Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell

CHAPTER 5

Pr inting

The previous chapters of this book have described how to draw graphics and dis-

play graphical user interfaces on a computer screen. This chapter explains how to

transfer those graphics to hardcopy. Printing was not supported in Java 1.0. Java

1.1 added a simple printing API that was easy to use but was not tightly integrated

with the printing capabilities of the underlying operating system. The Java 2 plat-

for m intr oduces an entirely new printing API that addresses the shortcomings of

the Java 1.1 API. This chapter explains both the Java 1.1 and the Java 1.2 APIs.

Pr inting in Java 1.1

In Java 1.1, you use a Graphics object to draw to the screen or into an off-scr een

Image.Toproduce hardcopy, you do exactly the same thing: obtain a Graphics

object that repr esents your printer and use the methods of that object to draw to

the printer. The only tricky thing you need to know is how to obtain an appropri-

ate

Graphics object. You do this with a java.awt.PrintJob object, which you can

obtain from the

Toolkit object.

The basic Java 1.1 printing algorithm has the following steps:

1. First, you must begin the print job. You do this by calling the getPrintJob()

method of the Toolkit object. This method displays a dialog box to the user

to request information about the print job, such as the name of the printer it

should be sent to.

getPrintJob() retur ns a PrintJob object.

2. To begin ...