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I am working on a small app that chooses a file and when I click the print button it will simply print the file to the chosen printer(from the printDialog()).
I have looked at numerous tutorials and examples but most of them refer to printing components from swing or loading the file into a textarea before printing the text from that textarea.
I would like to know if there is a simple way of implementing the feature I am after and possibly some helpful code if kind enough.
I have also tried the Desktop class but opens the associated app to use its print feature.
Thank you
DP
Ulf Dittmer
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Joined: Mar 22, 2005
Posts: 35237
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Welcome to JavaRanch.
Unfortunately, there is no way to "simply print a file". Java knows what to do with certain file types (e.g. text and PostScript), but in general only an application that knows what to do with a given file format can print a file (say, a web browser for an HTML file, or Adobe Reader for a PDF file). That's why the Desktop class uses the application that "owns" the file to print it.
A smart printer can help (e.g., some printers know what to do with PDFs), but generally they need something like PostScript or PCL as input, not just any file format.
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