VB.Net - PrintDialog Control

The PrintDialog control lets the user to print documents by selecting a printer and choosing which sections of the document to print from a Windows Forms application.

There are various other controls related to printing of documents. Let us have a brief look at these controls and their purpose. These other controls are −

  • The PrintDocument control − it provides support for actual events and operations of printing in Visual Basic and sets the properties for printing.

  • The PrinterSettings control − it is used to configure how a document is printed by specifying the printer.

  • The PageSetUpDialog control − it allows the user to specify page-related print settings including page orientation, paper size and margin size.

  • The PrintPreviewControl control − it represents the raw preview part of print previewing from a Windows Forms application, without any dialog boxes or buttons.

  • The PrintPreviewDialog control − it represents a dialog box form that contains a PrintPreviewControl for printing from a Windows Forms application.

Following is the Print dialog box −

VB.Net Print Dialog Box

Properties of the PrintDialog Control

The following are some of the commonly used properties of the PrintDialog control −

Sr.No. Property & Description
1

AllowCurrentPage

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Current Page option button is displayed.

2

AllowPrintToFile

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Print to file check box is enabled.
3

AllowSelection

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Selection option button is enabled.

4

AllowSomePages

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Pages option button is enabled.
5

Document

Gets or sets a value indicating the PrintDocument used to obtain PrinterSettings.
6

PrinterSettings

Gets or sets the printer settings the dialog box modifies.
7

PrintToFile

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Print to file check box is selected.
8

ShowHelp

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Help button is displayed.
9

ShowNetwork

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the Network button is displayed.

Methods of the PrintDialog Control

The following are some of the commonly used methods of the PrintDialog control −

Sr.No. Method Name & Description
1

Reset

Resets all options to their default values.
2

RunDialog

When overridden in a derived class, specifies a common dialog box.
3

ShowDialog

Runs a common dialog box with a default owner.

Example

In this example, let us see how to show a Print dialog box in a form. Take the following steps −

  • Add a PrintDocument control, a PrintDialog control and a Button control on the form. The PrintDocument and the PrintDialog controls are found on the Print category of the controls toolbox.

  • Change the text of the button to 'Print'.

  • Double-click the Print button and modify the code of the Click event as shown −

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
   PrintDialog1.Document = PrintDocument1
   PrintDialog1.PrinterSettings = PrintDocument1.PrinterSettings
   PrintDialog1.AllowSomePages = True
   
   If PrintDialog1.ShowDialog = DialogResult.OK Then
      PrintDocument1.PrinterSettings = PrintDialog1.PrinterSettings
      PrintDocument1.Print()
   End If
End Sub

When the application is compiled and run using Start button available at the Microsoft Visual Studio tool bar, it will show the following window −

VB.Net Print Dialog Example

Click the Print button to make the Print dialog box appear.

vb.net_dialog_boxes.htm
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