How to find the actual printable area? (PrintDocument)

Question

Why is finding out this magic Rectangle so difficult?

In the OnPrintPage event I have PrintPageEventArgs and I am trying to draw using the Graphics within the bounds of the maximum printable area.

I have tried using PageBounds, PrintableArea, Graphics.VisibleClipBounds, etc. All fail to consistently get the drawing area, especially when switching from Landscape to Portrait layout. PrintableArea does not seem to ever change when you switch from Landscape to Portrait.

I have also noticed that there is a difference in how Graphics.VisibleClipBounds is set depending on if I'm doing a print preview and an actual print. In a preview it always shows Portrait width/height, so I have to check if it is a preview and I have to manually swap the width/height when it is a Landscape.

I need an algorithm to calculate the printable area as it relates to the current Graphics context, not an arbitrary theoretical print area that isn't used in actual drawing.

---

My concern is dealing with the Graphics matrix offset. So far I have noticed severe inconsistencies between how the Graphics context is pre-translated using the hard margins depending on factors like:

• If OriginAtMargins is true or false (not behaving as I would think)
• If I'm printing to a printer, or using the PrintPreviewControl (I have to check if this is a print to preview or a print to page to handle the translation properly)
• If I'm using my printer at home or my printer at work (both behave differently)

Is there a standard way to handle this? Should I just reset the matrix? When I set OriginAtMargins to true, the Graphics is pre-translated to 84,84, but my margins are 100,100. The hard margins are 16,16. Shouldn't it be translated to 100,100? Since 0,0 should be at the page bounds, not the hard margins.

Basically my method should always work at getting the best printable rectangle. I just need a consistent, device-independent way of making sure that my drawing origin (0, 0) is at the top-left of the page in order for the above Rectangle to be of any use to me.

Solution 1

Your question lacks a little clarity as to what the "best" rectangle is. I'm going to assume you mean the largest rectangle that will be 100% visible when printed.

So lets start by making sure we understand what the print document graphics object "origins" are and how the OriginAtMargins property affects this origin.

OriginAtMargins - Gets or sets a value indicating whether the position of a graphics object associated with a page is located just inside the user-specified margins or at the top-left corner of the printable area of the page.
- PrintDocument Class Definition on MSDN

So with OriginAtMargins set to false (default) the graphics object will be adjusted to the PrintableArea rectangle (about 5/32 from each page edge for my laser printer, old laser printers may be more, new inkjets may print right to the edge, software PDF printers will print right to the edge). So 0,0 in my graphics object is actually 16,16 on the physical page of my laser printer (your printer may be different).

With the default 1 inch page margins and OriginAtMargins set to true, the graphics object will be adjusted to the 100,100,650,1100 rectangle for a normal portrait letter page. This is one inch inside each physical page edge. So 0,0 in your graphics object is actually 100,100 on the physical page.

Margins are also known as "soft margins" as they are defined in software and not affected by the physical printing device. This means they will be applied to the current page size in software and reflect the actual page dimension portrait or landscape.

PrintableArea is also known as "hard margins" which reflect the physical limitations of your printing device. This will vary from printer to printer, from manufacturer to manufacturer. Because these are hardware measurements, they do not rotate when you set the page to landscape/portrait. The physical limitations won't change on the printer regardless of software print settings, so we need to make sure we apply them on the correct axis depending on our software settings for the print document (orientation).

So following the rough model of the sample code you posted, here's a PrintDocument.PrintPage event handler that will draw a rectangle as large as possible while still being visible (with the default PrintDocument.OriginsAtMargins being false). If you set PrintDocument.OriginsAtMargins to true it will draw a rectangle as large as possible while still being visible inside the configured soft margins (defaults to 1" from page edges).

PrintAction printAction = PrintAction.PrintToFile;

private void printDocument_BeginPrint(object sender, PrintEventArgs e)
{
    // Save our print action so we know if we are printing 
    // a preview or a real document.
    printAction = e.PrintAction;

    // Set some preferences, our method should print a box with any 
    // combination of these properties being true/false.
    printDocument.OriginAtMargins = false;   //true = soft margins, false = hard margins
    printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape = false;
}

private void printDocument_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
    Graphics g = e.Graphics;

    // If you set printDocumet.OriginAtMargins to 'false' this event 
    // will print the largest rectangle your printer is physically 
    // capable of. This is often 1/8" - 1/4" from each page edge.
    // ----------
    // If you set printDocument.OriginAtMargins to 'false' this event
    // will print the largest rectangle permitted by the currently 
    // configured page margins. By default the page margins are 
    // usually 1" from each page edge but can be configured by the end
    // user or overridden in your code.
    // (ex: printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Margins)

