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PrintFixedDocument wpf print quality- Windows 10/8 vs Windows 7

I am currently trying to print the contents of a content container (it only contains datagrids with information) and an image using PrintFixedDocument. It prints flawlessly on my machine (windows 10) with full image quality and on another pc which is windows 8, the quality is the same.
However when this is done on a Windows 7 pc the image quality becomes very poor and the final result is very blurred. This is a problem as the computer cannot be updated from windows 7 for various reasons, so im wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if so is there a workaround? Also could be an issue with my GetFixedDocument method, though I cannot work out why this would work on both win 10 and 8 but not 7.
NOTE THIS IS RUNNING FROM AN INSTALLED VERSION OF THE APPLICATION ON EACH PC
ALSO BEEN TRIED ON MULTIPLE PRINTERS ON ALL 3 OPERATING SYSTEMS
Any help would be appreciated
Xaml:
<StackPanel Margin="-105,146,66,0" Height="900" VerticalAlignment="Top" x:Name="PrintImageContextMenu">
<Image Canvas.ZIndex="0" Source="{Binding Coupon.OverlayImagePath}" Margin="0,-21,-76,108" Stretch="Fill" />
<ContentControl Content="{Binding}" ContentTemplateSelector="{StaticResource DataViewerDataTemplateSelector}" />
</StackPanel>
C#:
public partial class CouponViewerView
{
public CouponViewerView()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public void Print()
{
//Executes On Thread
Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority.Normal, (EventHandler)delegate
{
UpdateLayout();
var fixedDoc = PrintHelper.GetFixedDocument(StackPanelToPrint, new PrintDialog());
PrintHelper.ShowPrintPreview(fixedDoc);
}, null, null);
}
private void PrintCurrentForm(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Print();
}
C# Print helper code:
public static void ShowPrintPreview(FixedDocument fixedDoc)
{
var wnd = new Window();
var viewer = new DocumentViewer();
viewer.Document = fixedDoc;
wnd.Content = viewer;
wnd.ShowDialog();
}
public static FixedDocument GetFixedDocument(FrameworkElement toPrint, PrintDialog printDialog)
{
var capabilities = printDialog.PrintQueue.GetPrintCapabilities(printDialog.PrintTicket);
var pageSize = new Size(printDialog.PrintableAreaWidth, printDialog.PrintableAreaHeight);
var visibleSize = new Size(capabilities.PageImageableArea.ExtentWidth, capabilities.PageImageableArea.ExtentHeight);
var fixedDoc = new FixedDocument();
//If the toPrint visual is not displayed on screen we neeed to measure and arrange it
toPrint.Measure(new Size(double.PositiveInfinity, double.PositiveInfinity));
toPrint.Arrange(new Rect(new Point(0, 0), toPrint.DesiredSize));
//
var size = toPrint.DesiredSize;
//Will assume for simplicity the control fits horizontally on the page
double yOffset = 0;
while (yOffset < size.Height)
{
var vb = new VisualBrush(toPrint)
{
Stretch = Stretch.None,
AlignmentX = AlignmentX.Left,
AlignmentY = AlignmentY.Top,
ViewboxUnits = BrushMappingMode.Absolute,
TileMode = TileMode.None,
Viewbox = new Rect(0, yOffset, visibleSize.Width, visibleSize.Height)
};
var pageContent = new PageContent();
var page = new FixedPage();
((IAddChild)pageContent).AddChild(page);
fixedDoc.Pages.Add(pageContent);
page.Width = pageSize.Width;
page.Height = pageSize.Height;
var canvas = new Canvas();
FixedPage.SetLeft(canvas, capabilities.PageImageableArea.OriginWidth);
FixedPage.SetTop(canvas, capabilities.PageImageableArea.OriginHeight);
canvas.Width = visibleSize.Width;
canvas.Height = visibleSize.Height;
canvas.Background = vb;
page.Children.Add(canvas);
yOffset += visibleSize.Height;
}
return fixedDoc;
}

anyone else has experienced this and if so is there a workaround?
That's the only directly answerable question, yes, many. Keep in mind that you often substantially rescale an image on a printer, they are devices with very high dots-per-inch resolution compared to a monitor. A machine that boots Win7 often runs at 96dpi, later ones tend to have better monitors so are often run at higher dpi settings. First thing to watch out for is the source image. If it has a pixel size that's adequate for that Win7 PC then it can get very blurry when it is blown-up to 600 dpi.
Probably the most unintuitive scaling behavior in WPF is what happens when the image alignment does not perfectly match a target pixel after scaling. A problem described well in this blog post. Be sure to also read this SO question, an almost perfect fit for your usage of VisualBrush and its blurriness problem. This problem was addressed in .NET 4.0 with the added UseLayoutRounding property. You are not using it, you definitely should. Don't blindly apply the BitmapScalingMode that the dup recommends, the type of image (line-art vs photo) matters a lot.

