Network Programming in .NET

There are many ways to print a PDF in C#, but I wanted one that was unobtrusive, and didn’t depend on any particular software being installed on the client machine. – So I’m using Spire.NET

TL DR; Here is the github repo: https://github.com/infiniteloopltd/PrintPDF

I am also using a image printer driver called Joy Image Printer (http://www.joyprinter.com/) – which enables me to test this, witout wasting paper. The output image has watermarking, so it’s not for production, just testing. It’s also unobtrusive, and doesn’t pop up any windows.

So, the first step is that I wanted to list all the printers installed on the client machine, and allow the user select one by number. Then it loads a static PDF into Spire, and calls the print method. The Free version of Spire (https://www.e-iceblue.com/Introduce/pdf-for-net-introduce.html) is limited to 10 pages, but that was fine for my purposes.

var iSelection = 1;
Console.WriteLine(“Which printer do you wish to use:”);
foreach (string printer in PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters)
{
Console.WriteLine(iSelection + “:” + printer);
iSelection++;
}
iSelection = Convert.ToInt16(Console.ReadLine());
var printerName = PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters[–iSelection];
// Install-Package Spire.PDF -Version 6.7.6
// http://www.joyprinter.com/index.html — handy for development
var document = new PdfDocument();
document.LoadFromFile(“hello-world.pdf”);
document.PrintSettings.PrinterName = printerName;
document.Print();
document.Dispose();