Difference between PrintDocument.PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings and PrintDocument.DefaultPageSettings

Question

// Tricky! Very confusing! These statements are similar:

// (1) printDoc.PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left = 75;

// (2) printDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left = 75;

// In pd_PrintPage, ev.MarginBounds.Left will be equal to the Margins.Left value from statement (2).

// I don't know what scenarios use statement (1).

I see how (2) behaves in my code, but I would like to know how (1) would be used. I see that DefaultPageSettings in (1) is read-only, but what is a scenario where (1) would be used?

Answer 1

Hi @Ken Smith , Welcome to Microsoft Q&A,

printDoc.PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left

• PrinterSettings refers to the settings associated with a specific printer. PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings contains the default page settings associated with that printer. Changing the value of PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings affects all documents printed using the default settings for that printer.
• For example:

printDoc.PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left = 75

This code changes the page margins associated with the printer's default settings.

printDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left

• PrintDocument.DefaultPageSettings contains the default page settings associated with the current print document instance. These settings apply only to the current PrintDocument instance.
• For example:

printDoc.DefaultPageSettings.Margins.Left = 75

This code will only change the page margin settings of the current print document instance.

Usage scenarios

Scenario for using PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings (statement (1)):

• Use PrinterSettings.DefaultPageSettings when you want to change the default settings associated with a specific printer. This is usually used to use the same printer settings uniformly in multiple print operations.

Scenario for using DefaultPageSettings (statement (2)):

• Use DefaultPageSettings when you want to set specific page margins for the current print document instance. This is usually used for a single print operation, or when each print document instance may have different settings. Best Regards,

Jiale

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