    // Grab a copy of our "soft margins" (configured printer settings)
    // Defaults to 1 inch margins, but could be configured otherwise by 
    // the end user. You can also specify some default page margins in 
    // your printDocument.DefaultPageSetting properties.
    RectangleF marginBounds = e.MarginBounds;

    // Grab a copy of our "hard margins" (printer's capabilities) 
    // This varies between printer models. Software printers like 
    // CutePDF will have no "physical limitations" and so will return 
    // the full page size 850,1100 for a letter page size.
    RectangleF printableArea = e.PageSettings.PrintableArea;

    // If we are print to a print preview control, the origin won't have 
    // been automatically adjusted for the printer's physical limitations. 
    // So let's adjust the origin for preview to reflect the printer's 
    // hard margins.
    if (printAction == PrintAction.PrintToPreview)
        g.TranslateTransform(printableArea.X, printableArea.Y);

    // Are we using soft margins or hard margins? Lets grab the correct 
    // width/height from either the soft/hard margin rectangles. The 
    // hard margins are usually a little wider than the soft margins.
    // ----------
    // Note: Margins are automatically applied to the rotated page size 
    // when the page is set to landscape, but physical hard margins are 
    // not (the printer is not physically rotating any mechanics inside, 
    // the paper still travels through the printer the same way. So we 
    // rotate in software for landscape)
    int availableWidth = (int)Math.Floor(printDocument.OriginAtMargins 
        ? marginBounds.Width 
        : (e.PageSettings.Landscape 
            ? printableArea.Height 
            : printableArea.Width));
    int availableHeight = (int)Math.Floor(printDocument.OriginAtMargins 
        ? marginBounds.Height 
        : (e.PageSettings.Landscape 
            ? printableArea.Width 
            : printableArea.Height));

    // Draw our rectangle which will either be the soft margin rectangle 
    // or the hard margin (printer capabilities) rectangle.
    // ----------
    // Note: we adjust the width and height minus one as it is a zero, 
    // zero based co-ordinates system. This will put the rectangle just 
    // inside the available width and height.
    g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Red, 0, 0, availableWidth - 1, availableHeight - 1);
}

The two lines that determine available width and available height are what I think you were looking for in your question. Those two lines take into account whether you want soft margins or hard margins and whether the print document is configured for landscape or portrait.

I used Math.Floor() for the easy way out to just drop anything past the decimal (ex: 817.96 -> 817) just to make sure the available width and height was just inside the available dimensions. I'm "failing safe" here, if you wanted to you could maintain float based co-ordinates (instead of int), just be careful to watch for rounding errors that will result in the clipped graphics (if it rounds 817.96 up to 818 and then the printer driver decides that's no longer visible).

I tested this procedure in both portrait and landscape with both hard margins and soft margins on a Dell 3115CN, a Samsung SCX-4x28 and CutePDF software printer. If this didn't adequately address your question, consider revising your question to clarify "magic rectangle" and "best rectangle".

---

EDIT: Notes About "Soft Margins"

Soft margins are applied in software and do not take into consideration the hardware limitations of the printer. This is intentional and by design. You can set the soft margins outside the printable area if you want and the output may be clipped by your printer's driver. If this is undesirable for your application, you need to adjust the margins in your program code. Either you can prevent the user from selecting margins outside the printable area (or warn them if they do) or you can enforce some min/max conditions in your code when you actually start printing (drawing) the document.

Example Case: If you set the page margins to 0,0,0,0 in Microsoft Word 2007 a warning dialog pops up that reads "One or more margins are set outside the printable area of the page. Choose the Fix button to increase the appropriate margins." If you click fix, Word will simply copy the hard margins into the soft margins, so the dialog now shows 0.16" for all margins (my laser printer's capabilities).

This is expected behavior. It is not a bug/problem with Microsoft Word if the printed page is clipped because the user ignored this warning and used 0,0,0,0 page margins. This is the same in your application. You need to enforce the limits for whatever if appropriate in your use case. Either with a warning dialog, or you can force the limit more strongly in code (don't offer a choice to the user).

---

Alternative Strategy

Alright so maybe you don't want to just get the hard margins, but rather get the soft margins and then enforce that the soft margins remain inside the printable area when printing. Let's develop another strategy here.

