Printer List

Printer_List(Mat A$)

The Printer_List internal function returns the number of elements in A$ after redimensioning A$ to the number of active Windows printers. The contents of A$ show the printer names used by Windows, and the default printer is the first element. These names are also suitable OPEN NAME= values to direct output to the respective devices. For example:

10 DIM A$(1)*100
20 LET X=PRINTER_LIST(A$)
30 PRINT MAT A$

This program will display a list of printer names defined on the local machine in the manner the OS 'sees' them.

Also, to make easier use of PRINTER_LIST(A$) returned values, any matching substring of an A$ element will suffice after PRN:/ in the following example:

10 DIM A$(1)*60, SELECTION$*60
20 LET X=PRINTER_LIST(A$)       ! Get Windows Printer List
30 FOR LOOP = 1 TO X
40    A$(LOOP) = A$(LOOP)(1:POS(A$(LOOP),"@")-1) ! Trim device address
50 NEXT LOOP
60 GOSUB USER_SELECT_PRINTER    !  Custom Routine to Select From A$
                                 --- place result into SELECTION$ ---
70 OPEN #255: "Name=PRN:/"& SELECTION$, DISPLAY, OUTPUT

Troubleshooting hint when printing under Windows

From the printers folder, click on the printer that's not working, select properties, details, and spoolsettings. Then make sure the "spool data format" option is set to "RAW," not "EMP".