welcome!!)

Thanks,
Shawn

> Also, it seems the final PrintRequestAttribute doesn't have a Class

It should.

> It appears that  when it's placed in the array, it's not null, but if you invoke getClass() on it, it returns null !!!

Find that hard to believe, let me test it.

What makes u think getClass() returns null? All seems fine to me.

>> What makes u think getClass() returns null? All seems fine to me.

Well, I guess its not the getClass(), it's the getDefaultAttributeValue() that returns null.  For an instance of sun.print.SunAlternateMedia.  That's probably supposed to be that way i guess..

As for the MediaSizeName problem, I think I see what is happening..  it reports getName() as "media".  I looked it up in the source, and that's what's supposed to happen.  The source of my confusion is getDefaultAttributeValue( Class ).  The object I obtain from this is an instance of MediaSizeName - which extends Media, but does not override the getName() method.  According to the documentation, it's not supposed to.  So, you have it pass a Media class to get at that value.

Anyhow, as promised - here is my PrinterConstraints class:

import java.awt.print.PrinterJob;
import java.awt.print.PageFormat;
import java.awt.print.Paper;
import javax.print.PrintService;
import javax.print.attribute.PrintRequestAttributeSet;
import javax.print.attribute.HashPrintRequestAttributeSet;
import javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaPrintableArea;

public class PrinterConstraints
{
      private PrintService ps;
      private MediaPrintableArea mpa;
      
      public PrinterConstraints()
      {
            this( PrinterJob.getPrinterJob().getPrintService() );
      }
      
      public PrinterConstraints( PrintService ps )
      {
            this.ps = ps;
            try {
                  this.mpa = (MediaPrintableArea)ps.getDefaultAttributeValue(
                        Class.forName( "javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaPrintableArea" ) );
            } catch( ClassNotFoundException e ) { e.printStackTrace(); }
      }
      
      public PrintRequestAttributeSet getMaxImageablePRAS()
      {
          return new HashPrintRequestAttributeSet( mpa );
      }
      
      public PageFormat getMaxImageablePageFormat()
      {
            PrinterJob printJob = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob();
            PageFormat format = printJob.defaultPage();
            Paper paper = format.getPaper();
            paper.setImageableArea( 0.0, 0.0, paper.getWidth(), paper.getHeight() );
            format.setPaper( paper );
            return format;
      }
      
      public double getTopMargin( int units )
      {
            if( units == PIXELS )
                  return mpa.getY( INCH ) * PIXELS;
            return mpa.getY( units );
      }
      
      public double getLeftMargin( int units )
      {
            if( units == PIXELS )
                  return mpa.getX( INCH ) * PIXELS;
            return mpa.getX( units );
      }
      
      public void setPrintService( PrintService ps ) { this.ps = ps; }
      public void setMediaPrintableArea( MediaPrintableArea mpa ) { this.mpa = mpa; }
      public PrintService getPrintService() { return ps; }
      public MediaPrintableArea getMediaPrintableArea() { return mpa; }
      
      public final static int INCH = MediaPrintableArea.INCH;
      public final static int MM = MediaPrintableArea.MM;
      public final static int PIXELS = 72;
}

------------------------

I provided 2 methods to get the maximum ImageableArea; one yields an instance of PageFormat, which you can use in the setPrintable() method; the other yields a PrintRequestAttributeSet (actually an instance of HashPrintRequestAttributeSet) which you can use in the PrinterJob's print() method.

I provided 2 constructors, the default constructor gets the PrintService from PrinterJob.getPrinterJob().getPrintService(); the other takes a PrintService as an argument.

A MediaPrintableArea is obtained from the PrintService, and luckily it already contains the maximum ImageableArea.  Besides finding the printable area, the MediaPrintableArea is also used to find the top and bottom margins.

The getTopMargin() and getBottomMargin() methods take one of the provided constants (INCH, MM, PIXELS) as an argument and yields a double representing the printer margin in the specified units.

Feel free to use it, change it, break it, claim you wrote it yourself, I don't care.  All I ask is that if you improve it in some way, post it here..

Thanks,
Shawn

>>Feel free to use it

Thanks - i'll give it a run later ;-) Even better if we can see the label printing stuff later!

