I was just thinking that it might be convenient to be able to print say a Canvas and its contents directly from client side code instead of having to replicate that drawing code server side to generate XPS or PDF to send to the browser. It would also lessen
the load on the server having to generate those documents.
Also, I was hoping we might see a Silverlight based cross platform XPS viewer to replace the rather "heavy" WPF-based Windows only one now available. And if Silverlight could generate and pass that XPS document to such a viewer (or have "XPSView" as a control) all
on the client side that would be pretty neat too.
Being able to catch a print event and return either say a canvas object or an xaml file could prove invaluable without being to much of a strain on current design plans.
In scenarios where you have Silverlight applications (no html controls just a slick Silverlight interface) I can see many situations where printing support would be required. i.e. printing an order confirmation, printing off a report, a logged call reference
number, an article etc. Yes you could probably take the content and add it to an aspx page but then you may have to worry about formatting (i.e. how will it look on a Mac compared to IE on Windows etc) which is something we wanted to stop worrying about.
If I remember correctly Flash had this problem a while back but have now overcome it. I know it may be a little box to some but ticking these boxes (printing support, back button support, history support, search engine friendliness etc) makes it a lot easier
to justify it's use (over something like Flash).
I vote for printing support as well. Of course, much like opening and saving files, I would expect users to have to explicitly allow the printing to happen.
We have a product that allows clients to "print-on-demand" from an XML content repository.
We are currently limited to the layout and styling that HTML can support because our users will not accept the "heaviness" of PDFs. We are also subject to the various rendering decisions and font availability of different browsers and versions, including
different headers and footers, margin sizes, and low-resolution graphics.
It would be easy to directly produce XPS on our server and send it to Silverlight. If Silverlight had the ability to print, we could produce reliable page layout, fast and high-quality output.
This is a feature I would like as well, we currently have an application written in flash that we would like to port but are unable to because of the lack of printing support.
We are using XAML vector elements for generating maps and floor plans in Silverlight. In this domain printing support is a must. To start with normal printing through the browsers print functionally will do as long as the aspect ratio of the graphics is
preserved (this is not the case right now)
Later on it would be great to be able to control what will be printed through pre/post printing events, also possibilities to contol print scale would be great.
DCMonkey
Member
2 Points
2 Posts
Printing Support?
May 02, 2007 09:20 AM | LINK
Is there any printing support in Silverlight (1.1)?
Mark Rideout
Contributor
2736 Points
307 Posts
Microsoft
Re: Printing Support?
May 02, 2007 10:18 PM | LINK
-mark
Program Manager
Microsoft
This post is provided "as-is"
DCMonkey
Member
2 Points
2 Posts
Re: Printing Support?
May 03, 2007 11:22 PM | LINK
I was just thinking that it might be convenient to be able to print say a Canvas and its contents directly from client side code instead of having to replicate that drawing code server side to generate XPS or PDF to send to the browser. It would also lessen the load on the server having to generate those documents.
Also, I was hoping we might see a Silverlight based cross platform XPS viewer to replace the rather "heavy" WPF-based Windows only one now available. And if Silverlight could generate and pass that XPS document to such a viewer (or have "XPSView" as a control) all on the client side that would be pretty neat too.
CJCraft.com
Member
50 Points
18 Posts
Re: Printing Support?
May 20, 2007 12:59 AM | LINK
Being able to catch a print event and return either say a canvas object or an xaml file could prove invaluable without being to much of a strain on current design plans.
Thanks,
John_Mandia
Member
10 Points
8 Posts
Re: Printing Support?
May 22, 2007 11:19 AM | LINK
I would like to add my vote for printing support.
In scenarios where you have Silverlight applications (no html controls just a slick Silverlight interface) I can see many situations where printing support would be required. i.e. printing an order confirmation, printing off a report, a logged call reference number, an article etc. Yes you could probably take the content and add it to an aspx page but then you may have to worry about formatting (i.e. how will it look on a Mac compared to IE on Windows etc) which is something we wanted to stop worrying about.
If I remember correctly Flash had this problem a while back but have now overcome it. I know it may be a little box to some but ticking these boxes (printing support, back button support, history support, search engine friendliness etc) makes it a lot easier to justify it's use (over something like Flash).
Thanks,
John
http://weblogs.asp.net/jmandia
http://www.silverlightseo.net/
http://twitter.com/jmandia
forci
Member
351 Points
275 Posts
Re: Printing Support?
May 30, 2007 06:43 AM | LINK
Me too.
mschenk
Member
2 Points
1 Post
Re: Printing Support?
Jun 05, 2007 09:20 PM | LINK
I vote for printing support as well. Of course, much like opening and saving files, I would expect users to have to explicitly allow the printing to happen.
We have a product that allows clients to "print-on-demand" from an XML content repository.
We are currently limited to the layout and styling that HTML can support because our users will not accept the "heaviness" of PDFs. We are also subject to the various rendering decisions and font availability of different browsers and versions, including different headers and footers, margin sizes, and low-resolution graphics.
It would be easy to directly produce XPS on our server and send it to Silverlight. If Silverlight had the ability to print, we could produce reliable page layout, fast and high-quality output.
rajesh_junk
Member
4 Points
3 Posts
Re: Re: Printing Support?
Jun 06, 2007 05:09 PM | LINK
I vote for printing as well. its critical to desktop applications that plan to use silverlight
codan3
Member
4 Points
2 Posts
Re: Printing Support?
Jun 08, 2007 11:10 PM | LINK
This is a feature I would like as well, we currently have an application written in flash that we would like to port but are unable to because of the lack of printing support.
Tim Favour
Member
101 Points
81 Posts
Re: Printing Support?
Jun 13, 2007 09:00 PM | LINK
Yes please,
We are using XAML vector elements for generating maps and floor plans in Silverlight. In this domain printing support is a must. To start with normal printing through the browsers print functionally will do as long as the aspect ratio of the graphics is preserved (this is not the case right now)
Later on it would be great to be able to control what will be printed through pre/post printing events, also possibilities to contol print scale would be great.
Regards,
Tim