Displaying Print Preview of HTML Document without DocumentViewer

Question

I have a C#/WPF application in which I need to display a print preview for an HTML document -- essentially just like what one would see if looking at a print preview in Firefox

Answer 1

You might want to use the WebBrowser control and extend it using the example provided here: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/wbp.aspx

[Edit: updated the answer to illustrate how to accomplish the same using the WPF WebBrowser control (System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser)]

The underlying control is the same - it's the ActiveX component in SHDocVw.dll.

I pulled together some better reference URL's for you. Turns out there's a pretty good lead on doing something similar from the MSDN documentation for the control: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.webbrowser(v=vs.90).aspx#4 There's also this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329014.

You'll need to add a reference to SHDocVw, which is under the COM reference list as "Microsoft Internet Controls"

[ComImport, InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
[Guid("6d5140c1-7436-11ce-8034-00aa006009fa")]
internal interface IServiceProvider
{
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IUnknown)]
    object QueryService(ref Guid guidService, ref Guid riid);
}
static readonly Guid SID_SWebBrowserApp = new Guid("0002DF05-0000-0000-C000-000000000046");

void webBrowser_LoadCompleted(object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
{
    IServiceProvider serviceProvider = null;
    if (webBrowser.Document != null)
    {
        serviceProvider = (IServiceProvider)webBrowser.Document;
    }

    Guid serviceGuid = SID_SWebBrowserApp;
    Guid iid = typeof(SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2).GUID;

    object NullValue = null;

    SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2 target = (SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2)serviceProvider.QueryService(ref serviceGuid, ref iid);
    target.ExecWB(SHDocVw.OLECMDID.OLECMDID_PRINTPREVIEW, SHDocVw.OLECMDEXECOPT.OLECMDEXECOPT_DODEFAULT, ref NullValue, ref NullValue);
}

XAML:

<Window x:Class="StackOverflowWPF.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525" Loaded="Window_Loaded">
    <Grid>
        <DockPanel LastChildFill="True">
            <WebBrowser Name="webBrowser"  Source="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.webbrowser.aspx" LoadCompleted="webBrowser_LoadCompleted">
            </WebBrowser>
        </DockPanel>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Anyone interested in the WinForms control version (System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser) can skip all the IServiceProvider baggage and just use the ActiveXInstance property (which the WPF control doesn't expose:

SHDocVw.WebBrowser target = webBrowser.ActiveXInstance as SHDocVw.WebBrowser;
target.ExecWB(SHDocVw.OLECMDID.OLECMDID_PRINTPREVIEW, SHDocVw.OLECMDEXECOPT.OLECMDEXECOPT_DODEFAULT, null, null);