I had a similar issue I ended up instead of directly printing to creating a PDF and having that open for the client and they could print it if they wanted just fine.
Windows 7 just seems broken with some of the WPF printing.

Get device resolution in Windows 10 [duplicate]

As an UWP App runs in window mode on common desktop systems the "old" way of getting the screen resolution won't work anymore.
Old Resolution with Window.Current.Bounds was like shown in.
Is there another way to get the resolution of the (primary) display?

To improve the other answers even a bit more, the following code also takes care of scaling factors, e.g. for my 200% for my Windows display (correctly returns 3200x1800) and 300% of the Lumia 930 (1920x1080).
var bounds = ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().VisibleBounds;
var scaleFactor = DisplayInformation.GetForCurrentView().RawPixelsPerViewPixel;
var size = new Size(bounds.Width*scaleFactor, bounds.Height*scaleFactor);
As stated in the other answers, this only returns the correct size on Desktop before the size of root frame is changed.

Call this method anywhere, anytime (tested in mobile/desktop App):
public static Size GetCurrentDisplaySize() {
var displayInformation = DisplayInformation.GetForCurrentView();
TypeInfo t = typeof(DisplayInformation).GetTypeInfo();
var props = t.DeclaredProperties.Where(x => x.Name.StartsWith("Screen") && x.Name.EndsWith("InRawPixels")).ToArray();
var w = props.Where(x => x.Name.Contains("Width")).First().GetValue(displayInformation);
var h = props.Where(x => x.Name.Contains("Height")).First().GetValue(displayInformation);
var size = new Size(System.Convert.ToDouble(w), System.Convert.ToDouble(h));
switch (displayInformation.CurrentOrientation) {
case DisplayOrientations.Landscape:
case DisplayOrientations.LandscapeFlipped:
size = new Size(Math.Max(size.Width, size.Height), Math.Min(size.Width, size.Height));
break;
case DisplayOrientations.Portrait:
case DisplayOrientations.PortraitFlipped:
size = new Size(Math.Min(size.Width, size.Height), Math.Max(size.Width, size.Height));
break;
}
return size;
}

The more simple way:
var displayInformation = DisplayInformation.GetForCurrentView();
var screenSize = new Size(displayInformation.ScreenWidthInRawPixels,
displayInformation.ScreenHeightInRawPixels);
This does not depends on current view size. At any time it returns real screen resolution.

Okay so the Answer from Juan Pablo Garcia Coello lead me to the Solution - Thanks for that!
You can use
var bounds = ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().VisibleBounds;
but you must call it before the windows is displayed in my case right after
Window.Current.Activate();
is a good place. At this time you will get the bounds of the window on which your app will appear.
Thanks a lot for help me solving it :)
Regards Alex

The only way I found is inside the constructor of a Page:
public MainPage()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
var test = ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView().VisibleBounds;
}
I have not tested in Windows 10 Mobile, when the new release appears I will test that.

Use this method to get the screen size:
public static Size GetScreenResolutionInfo()
{
var applicationView = ApplicationView.GetForCurrentView();
var displayInformation = DisplayInformation.GetForCurrentView();
var bounds = applicationView.VisibleBounds;
var scale = displayInformation.RawPixelsPerViewPixel;
var size = new Size(bounds.Width * scale, bounds.Height * scale);
return size;
}
You should call this method from App.xaml.cs, after Window.Current.Activate(); in OnLaunched method.
Here's the sample code and you can download the full project.

Just set a name for main Grid or Page and call its width or height for an element you want:
Element.Height = PagePane.Height;
Element.width = PagePane.Width;
it's the easiest way you can use!

