FinePrint Developer Kit

Integrating FinePrint with your application is quite easy. Since FinePrint is a printer driver, you can print to the FinePrint driver just as you would any other printer.  The information below plus the registry settings comprise the FinePrint SDK.

Setting the display mode

HKCU/Software/FinePrint Software/FinePrint11/FinePrinters/FinePrint/PrinterDriverData/ShowDlg

1 = show UI
2 = do not show UI

This does not affect any open HDCs into the FinePrint printer.

Note: the values above are of type DWORD, not string. The display can also be set interactively using the FinePrint properties in the Printers folder.

Display Mode Override

If for some reason you still have problems with the ShowDlg setting not “sticking”, you can use “forced override” mode. To do this, just set the following in the registry:

HKCU/Software/FinePrint Software/FinePrint11/FinePrinters/FinePrint/ShowDlg = 2

Note: The forced override setting is just like what you were doing, but minus the “PrinterDriverData” subkey. In forced override mode, the setting you make affects ALL applications and it cannot be changed from the UI until you change it in the registry. so do not use this setting unless you absolutely have to.

Combining multiple jobs into a single print job with no dialog box

By default, when the FinePrnit dialog box is is turned off in the “Show dialog” setting, only print one job at a time can be printed to the to the FinePrint printer. Each job is immediately printed to the destination printer, so combining jobs is not possible as it is when you show the FinePrint dialog.

Using the CollectJobs registry setting, FinePrint will collect multiple print jobs before printing them.

The DWORD registry key is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/FinePrint Software/FinePrint11/FinePrinters/FinePrint/CollectJobs

Set the CollectJobs value to the number of print jobs you want to combine. Each time FinePrint receives a print job, it decrements the counter. The counter value should be checked to ensure that it has been decremented before the next job is sent. When all the jobs have been collected and sent to the output device, the counter is set to zero.

Creating Page Tag variables

Page tag set components (headers, footers, watermarks) can be set using SYSTEM environment variables. In the Stamps tab, set the stamp string to <%env_var%> where env_var is the name of the SYSTEM environment variable. For example:

<%temp%> would display the system temp directory.