:-)

http://www.objects.com.au

I have tried your solution but i can't seem to make it work.

here is relevant code from my program, can you see what i am doing wrong?
All code is here: http://www.users.on.net/benmunday/

also a picture of the result.

Thanx
Ben

sorry, relevant code is in the file called PrintMaster.java

Ahh yeah.. sorry.. realized that the other day the getMaxImageablePageFormat() only worked the way I was using it..  It was probably shifting the whole thing up and to the left - correct?  Made some changes - It returns the right format now:

/* PrinterConstraints.java
 * Queries the default printer or a printservice for the maximum printable
 * area of a page.
 * Author: Shawn Curry
 * Date: 1/21/04
 */

import java.awt.print.PrinterJob;
import java.awt.print.PageFormat;
import java.awt.print.Paper;
import javax.print.PrintService;
import javax.print.attribute.PrintRequestAttributeSet;
import javax.print.attribute.HashPrintRequestAttributeSet;
import javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaPrintableArea;

public class PrinterConstraints
{
      private PrintService ps;
      private MediaPrintableArea mpa;
      
      public PrinterConstraints()
      {
                try {
                this( PrinterJob.getPrinterJob().getPrintService() );
                } catch( NullPointerException e ) { System.err.println("Printer not found"); }
      }
      
      public PrinterConstraints( PrintService ps )
      {
            this.ps = ps;
            try {
                  this.mpa = (MediaPrintableArea)ps.getDefaultAttributeValue(
                        Class.forName( "javax.print.attribute.standard.MediaPrintableArea" ) );
            } catch( ClassNotFoundException e ) { e.printStackTrace(); }
      }
      
      public PrintRequestAttributeSet getMaxImageablePRAS()
      {
          return new HashPrintRequestAttributeSet( mpa );
      }
      
      public PageFormat getMaxImageablePageFormat()
      {
            PrinterJob printJob = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob();
            PageFormat format = printJob.defaultPage();
            Paper paper = format.getPaper();
            paper.setImageableArea(
                  mpa.getX(INCH) * PIXELS,
                  mpa.getY(INCH) * PIXELS,
                  mpa.getWidth(INCH) * PIXELS,
                  mpa.getHeight(INCH) * PIXELS);
            //paper.setImageableArea( 0.0, 0.0, paper.getWidth(), paper.getHeight() );
            format.setPaper( paper );
            return format;
      }
      
      public double getTopMargin( int units )
      {
            if( units == PIXELS )
                  return mpa.getY( INCH ) * PIXELS;
            return mpa.getY( units );
      }
      
      public double getLeftMargin( int units )
      {
            if( units == PIXELS )
                  return mpa.getX( INCH ) * PIXELS;
            return mpa.getX( units );
      }
      
      public void setPrintService( PrintService ps ) { this.ps = ps; }
      public void setMediaPrintableArea( MediaPrintableArea mpa ) { this.mpa = mpa; }
      public PrintService getPrintService() { return ps; }
      public MediaPrintableArea getMediaPrintableArea() { return mpa; }
      
      public final static int INCH = MediaPrintableArea.INCH;
      public final static int MM = MediaPrintableArea.MM;
      public final static int PIXELS = 72;
}

Also, a NullPointerException was thrown if it didn't find a printer (when you use the default constructor).

How can i transform the scale of a TextLayout object to fit the avaliable printing area?
this is what i've got, it doesn't print anything on the page at all...

private AffineTransform at = new AffineTransform();
String testString = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
Font myFont = new Font("Times",Font.BOLD,20);
g2.setFont(myFont);
FontMetrics fm = g2.getFontMetrics();

AffineTransform saveXform = g2.getTransform();
TextLayout textTl = new TextLayout(testString, myFont, new FontRenderContext(null, false, false));
AffineTransform scaleWidth = new AffineTransform();
scaleWidth.concatenate(at);

double db = fm.stringWidth(testString);
      if( db > width)
      {
          double scale = (width/db);
          scaleWidth.setToScale(scale, scale);
          g2.transform(scaleWidth);
          textTl.draw(g2, imagePosX, imagePosY+(fm.getAscent()));
      }
      else
      {
          g2.drawString(testString, imagePosX, imagePosY+(fm.getAscent()));
      }


Hope you guy's have some insights...

Thanx
Ben