Custom tile generates a System.OutOfMemoryException exception in wp8

Has anyone got any idea why I'm getting an OutOfMemoryException when I'm creating my custom tile?
I'm trying to create custom images for my primary tile on a windows phone 8 app from a ScheduledAgent. The error doesn't occur until my very last line of code is executed which is the NotifyComplete().
Here is the code (Not the cleanest but ok for prototyping I guess). This code only handles the wide tile and it tries to load an image an image downloaded from a website and then it tries to render a logo and a description over this image.
Here is the code:
private void CreateTiles()
{
Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
{
for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
var bmp = new WriteableBitmap(691, 336);
var articleImg = new BitmapImage(new Uri(articles[i].ImageFilename, UriKind.Relative));
var articleImage = new Image { Source = articleImg };
articleImage.Stretch = Stretch.UniformToFill;
articleImg.CreateOptions = BitmapCreateOptions.None; // Force the bitmapimage to load it's properties so the transform will work
var bmpLogo = new WriteableBitmap(100, 100);
var logoImg = new BitmapImage(new Uri("/Assets/Tiles/FlipCycleTileSmall.png", UriKind.Relative));
var logoImage = new Image { Source = logoImg };
logoImage.Opacity = 1.0;
logoImg.CreateOptions = BitmapCreateOptions.None; // Force the bitmapimage to load it's properties so the transform will work
var articleBannerGrid = new Grid();
articleBannerGrid.Background = ColorExtensions.ToSolidColorBrush("#000F558E");
articleBannerGrid.Opacity = .5;
articleBannerGrid.Height = 100;
articleBannerGrid.VerticalAlignment = VerticalAlignment.Bottom;
articleBannerGrid.ColumnDefinitions.Add(new ColumnDefinition() { Width = new GridLength(100) });
articleBannerGrid.ColumnDefinitions.Add(new ColumnDefinition());
articleBannerGrid.Children.Add(logoImage);
Grid.SetColumn(logoImage, 0);
var textBlock = new TextBlock();
textBlock.Text = articles[i].Description;
textBlock.FontWeight = FontWeights.Bold;
textBlock.Margin = new Thickness(10, 5, 30, 5);
textBlock.TextWrapping = TextWrapping.Wrap;
textBlock.Foreground = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.White); //color of the text on the Tile
textBlock.FontSize = 30;
textBlock.Opacity = 1.0;
var articleTextGrid = new Grid();
articleTextGrid.Height = 100;
articleTextGrid.VerticalAlignment = VerticalAlignment.Bottom;
articleTextGrid.ColumnDefinitions.Add(new ColumnDefinition() { Width = new GridLength(100) });
articleTextGrid.ColumnDefinitions.Add(new ColumnDefinition());
articleTextGrid.Children.Add(textBlock);
Grid.SetColumn(textBlock, 1);
var canvas = new Grid();
canvas.Width = articleImg.PixelWidth;
canvas.Height = articleImg.PixelHeight;
canvas.Children.Add(articleImage);
canvas.Children.Add(articleBannerGrid);
canvas.Children.Add(articleTextGrid);
bmp.Render(canvas, null);
bmp.Invalidate(); //Draw bitmap
FileStream fs = new FileStream(articles[i].ImageFilename, FileMode.Create);
bmp.SaveJpeg(fs, bmp.PixelWidth, bmp.PixelHeight, 0, 100);
fs.Close();
fs.Dispose();
articleImage = null;
articleImg = null;
}
//GC.Collect();
//GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
ShellTile TileToFind = ShellTile.ActiveTiles.FirstOrDefault();
if (TileToFind != null)
{
string title = articles[0].Tag;
string backTitle = articles[1].Tag;
string content = articles[0].Description;
string backContent = articles[1].Description;
FlipTileData tileData = new FlipTileData()
{
Title = title,
BackTitle = backTitle,
BackContent = backContent,
WideBackContent = backContent,
BackgroundImage = new Uri(articles[0].ImageFilename, UriKind.Relative),
BackBackgroundImage = new Uri(articles[1].ImageFilename, UriKind.Relative),
WideBackgroundImage = new Uri(articles[0].ImageFilename, UriKind.Relative),
WideBackBackgroundImage = new Uri(articles[1].ImageFilename, UriKind.Relative),
};
TileToFind.Update(tileData);
}
NotifyComplete();
});
}
I assume that it is the correct place to generate the custom tile i.e. ScheduledAgent.
I found an article Dynamic Live Tile issue WP8 [WriteableBitmap] on the Nokia website with the same problem but no solution there either.
I'll continue debugging this tomorrow by removing everything and adding each bit individually step by step to see if I can spot anything but if anyone has got any suggestion or solution, I'd appreciate if you could help.
If I'm going about it the wrong way, please let me know what's the best method to update tiles in the scheduled agent.
Thanks.

WP BackgroundAgents have a small memory cap. 20MB for WP8 without update 3 and 25 for WP8 with Update 3.
I would suggest that you create a another project and add Coding4Fun toolkit and MemoryCounter in to your page and then add the code in your BackgroudAgent to the sample page and try to create the tiles. Then look at how much memory it uses. I think amount of memory usage is higher than the 20/25MB cap. if so you have to find a way to reduce it.

