I would like to print on Server side but the code that I have will not work properly and don't find any solution on the internet. I use the nuget PdfSharpCore (version 1.3.47). The problem is I don't know how to translate a page to a bitmap or image that can be used for the print job. I added everywhere comments to help.
Here is my code :
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Printing;
using System.IO;
using PdfSharpCore.Pdf;
using PdfSharpCore.Pdf.IO;
/// <summary>
/// The following code takes in a byte array of a PDF file, a printer name, a job name
/// (optional), and a boolean flag for whether to print in color or black and white. It then
/// prints the PDF file using the specified printer.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="pdfBytes">
/// </param>
/// <param name="printerName">
/// </param>
/// <param name="jobName">
/// </param>
/// <param name="isColor">
/// </param>
public void PrintPdf(byte[] pdfBytes, string printerName, string? jobName = null, bool isColor = true)
{
// Use a memory stream to read the PDF bytes
using (var pdfStream = new MemoryStream(pdfBytes))
{
// Use PdfSharp to open the PDF document
using (var doc = PdfReader.Open(pdfStream))
{
// Check if we are running on Windows
if (OperatingSystem.IsWindows())
{
// Only execute the following code if running on Windows
// Use PrintDocument to manage printing
using (var pd = new PrintDocument())
{
// Set the printer name
pd.PrinterSettings.PrinterName = printerName;
// Check if printer exists
if (!pd.PrinterSettings.IsValid)
{
// If the specified printer is not valid, use the default printer
pd.PrinterSettings.PrinterName = PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters[0];
// Log all possible printers
foreach (string printer in PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters)
{
Console.WriteLine(printer);
}
}
// Set the print job name (if provided) or default to "Print Job"
pd.DocumentName = jobName ?? "Print Job";
// Set print settings
pd.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape = false;
pd.DefaultPageSettings.Color = isColor;
// Zero-based index for current page
int currentPage = 0;
// Add a PrintPageEventHandler to handle the printing of each page
pd.PrintPage += (sender, args) =>
{
// Check if the operating system is Windows
if (OperatingSystem.IsWindows())
{
// Get the current page and its size
var page = doc.Pages[currentPage];
var size = new Size((int)page.Width, (int)page.Height);
// Check if the page stream is not null
if (page?.Stream != null)
{
// Render the PDF page as an image and draw it onto the bitmap
using (var pageStream = new MemoryStream(page.Stream.Value))
{
using (var bmp = new Bitmap(pageStream))
{
// Check if the graphics object is not null
if (args?.Graphics != null)
{
try
{
// Draw the image onto the graphics object
// within the page boundaries
args.Graphics.DrawImage(bmp, args.PageBounds);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Handle any exceptions that occur while
// rendering the image
Console.WriteLine($"Error rendering PDF as image: {ex.Message}");
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Graphics object is null.");
}
}
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("PDF Stream empty.");
}
// Move to the next page
currentPage++;
// Set HasMorePages to true if there are more pages to print
if (args != null)
{
args.HasMorePages = currentPage < doc.PageCount;
}
}
else
{
// Code for other operating systems
}
};
// Execute the Print Event
pd.Print();
}
}
else
{
// Code for other operating systems
}
}
}
}
With PdfSharpCore, you cannot convert PDF to bitmaps, nor can you send PDF to a printer.
You will need another library to convert the PDF pages to bitmaps. Library recommendations are a difficult matter on SO, so I will not recommend any here.
With PDFsharp, the library that PdfSharpCore was ported from, you can use the same code to create PDFs and print at the same time. The printout cannot contain elements from PDF pages because PDFsharp cannot handle that. I don't know where your PDFs are coming from. If the PDFs are created from your code, this may be an option for you. An option that works under Windows only.
One disadvantage of server-side printing is that the printout will be generated on the server site, not the client site. Many websites just deliver PDFs and let the client do the printing.