Print multiple jobs without interruption c#

Question

Is there a way to print multiple jobs in a row, without letting another user send a print job in between? (sort of "don't give the token to another user as long as my print jobs haven't finished")

It's a shared printer and many users have access to it, and what I'm printig is a big document so it takes some time; I'm using more then one job because its pages are not to be printed from the same paper tray, so I have to switch the paper source in my code.

Help please! and thanks in advance.

P.S. I'm using the PrintDocument object of .Net

Answer 1

There isn't, as far are I know, you'd need to either keep the printer busy by keeping the job open and sending PJL or other commands that don't eject a page. The other option is to concatenate your jobs together into one large job. I guess you could also programatically pause the shared print queue and send the data directly using a direct IP print port or something. In the end there isn't an elegant solution to this.

Answer 2

1. Instead of using multiple jobs, I can just change the settings for each page when printing (modify the PrintPageEventHandler), here's a link, and a sample of my code:

   private void PrintPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs ev)
   {
       using (Metafile pageImage = new Metafile(streamList[currentPageIndex]))
       {
           // If it's the first page
           if (currentPageIndex == 0)
           {
               // Use a certain tray
               ev.PageSettings.PaperSource = PaperTrayPage1;
           }
           // For the rest of the document
           else
           {
               // Use another tray
               ev.PageSettings.PaperSource = PaperTrayRest;
           }
   
           currentPageIndex++;
   
           ev.Graphics.DrawImage(pageImage, ev.PageBounds);
           ev.HasMorePages = (currentPageIndex < streamList.Count);
       }
   }
   

2. Combining multiple jobs (PrintDocument objects) is possible, here's an example.