In this example I will use the origins at margins, and allow the user to select any margin they want, but I'm going to enforce in code that the selected margin not be outside the printable area. If the selected margins are outside the printable area, I'm simply going to adjust them to be inside the printable area.

PrintAction printAction = PrintAction.PrintToFile;

private void printDocument_BeginPrint(object sender, PrintEventArgs e)
{
    // Save our print action so we know if we are printing 
    // a preview or a real document.
    printAction = e.PrintAction;

    // We ALWAYS want true here, as we will implement the 
    // margin limitations later in code.
    printDocument.OriginAtMargins = true;

    // Set some preferences, our method should print a box with any 
    // combination of these properties being true/false.
    printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape = false;
    printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Top = 100;
    printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left = 0;
    printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Right = 50;
    printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Bottom = 0;
}

private void printDocument_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
    Graphics g = e.Graphics;

    // If you set printDocumet.OriginAtMargins to 'false' this event 
    // will print the largest rectangle your printer is physically 
    // capable of. This is often 1/8" - 1/4" from each page edge.
    // ----------
    // If you set printDocument.OriginAtMargins to 'false' this event
    // will print the largest rectangle permitted by the currently 
    // configured page margins. By default the page margins are 
    // usually 1" from each page edge but can be configured by the end
    // user or overridden in your code.
    // (ex: printDocument.DefaultPageSettings.Margins)

    // Grab a copy of our "hard margins" (printer's capabilities) 
    // This varies between printer models. Software printers like 
    // CutePDF will have no "physical limitations" and so will return 
    // the full page size 850,1100 for a letter page size.
    RectangleF printableArea = e.PageSettings.PrintableArea;
    RectangleF realPrintableArea = new RectangleF(
        (e.PageSettings.Landscape ? printableArea.Y : printableArea.X),
        (e.PageSettings.Landscape ? printableArea.X : printableArea.Y),
        (e.PageSettings.Landscape ? printableArea.Height : printableArea.Width),
        (e.PageSettings.Landscape ? printableArea.Width : printableArea.Height)
        );

    // If we are printing to a print preview control, the origin won't have 
    // been automatically adjusted for the printer's physical limitations. 
    // So let's adjust the origin for preview to reflect the printer's 
    // hard margins.
    // ----------
    // Otherwise if we really are printing, just use the soft margins.
    g.TranslateTransform(
        ((printAction == PrintAction.PrintToPreview) 
            ? realPrintableArea.X : 0) - e.MarginBounds.X,
        ((printAction == PrintAction.PrintToPreview) 
            ? realPrintableArea.Y : 0) - e.MarginBounds.Y
    );

    // Draw the printable area rectangle in PURPLE
    Rectangle printedPrintableArea = Rectangle.Truncate(realPrintableArea);
    printedPrintableArea.Width--;
    printedPrintableArea.Height--;
    g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Purple, printedPrintableArea);

    // Grab a copy of our "soft margins" (configured printer settings)
    // Defaults to 1 inch margins, but could be configured otherwise by 
    // the end user. You can also specify some default page margins in 
    // your printDocument.DefaultPageSetting properties.
    RectangleF marginBounds = e.MarginBounds;

    // This intersects the desired margins with the printable area rectangle. 
    // If the margins go outside the printable area on any edge, it will be 
    // brought in to the appropriate printable area.
    marginBounds.Intersect(realPrintableArea);

    // Draw the margin rectangle in RED
    Rectangle printedMarginArea = Rectangle.Truncate(marginBounds);
    printedMarginArea.Width--;
    printedMarginArea.Height--;
    g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Red, printedMarginArea);
}

Solution 2

Currently the following is working on my printer. I have OriginAtMargins set to false. This causes automatic translation to the HardMarginX and HardMarginY when I'm printing to my printer, but NO translation when I'm printing to the PrintPreviewControl. Therefore, I have to check for this case.

private void printDocument_BeginPrint(object sender, PrintEventArgs e)
{
    printAction = e.PrintAction;
    printDocument.OriginAtMargins = false;
}

private void printDocument_PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
    Graphics g = e.Graphics;

    if (printAction != PrintAction.PrintToPreview)
        g.TranslateTransform(-e.PageSettings.HardMarginX, -e.PageSettings.HardMarginY);

    RectangleF printArea = GetBestPrintableArea(e);

    g.DrawRectangle(Pens.Red, printArea.X, printArea.Y, printArea.Width - 1, printArea.Height - 1);
}

public RectangleF GetBestPrintableArea(PrintPageEventArgs e)
{
    RectangleF marginBounds = e.MarginBounds;
    RectangleF printableArea = e.PageSettings.PrintableArea;
    RectangleF pageBounds = e.PageBounds;

    if (e.PageSettings.Landscape)
        printableArea = new RectangleF(printableArea.Y, printableArea.X, printableArea.Height, printableArea.Width);

