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Creating DataMatrix in C# Managing Printing

isolation settings . The filtering capabilities of custom filters have also been enhanced with additional filter criteria to make filtering more powerful . For more information concerning these enhancements, see the section titled Enhancements to the Print Management Console in Windows 7 later in this chapter .

PrintBRM The PrintBRM command-line tool has been enhanced in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to provide more flexibility and improved instrumentation for the administrator . For more information concerning these improvements, see the sidebar titled Direct from the Source: Enhancements to PrintBRM in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 later in this chapter .

Understanding how printing works in Windows 7 is important for administrators who need to know how to configure, manage, and troubleshoot printers and printing on this platform . The key topics to understand are:

XPS is a platform-independent, royalty-free, open-standard document format developed by Microsoft that uses XML, Open Packaging Conventions (OPC), and other industry standards to create cross-platform documents . XPS was designed to simplify the process for creating, sharing, viewing, printing, and archiving digital documents that are accurate representations of application output . Using APIs provided by the Windows SDK and the Microsoft .NET Framework 3 .0, developers can create Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications that take advantage of XPS technologies . XPS support, which is native to Windows Vista and later versions, allows users to open XPS documents in Internet Explorer 7 .0 or higher and to generate XPS documents from any Windows application using the Microsoft XPS Document Writer . When you install additional features, some earlier versions of Windows can also use some of the capabilities of XPS:

By installing the .NET Framework 3 .0 redistributable on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows Server 2003, users of these platforms can open XPS documents using Internet Explorer 6 .0 or later versions . By installing Microsoft Core XML Services 6 .0 on Windows XP SP2 or later versions, users can generate XPS documents from any Windows application using the Microsoft XPS Document Writer . By installing the Microsoft XPS Essentials Pack and Microsoft Core XML Services 6 .0 on Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003, users can open XPS documents in a stand-alone XPS Viewer application .

You can find detailed information on XPS in the version 1 .0 document for this specification at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/downloads.mspx on Microsoft Windows Hardware Developer Central (WHDC) . You can find additional news concerning this specification on the XPS Team Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/xps/ .

The print subsystem on versions of Windows earlier than Windows Vista used the GDI print path . The GDI print path processes print jobs as follows:

Client processes When a user on a client computer sends a print job from an application, the application calls the GDI, which then calls the printer driver for information about how to render the print job in a format that the printer can understand . The printer driver resides on the user s computer and is specific to the type of printer being used . After the GDI renders the print job, it sends the job to the spooler . By default on Windows 2000 and later versions, the GDI renders print jobs using the Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format, a standard print job format that is highly portable but needs to be further rendered by the spooler before being sent to the printer . When an EMF print job is sent to the spooler, control returns to the user and the spooler then completes rendering the job for printing . (Because the EMF job is quickly handed off to the spooler, the time during which the user s computer is busy is minimized .) Spooler processes The print spooler is a collection of features that resides on both the client computer that sends the print job and a network print server that receives the job for printing . The spooler takes the job as rendered by the GDI and, if necessary, renders it further to ensure that it prints correctly . The spooler then hands the job off to the printer . Printer processes The printer receives the print job from the spooler, translates it into a bitmap, and prints the document .

Beginning with Windows Vista, the printing subsystem still includes a GDI print path (for Type 3 User Mode) to support printing to existing printers . Kernel-mode GDI (Type 2 Kernel Mode) drivers, however, are no longer supported .