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c#printingspooler

Mechanics of printing

I am changing default print settings using winspool.drv before printing. Do the altered default printing settings get embedded with the print job when it is printed? Or are they saved somewhere else? If I change a setting, what happens when the print job is sent to the printer? What information goes with the print job? Am I even asking the right questions? I am batch printing a lot of files and changing settings between pages in each job.
Edit: My understanding is this:

  1. I make changes to default printer settings
  2. Print document, default printer settings are embedded in spool file and sent to printer
  3. Printer prints using spool file

Is my understanding is correct? Do I need to wait until the print job is over before changing the printer settings?

Solution
    • Changing default settings for a simple task is usually a no-go and should never be done. If your program crashes or does something wrong, the user's settings are lost, which might even get pretty expensive considering high quality print settings, photo paper, etc.
    • You should change the settings per job using the provided API (if possible) to only affect the current/to be printed document.
    • Once the print job is done/spooled (i.e. it's only waiting for the printer to start or getting online), updated settings no longer affect the document.