printing text center aligned

[kleinma]

I have not used the printing functions of .NET because I have not had a need to. But now I do so I am wondering what is the best way to print text center aligned on a page.

I am using printdialog and printdocument components on the form, and I have most of the details worked out, but much of the text to be printed needs center alignment

when I use the graphics objects DrawString method, I am using a RectangleF for the location, and basically what I am doing is making the rectangle the width of the page, and passing a StringFormat object with its Alignment property set to center

This is similar to making a label on a form the full width of the form, and making the text center aligned.

Is this the best way to do this? or is there an easier way?

for some basic testing, it appears I also need to compensate for the margins.

[JuggaloBrotha]

i personally use the e.PageBounds.Width / 2 method to get the center of the page:

'PrintDocument:
Static fntHeadingFont As New Font("Arial", 16, FontStyle.Bold)
Dim sngCenterPage As Single
sngCenterPage = Convert.ToSingle(e.PageBounds.Width / 2 - e.Graphics.MeasureString("Your String Here", fntHeadingFont).Width / 2)
e.Graphics.DrawString("Your String Here", fntHeadingFont, Brushes.Black, sngCenterPage, 2)

but either method achieves the same goal

[gigemboy]

Thats pretty much how I have seen it done... check out this link for a printing class you can reference to see how they deal with margins, etc...

http://www.developer.com/net/asp/article.php/3102381

[Merrion]

If you use the System.Drawing.StringFormat you can set the alignment to use in the Graphics.DrawString method.

i.e.:

Public Enum CellTextHorizontalAlignment
        LeftAlign = 1
        CentreAlign = 2
        RightAlign = 3
    End Enum
 
    Public Enum CellTextVerticalAlignment
        TopAlign = 1
        MiddleAlign = 2
        BottomAlign = 3
    End Enum
 
    Public Function DrawCellString(ByVal s As String, _
                                    ByVal HorizontalAlignment As CellTextHorizontalAlignment, _
                                    ByVal VerticalAlignment As CellTextVerticalAlignment, _
                                    ByVal BoundingRect As Rectangle, _
                                    ByVal DrawRectangle As Boolean, _
                                    ByVal Target As Graphics, _
                                    ByVal PrintFont As Font, _
                                    ByVal FillColour As Brush)
 
 
        Dim x As Single, y As Single
        Dim _Textlayout As New System.Drawing.StringFormat
 
        If DrawRectangle Then
            Target.FillRectangle(FillColour, BoundingRect)
            Target.DrawRectangle(_GridPen, BoundingRect)
        End If
 
        '\\ Set the text alignment
        If HorizontalAlignment = CellTextHorizontalAlignment.LeftAlign Then
            _Textlayout.Alignment = StringAlignment.Near
        ElseIf HorizontalAlignment = CellTextHorizontalAlignment.RightAlign Then
            _Textlayout.Alignment = StringAlignment.Far
        Else
            _Textlayout.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center
        End If
 
        Dim BoundingRectF As New RectangleF(BoundingRect.X , BoundingRect.Y , BoundingRect.Width BoundingRect.Height )
 
        Target.DrawString(s, PrintFont, System.Drawing.Brushes.Black, BoundingRectF, _Textlayout)
 
    End Function

You can also set fancy effects like string trimming, etc.

[Merrion]

(Code is from this codebank item in case I missed some declarations or something...)

[kleinma]

yeah I am using the StringFormat object to center align the text... I just wanted to make sure there was not some really easy method that already existed for printing to the center of the page. What I have works, and its not really that hard to code, I just wanted to check since I have not done printing previously