Custom Driver For Thermal printer in windows

Question 1

So I´m back now, and I told something wrong - it was not VB6, it was already C# - You will have to translate this (basically you can use the same api calls ..)

I also found this code somewhere in the net ... it did not escape from my brain

It was a service, used for an old DOS app to print to a HP Laserjet (The Dos app knows how to use PCL).

The call:

RawPrinterHelper.SendFileToPrinter(new PrinterSettings().PrinterName, fileName);

And the Helper Class:

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Printing;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace RAW_Print
{
    public class RawPrinterHelper
    {
        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
        public class DOCINFOA
        {
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pDocName;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pOutputFile;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pDataType;
        }
        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "OpenPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool OpenPrinter([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string szPrinter, out IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pd);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "ClosePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartDocPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, Int32 level, [In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)] DOCINFOA di);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndDocPrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "WritePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount, out Int32 dwWritten);

        public static bool SendBytesToPrinter(string szPrinterName, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount)
        {
            Int32    dwError = 0, dwWritten = 0;
            IntPtr    hPrinter = new IntPtr(0);
            DOCINFOA    di = new DOCINFOA();
            bool    bSuccess = false;

            di.pDocName = "your doc name";
            di.pDataType = "RAW";

            if (OpenPrinter(szPrinterName.Normalize(), out hPrinter, IntPtr.Zero))
            {
                if (StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, di))
                {
                    if (StartPagePrinter(hPrinter))
                    {
                        bSuccess = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, dwCount, out dwWritten);
                        EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
                    }
                    EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
                }
                ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
            }
            if (bSuccess == false)
            {
                dwError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
            }
            return bSuccess;
        }

        public static bool SendFileToPrinter(string szPrinterName, string szFileName)
        {
            FileStream fs = new FileStream(szFileName, FileMode.Open);
            BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs);
            Byte []bytes = new Byte[fs.Length];
            bool bSuccess = false;
            IntPtr pUnmanagedBytes = new IntPtr(0);
            int nLength;

            nLength = Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length);

            bytes = br.ReadBytes(nLength);
            pUnmanagedBytes = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(nLength);
            Marshal.Copy(bytes, 0, pUnmanagedBytes, nLength);
            bSuccess = SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pUnmanagedBytes, nLength);
            Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pUnmanagedBytes);
            br.Close();
            fs.Close();
            return bSuccess;
        }
        public static bool SendStringToPrinter(string szPrinterName, string szString)
        {
            IntPtr pBytes;
            Int32 dwCount;
            dwCount = szString.Length;
            pBytes = Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemAnsi(szString);
            SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pBytes, dwCount);
            Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pBytes);
            return true;
        }
    }
}

Question 2

In my ancient programming times with VB6 it was possible to open the printer as "RAW printer", that is in fact a driverless printing method - you have the complete work.

I´ll start a search in my old sources for this, I´m quite sure, you can translate this to c language if you need it.