As usual, Microsoft is omitting critical information from its documentation.
After reducing the size of my tile from 691x336 to 336x165, it worked, so it got me thinking and I thought that the size recommended by Microsoft in this article Flip Tile template for Windows Phone 8 for wp8 and wp8.1 seemed excessive, so I did a bit more research and this is when I found this excellent explanation in an article in stackoverflow i.e.
Windows Phone 8 Startscreen Tile sizes and margins
This clearly states the size of the tiles but not based on OS versions but based on screen resolutions.
In my test environment, I was using the default 'Emulator WVGA 512MB' and again by default the screen size is 480x800, so taking into account the information provided in the answer of this article, my tile size should have been 430x210.
I resized my (already reduced) tile back up to 430x210, and it still worked.
While there is a memory cap of 20/25Mb depending on OS and patch being used, which probably causes many problems from the various articles I've read on the web, in my instance I believe it was more likely to have been affected by tile size being incorrect, and therefore the additional memory, or lack thereof.
I will update this article once I get to using 8.1 in my IDE with a larger resolution but for now, I have to assume that it was definitely related to the size of my tile.
I'll definitely make sure to add code to create tile based on os, patch and resolution being used. Bit of a pain to best honest!
Hope this helps.

WPF printing/xps issue

I have written the following chunk of code that prints my ListBox perfectly when being sent to a physical printer, however when trying to send it to the XPS printer driver or using the XpsDocumentWriter class (I assume they use the same code under the hood) I receive the following exception:
System.ArgumentException was unhandled by user code
Message=Width and Height must be non-negative.
Source=ReachFramework
StackTrace:
at System.Windows.Xps.Serialization.VisualSerializer.WriteTileBrush(String element, TileBrush brush, Rect bounds)
The exception obviously points to an item not having a correct width/height however I have debugged the code when sending it to the different printers (physical and XPS driver) and I haven't been able to find any differences.
Below is how I create the visual to send to the printer:
private ScrollViewer GeneratePrintableView()
{
ScrollViewer scrollView = new ScrollViewer();
Grid grid = new Grid { Background = Brushes.White, Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth, Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight };
grid.RowDefinitions.Add(new RowDefinition());
grid.RowDefinitions[0].Height = new GridLength(0, GridUnitType.Auto);
grid.RowDefinitions.Add(new RowDefinition());
grid.RowDefinitions[1].Height = new GridLength(0, GridUnitType.Auto);
// Add the title and icon to the top
VisualBrush titleClone = new VisualBrush(this.TitleBar);
var titleRectangle = new Rectangle { Fill = titleClone, Width = this.TitleBar.ActualWidth, Height = this.TitleBar.ActualHeight };
grid.Children.Add(titleRectangle);
Grid.SetRow(titleRectangle, 0);
this.myListBox.Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth;
this.myListBox.Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight;
VisualBrush clone = new VisualBrush(this.myListBox) { Stretch = Stretch.None, AutoLayoutContent = true };
var rectangle = new Rectangle { Fill = clone, Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth, Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight };
Border border = new Border { Background = Brushes.White, Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth, Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight };
border.Child = rectangle;
grid.Children.Add(border);
Grid.SetRow(border, 1);
scrollView.Width = this.myListBox.ActualWidth;
scrollView.Height = this.myListBox.ActualHeight;
scrollView.Content = grid;
scrollView.VerticalScrollBarVisibility = ScrollBarVisibility.Hidden;
return scrollView;
}
Here is the GetPage override in my DocumentPaginator implementation:
public override DocumentPage GetPage(int pageNumber)
{
Page page = new Page();
double z = 0.0;
this.grid = new Grid();
this.grid.RowDefinitions.Add(new RowDefinition());
this.grid.RowDefinitions[0].Height = new GridLength(0, GridUnitType.Auto);
this.grid.Children.Add(this.printViewer);
Grid.SetRow(this.printViewer, 0);
//Adjusting the vertical scroll offset depending on the page number
if (pageNumber + 1 == 1) //if First Page
{
this.printViewer.ScrollToVerticalOffset(0);
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
else if (pageNumber + 1 == _verticalPageCount) //if Last Page
{
if (this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight == 0) //If printing only single page and the contents fits only on one page
{
this.printViewer.ScrollToVerticalOffset(0);
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
else if (this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight <= this.printViewer.Height) //If scrollconentheight is less or equal than scrollheight
{
this.printViewer.Height = this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight;
this.printViewer.ScrollToEnd();
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
else //if the scrollcontentheight is greater than scrollheight then set the scrollviewer height to be the remainder between scrollcontentheight and scrollheight
{
this.printViewer.Height = (this.printViewer.ScrollableHeight % this.printViewer.Height) + 5;
this.printViewer.ScrollToEnd();
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
}
else //Other Pages
{
z = z + this.printViewer.Height;
this.printViewer.ScrollToVerticalOffset(z);
this.printViewer.UpdateLayout();
}
page.Content = this.grid; //put the grid into the page
page.Arrange(new Rect(this.originalMargin.Left, this.originalMargin.Top, this.ContentSize.Width, this.ContentSize.Height));
page.UpdateLayout();
return new DocumentPage(page);
}
Interestingly if I change the Fill of rectangle to a Brush instead of clone then I do not receive the exception and the outputted file is the correct size.
I have spent over a day trying to debug why this isn't working and I am hoping that someone out there has either seen a similar issue or is able to point out any mistakes I am making.
Thanks for any responses.

