Creating a Print Preview facility for an app

[Stretchwickster]

Hi Everyone!

I am considering adding a Print Preview facility to an application I am working on. I have not done this before in the past, so would appreciate pointers on the way to go about it.

I assume that the general approach would be to draw whatever is to be printed on a TCanvas and then display that canvas. Am I thinking along the right lines?

In the past, I have found that when printing, what you see is not always what you get. How straightforward is it to ensure that what appears in the print preview is an accurate reflection of what will actually be printed?

In your opinion, would it be better to purchase a Print Preview component (please let me know if you've stumbled across any good ones) or to write my own? Are there going to be potential complications which will mean a fairly lengthy development time for what is a fairly small part of an application?

Your advice/pointers/experiences/opinions would be very much appreciated!

Clive
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"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer."
Paul Ehrlich
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To get the best answers from this forum see: faq102-5096

 

[earthandfire]

Last time I did something like that in Delphi, I cheated. I used a Print Preview control - I think it was from Developer Express, but it was many years ago.

 

[Stretchwickster]

Does anyone else have any comments to add?

Clive
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer."
Paul Ehrlich
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To get the best answers from this forum see: faq102-5096

 

[EricDraven]

I dont use any complex printing in any of my software, just statistical and legal documents with the odd jpeg or gif in them, so I create all of my documentation in HTML format and then display it on screen using a HTML viewing component. I can then either print whats on screen or send it to email etc...

[blue]"Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb" - Dark Helmet[/blue]