Windows has made difficult the former easy task of printing a non-full page, for example mailing labels on a dot matrix printer. If in VB6 you use Printer.Print then when the print job ends Windows inserts a form feed, which destroys label alignment.
To avoid the form feed you can use the WritePrinter() API, but Windows strips out escape sequences that control the printer.
Yes, there is a solution that requires no third-party add-ons: the old (but still supported through at least Windows XP) Escape() API function. To summarize, send the printer the escape sequences via Escape() and print the text via WritePrinter().
Basically you want to combine the instructions of the following two Knowledgebase articles:
The Knowledgebase link above for Passthrough Escape covers 16-bit, but the 32-bit version of the same API exists, and will be shown below.
To illustrate the combination, let's start with the example VB programming from second Knowledgebase article linked above, and insert a sample of possible Escape programming that makes bold text on Epson and IBM Proprinter dot-matrix printers. Note there are two insertions, one to declare the function plus a constant, and the other to send the Escape sequence before sending text.
Option Explicit
' --------------- begin insertion for handling Escape -------------------
Declare Function Escape Lib "Gdi32" (ByVal lHdc As Long, ByVal lEscape As Long, ByVal lcount As Long, ByVal indata As Any, ByVal outdata As Any) As Long
Public Const cPASSTHROUGH = 19
' --------------- end insertion for handling Escape -------------------
Private Type DOCINFO
pDocName As String
pOutputFile As String
pDatatype As String
End Type
Private Declare Function ClosePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EndDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EndPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function OpenPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "OpenPrinterA" (ByVal pPrinterName As String, phPrinter As Long, ByVal pDefault As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function StartDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "StartDocPrinterA" (ByVal hPrinter As Long, ByVal Level As Long, pDocInfo As DOCINFO) As Long
Private Declare Function StartPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function WritePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long, pBuf As Any, ByVal cdBuf As Long, pcWritten As Long) As Long
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim lhPrinter As Long
Dim lReturn As Long
Dim lpcWritten As Long
Dim lDoc As Long
Dim sWrittenData As String
Dim MyDocInfo As DOCINFO
' --------------- begin insertion for handling Escape -------------------
' find the presumed dot matrix printer on port LPT1:
' and make it the default printer
Dim P As Object
Dim sEscape As String
For Each P In Printers
If P.Port = "LPT1:" Then
Set Printer = P
Exit For
End If
Next P
' send Escape sequence E - turns on emphasized for text bolding
sEscape = Chr$(27) + "E"
sEscape = Chr$(Len(sEscape) Mod 256) + Chr$(Len(sEscape) \ 256) + sEscape
lReturn = Escape(Printer.Hdc, cPASSTHROUGH, 0, PCL_Escape$, 0&)
Select Case lReturn
Case Is < 0
Debug.Print "The PASSTHROUGH Escape is not supported by this printer driver."
Case 0
Debug.Print "An error occurred sending the escape sequence."
Case Is > 0
Debug.Print "Escape Successfully sent. Sending test printout to printer."
End Select
' --------------- end insertion for handling Escape -------------------
lReturn = OpenPrinter(Printer.DeviceName, lhPrinter, 0)
If lReturn = 0 Then
MsgBox "The Printer Name you typed wasn't recognized."
Exit Sub
End If
MyDocInfo.pDocName = "AAAAAA"
MyDocInfo.pOutputFile = vbNullString
MyDocInfo.pDatatype = vbNullString
lDoc = StartDocPrinter(lhPrinter, 1, MyDocInfo)
Call StartPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
sWrittenData = "How's that for Magic !!!!" & vbFormFeed
lReturn = WritePrinter(lhPrinter, ByVal sWrittenData, Len(sWrittenData), lpcWritten)
lReturn = EndPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
lReturn = EndDocPrinter(lhPrinter)
lReturn = ClosePrinter(lhPrinter)
End Sub
Though not tested, any of the Epson ESC/P
printer escape sequences should be sendable via the method above.