I had to give up finding a solution with VisualBrush. If there is a GroupBox in the Visual for the brush I could never get it to produce a XPS file. It always fails with
System.ArgumentException was unhandled by user code Message=Width and Height must be non-negative. Source=ReachFramework StackTrace: at System.Windows.Xps.Serialization.VisualSerializer.WriteTileBrush(String element, TileBrush brush, Rect bounds)
The workaround was to clone the content that should go in the VisualBrush (Is there an easy/built-in way to get an exact copy (clone) of a XAML element?) and use that directly in a Grid instead of an VisualBrush

Have you checked the value of ActualWidth and ActualHeight of myListBox when the VisualBrush is being created? I don't know from where myListBox comes, but if it is not rendered by the time you are generating your xps document you may run into problems. You can try to manually force the control to render and see if it makes any difference.

I was unable to rectify the problem however using this link Paginated printing of WPF visuals I was able to find a suitable solution to allow printing of complicated visuals within my WPF application.

It's 2016 now and it's still not fixed. The problem is using TileBrush or any descendant type (VisualBrush in your case). If you use absolute mapping, it works, it's the relative mapping that causes the problem. Calculate the final size yourself and set Viewport to this size, ViewportUnits to Absolute. Also make sure you don't use Stretch.

WPF Print Problem

When i select Microsoft XPS Document Writer as Printer, my output is perfect but when i select my HP 1020 printer machine, the printer outputs blank copy...Following is the code....
private void printButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
PrintInvoice pi = new PrintInvoice();
pi.DataContext = this.DataContext;
PrintDialog printDlg = new System.Windows.Controls.PrintDialog();
if (printDlg.ShowDialog() == true)
{
pi.Margin = new Thickness(30);
//now print the visual to printer to fit on the one page.
printDlg.PrintVisual(pi, "First Fit to Page WPF Print");
}
}

This could be caused by a number of different things. There are a few steps that you can add which, when performed correctly, may cause the flying men to return with goods and knowledge.
First, you should scale to the printed page (code from a2zdotnet):
System.Printing.PrintCapabilities capabilities =
printDlg.PrintQueue.GetPrintCapabilities(printDlg.PrintTicket);
//get scale of the print wrt to screen of WPF visual
double scale = Math.Min(capabilities.PageImageableArea.ExtentWidth / this.ActualWidth, capabilities.PageImageableArea.ExtentHeight /
this.ActualHeight);
//Transform the Visual to scale
this.LayoutTransform = new ScaleTransform(scale, scale);
//get the size of the printer page
Size sz = new Size(capabilities.PageImageableArea.ExtentWidth, capabilities.PageImageableArea.ExtentHeight);
//update the layout of the visual to the printer page size.
this.Measure(sz);
this.Arrange(new Rect(new Point(capabilities.PageImageableArea.OriginWidth, capabilities.PageImageableArea.OriginHeight), sz));
//now print the visual to printer to fit on the one page.
printDlg.PrintVisual(this, "Code ganked from http://www.a2zdotnet.com/View.aspx?id=66");
The cargo-cult code is in the Measure and Arrange steps. Often, if you call Measure and pass in a new Size(Double.MaxValue, Double.MaxValue) that's all you need to do.
The second ritual involves bumping the Dispatcher.
visual.DataContext = foo;
Dispatcher.Invoke((Action)()=>{;}); // bamp
// print here
Try these and see if it helps.

this XAML does the trick in some situations
<ScrollViewer HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden" VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden">
<... Name="myPrintElement" />
</ScrollViewer >