    RectangleF bestArea = RectangleF.FromLTRB(
        (float)Math.Max(marginBounds.Left, printableArea.Left),
        (float)Math.Max(marginBounds.Top, printableArea.Top),
        (float)Math.Min(marginBounds.Right, printableArea.Right),
        (float)Math.Min(marginBounds.Bottom, printableArea.Bottom)
    );

    float bestMarginX = (float)Math.Max(bestArea.Left, pageBounds.Right - bestArea.Right);
    float bestMarginY = (float)Math.Max(bestArea.Top, pageBounds.Bottom - bestArea.Bottom);

    bestArea = RectangleF.FromLTRB(
        bestMarginX,
        bestMarginY,
        pageBounds.Right - bestMarginX,
        pageBounds.Bottom - bestMarginY
    );

    return bestArea;
}

If anyone can try this code on their printer to verify that it works universally, or correct it if I'm wrong, that would be great.

I don't know if pre-translation of the origin to the hard margins when OriginAtMargins is false is standard with all printers, or if it's just doing this on my printer.

Comments

[user1703401]

Use e.MarginBounds. And set PrintDocument.OriginAtMargins to True.

[Trevor Elliott]

I made a simple project to test that with just a default PrintDocument/PageSetupDialog/PrintDialog and I set the OriginAtMargins to true and the margins to 0,0,0,0. It seems to print fine to a PDF (CutePDFWriter) but printing to an actual printer it doesn't. I draw a rectangle with a 3.0f width pen, and the page doesn't even print anything (the page just comes out blank). I assume that means it think there is nothing within the bounds to print.

[user1703401]

If you want to draw at the hard margins then you'd better use them. It can't print at 0, that's inside the hard margin. You might still get nothing on one side if the paper path is a little off from where the driver thinks it is, depends.

[Trevor Elliott]

That's overly complicated and erroneous example of saying "draw to the PrintableArea", which I've already tried. It doesn't take margins or orientation into account.

[BenSwayne]

this code is a fair bit over complicated for what I understand your problem to be. You shouldn't need to TranslateTranform the graphics object at all (its done for you already) and I wouldn't combine the soft margins and hard margins together (marginBounds and printableArea). I'd pick either soft margins OR hard margins to work with. See my answer for example and clarification.

[Trevor Elliott]

I'm really just looking for the printable rectangle. Printing so that the margins are symmetrical is just something I do after the fact. It's not the real question. What I was looking for is a universal algorithm that would give me a Rectangle to print in and consider all edge cases for different printers, etc.

[Trevor Elliott]

Your method works fine if OriginAtMargins is false. However, if it's true, it prints out a blank page when the user chooses 0,0,0,0 margins since it's outside the hard margins.

[Trevor Elliott]

Also, your method does not work for displaying a preview using the PrintPreviewControl. I don't know if it's just an issue with that control, but you need to check and offset the drawing by the hard margins to make it emulate the printer, otherwise it prints off the page.

[Trevor Elliott]

If you can test out the code provided in my answer and verify it works for you on your printer and using the PrintPreviewControl, I'll happily award you the bounty and consider the question answered.

[BenSwayne]

@Moozhe the above does exactly as you ask and gets the printable rectangle for all cases (hard margins adjusted for orientation). Also setting margins to 0,0,0,0 behaves as expected (as its supposed to by definition). You need to either prevent the user from selecting margins lower than the hard margins in code, or transform the margins after the fact. I think if you edit your question with a clearer example use case I might be able to answer it more directly instead of a universal example. But the example code above does universally get the hard margins for you.

[BenSwayne]

I tested your code as requested. It works the same as the code sample I provided in my answer below. I get the hard margins on the physical print out but not on the print preview. I will revise my answer to include an adjustment for print preview vs. physical print out. I still think you can achieve this more elegantly.

[yu_ominae]

I think that the above method for determining the actual print area is slightly off in some cases. When I select a postscript printer with no margins I end up with a rectangle which is shifted 1/100th inch left from the page. I think the use of the intersect method is causing the problem.

[L. Guthardt]

OP marked the question as C#. Even though VB and C# are quite similar, provide only C# code please.

[Dave Cousineau]

"100,100,650,1100" you mean 900 not 1100