Dot Matrix Printing with Quickreport on Pre printed stationery

You might find it easier to using raw printing, i.e. sending data directly to the printer. In my experience it can be very difficult to get things lined up, especially if you have many fields that need to be aligned.

I use a unit with the following functions

(I am sorry but cant remember where I got the code from origimally - so apologies to author)

unit printraw;

interface

uses
  WinTypes, sysutils, dialogs;

 type SpoolInt = DWORD;

function StartRawPrintJob(PrinterName : pChar;
                          Port : pChar;
                          DocName : pChar) : THandle;

function StartRawPrintPage(hPrn : THandle) : integer;

function PrintRawData(hPrn : THandle;
                      Buffer : pointer;
                      NumBytes : SpoolInt) : integer;

function EndRawPrintPage(hPrn : THandle) : integer;

function EndRawPrintJob(hPrn : THandle) : integer;


implementation
 uses
   WinProcs,
 WinSpool;


function StartRawPrintJob(PrinterName : pChar;
                          Port : pChar;
                          DocName : pChar) : THandle;
 var
   hPrn : THandle;
   DocInfo1 : TDocInfo1;
   msg: string;
begin
   if (OpenPrinter(PChar(PrinterName),
                   hPrn,
                   nil) = FALSE)  then begin
     Result := THandle(-1);
            Msg := SysErrorMessage(GetLastError);
            MessageBox(0, pChar(Msg), 'Error', mb_OK);
     Exit;
   end;
   DocInfo1.pDocName := DocName;
   DocInfo1.pOutputFile := Port;
   DocInfo1.pDataType := 'RAW';
   if (StartDocPrinter(hPrn,
                       1,
                       @DocInfo1) = 0) then begin
     Result := THandle(-1);
            Msg := SysErrorMessage(GetLastError);
            MessageBox(0, pChar(Msg), 'Error', mb_OK);
     exit;
   end;
   Result := hPrn;
end;

function StartRawPrintPage(hPrn : THandle) : integer;
var
      msg: string;
begin
   if (StartPagePrinter(hPrn) = FALSE) then begin
     Result := -1;
            Msg := SysErrorMessage(GetLastError);
            MessageBox(0, pChar(Msg), 'Error', mb_OK);
     exit;
   end;
   result := 1;
end;


function PrintRawData(hPrn : THandle;
                      Buffer : pointer;
                      NumBytes : SpoolInt) : integer;
var
  BytesWritten : DWORD;
  msg: string;
begin
  if (NumBytes = 0) then begin
    Result := 1;
    exit;
  end;
   if (WritePrinter(hPrn,
                    Buffer,
                    NumBytes,
                    BytesWritten) = FALSE) then begin
     Result := -1;
            Msg := SysErrorMessage(GetLastError);
            MessageBox(0, pChar(Msg), 'Error', mb_OK);
     exit;
   end;
   if (NumBytes <> BytesWritten) then begin
     Result := -1;
     exit;
   end;
   Result := 1;
end;


function EndRawPrintPage(hPrn : THandle) : integer;
var
      msg: string;
begin
   if (EndPagePrinter(hPrn) = FALSE) then begin
     Result := -1;
            Msg := SysErrorMessage(GetLastError);
            MessageBox(0, pChar(Msg), 'Error', mb_OK);
     exit;
   end;
   Result := 1;
end;


function EndRawPrintJob(hPrn : THandle) : integer;
var
      msg: string;
begin
   if (EndDocPrinter(hPrn) = FALSE) then begin
     Result := -1;
            Msg := SysErrorMessage(GetLastError);
            MessageBox(0, pChar(Msg), 'Error', mb_OK);
     exit;
   end;
   if (ClosePrinter(hPrn) = FALSE) then begin
     Result := -1;
            Msg := SysErrorMessage(GetLastError);
            MessageBox(0, pChar(Msg), 'Error', mb_OK);
     exit;
   end;
   Result := 1;
end;


end.

 

then you just right our raw data to the printer, treating it as a dos printer