D2D PDF Printer

Example of using Windows.Data.Pdf from C++/winrt or C# to print a PDF file.

No third party apps required - no additional licenses. Only Windows.

PDF's are printed as vectors. Text is preserved. Minimal testing done - demo only, not production ready.

For a production C# version, consider Rmg.PdfPrinting (Nuget).

Key steps

1. Reference/initialize winrt (e.g.: winrt::init_apartment(winrt::apartment_type::single_threaded);)
2. Decide what printer to use (PrintDlgEx or similar) and create a print ticket
3. Open the PDF with PdfDocument::LoadFromFileAsync(file)
4. Acquire system resources (D3D, DXGI, D2D, WIC)
5. Create a print job (IPrintDocumentPackageTargetFactory::CreateDocumentPackageTargetForPrintJob and ID2D1PrintControl)
6. Create a PDF renderer (PdfCreateRenderer)
7. Loop over pages, render to a command list, RenderPageToDeviceContext, and add the command list as a page to the ID2D1PrintControl.
8. End the document with ID2D1PrintControl::Close
9. Keep alive for a bit, pumping messages (seemingly only needed for printing to virtual printers like "Acrobat PDF Converter")

Examples

• D2DPrintSample
  C++ Sample based on https://github.com/microsoft/Windows-classic-samples/blob/main/Samples/D2DPrintingFromDesktopApps/cpp/D2DPrintingFromDesktopApps.cpp
• PrintPdf
  Minimal C++ sample reduced from D2DPrintSample
• PrintPdfManaged
  C#/net7 port of PrintPdf

Future possibilites

• WPF viewer control
• NuGet wrapper