There seems to be a slight problem when printing lines in colour from VB6 (SP4). This works correctly on a PictureBox, but prints black on the Printer (HP Laser Jet and Lexmark)...

    Object.ForeColor = vbRed
    Object.Line (X1, Y1)-(X2, Y2)    -red on PictureBox, black on Printer
    Object.Print "Text"              -ok on both PictureBox and Printer

    Object.ForeColor = vbRed
    Object.Line (X1, Y1)-(X2, Y2), vbRed  - ok on both PictureBox and Printer
    Object.Print "Text"                   - ok on both PictureBox and Printer

I guess I always knew this, but was unconscious of it until now: the color white (vbWhite or 16777215 or 0xFFFFFF) is always ignored by the printer and treated like a transparent color. If you don't believe me, put some colored stock into your printer and print an image with some white in it: everywhere there's white on the picture, no color is printed on the paper, allowing the stock color to show through. If you don't have colored stock, scribble on a sheet of paper first, then print. If a color is not pure white, like a sand or an eggshell color, it will be printed: this is a concern if you're using the default system colors that are assigned to most controls (it looks white but it's not!).

Keep this basic fact in mind when designing graphics: pure white is a good default color for a canvas (the background color of a picture). Also make sure your forms and controls are white too (for the background color) if you're using something like the VB PrintForm method or simulated code like screen capture printing. In other "Form and Report" development environments, like VBA, Access, Oracle Forms, Crystal Reports, etc., usually there's a default PRINT button that simulates the "PrintForm" method: not surprisingly, most users click this button.

By using white, not only will the output print faster, but it will also save some toner AND some wear and tear on the printer. This is especially important on a network when you're in charge of keeping the network moving fast AND in charge to maintaining the printers. In other words, forms and graphics with a white background print faster and reduce network traffic. I know, it's difficult these days to NOT add graphics and vibrant colors to a form, but it's a simple sacrifice to make if your users do a lot of printing.

I guess this leaves one unanswered question: how do you print White when you really want it?

I almost forgot to add this - there's one caveat about changing colors and not using the default system colors: if you force the background color to white (or any other color), make sure you force the foreground color too. Why? A user could design or install a desktop scheme where white (or almost white) is the default foreground color. If so, the text would be invisible and unreadable!

1. Save the edit version with SaveFile (because we're going to modifiy the heck out of it).
2. Convert the edit version to a print version:
   1. Run through the entire document changing SelIndent and SelRightIndent to values appropriate for the printer (indent values in the edit version are appropriate for the screen, not the printer).
   2. Make any other changes; in my case, add page headers and eliminate scene numbers.
3. Print one page at a time with a SelPrint loop. Counting lines is tricky. Finding LFCRs is easy but I had to also account for line wraps which bump the line count, and page overflows which must not be allowed to happen.
4. Delete the print version with SelRTF="".
5. Reinstart the edit version with LoadFile.

    Printer.PaintPicture MSFlexGrid_Name.Picture, 0, 0
    Printer.EndDoc

    Dim old_width as Integer
    MSFlexGrid_Name.width=printer.width

     MSFlexGrid_Name.width=old_width

    For i = 1 To num_copies
        ' Print the document here...

        Printer.NewPage
    Next i
    Printer.EndDoc

    Printer.ScaleLeft = -0.5 * 1440
    Printer.ScaleTop = -0.75 * 1440
    Printer.CurrentX = 0
    Printer.CurrentY = 0

    Printer.Line (1440, 1440)-Step(1440, 1440)

For preview, pass the routine a hidden PictureBox. Then use PaintPicture to copy the hidden picture to a visible PictureBox at the desired scale. Drawing at full scale on the hidden PictureBox first allows you to scale fonts and other graphics without distortion.

In the Dr. Dobb's web site (ddj.com), under Programmer's Resources, under BASIC, there are some utilities that do a great job of printing.

If you have a preformatted file that's coded for a particular printer, use PRNT, which simply spools characters to the printer.

For various plain-text files, PSET decides the best fit to the paper you use, and optimizes the printing as much as possible to fit.

Note: These are DOS programs called from a SHELL command. Of course, you can import the code into VB and make them VB programs.

I've used PSET extensively on every combination of network and PC, from handheld and serial port to NT and network. As long as the drivers etc. are in place, it works perfectly.