Print the Screen Shot by printer from Unity

Hi there,


I have struggle with my project now, i need to take the print out from my unity scene.

Actually i have a scene which is have some model, i have a button in this screen when i click the button the screen should be take screenshot and it should be print in my printer. This is my function.

For the screen shot we can use

Code (csharp):

1. Application.ScreenShot("Image.png")

But i dont know how to print this image by the printer.
Please help me to do this.

Thanks.

 

This is my first reply, but I can not help you , I think you should be search the printer how to work and is there a interface work in the unity.

 

If you want to render a captured screenshot in the game, have you tried ReadPixels?
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/Texture2D.ReadPixels.html

 

but i need to print the screen by printer

 

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/242537/how-to-print-from-android-and-ios-devices-in-unity.html

best i could find... and don't you mean

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. Application.CaptureScreenshot("filename")
3.  

?

http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/Application.CaptureScreenshot.html

 

although there is this:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5750659/print-images-c-net

which is generic c# i think... no idea if it'll work in unity though.

 

I am using the unity 3.5.7 (no pro) when check below line i can't get.

Code (csharp):

1. using System.Drawing.Printing;

is this drawing function available in unity ?

 

System.Drawing is not available in Unity.

I see two possible solutions:

1. Use Application.CaptureScreenshot to make and save the screenshots and make a satellite application (a service maybe) that will watch the folder where the images appear and print them automatically.

2. It is still possible to use unmanaged code and call WinAPI functions in Unity, even in the free version. But it's the hardest way, I guess.

 

If you don't have Pro, you're not going to really be able to ensure this works. I think a valid question is "why are you trying to do this anyway?" I mean, the last thing I want is a game wasting my ink/toner by printing more than zero screenshots.

 

Actually i need to print out the each and every object functions, when user interact with my scene they might have get more information, so they need to print out that information so that i need one button on my scene when the user click the button the corresponding scene(display) should print by printer.
This is the task assigned by my project manager.

and another doubt i have i got this line from some where in net "using System.Drawing.Printing"
i have tried in my monodevelop but it didn't come, may be this will come only unity 4 versions?

if i will install pro can i get this?

 

No.

Try this:

Code (csharp):

1. System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("mspaint.exe", "/pt d:\\screenshots\\sample.jpg");

 

so we can't do direct print ?

 

i have wrote the below line

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. if(GUI.Button(Rect(10,10,100,30), "print"))
3. {
4. System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("mspaint.exe","D:\\Unity\\Unity Projects\\JPEG Encoding\\Assets\\unity"+count+".png");
5. }
6.  

When i press the "E" key the screen shot will save to this path "D:\\Unity\\Unity Projects\\JPEG Encoding\\Assets\\unity"+count+".png"
count will increase the each time you press the E button like this:
unity0.png, unity1.png, etc.,
Now i press the print button the the last image will be open in paint but its always open the first image , i dont know whats the problem in this.
Please help me to solve this.

 

Code (csharp):

1. // Update is called once per frame
2.     void Update () {
3.        
4.         if(Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.E))
5.         {
6.              Application.CaptureScreenshot("Screenshot"+count+".png");
7.             count++;
8.         }
9.    
10.     }
11.     void OnGUI()
12.     {
13.         if(GUI.Button(new Rect(10,10,100,30), "print"))
14.         {
15.             System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("mspaint.exe","Screenshot"+count+".png");
16.         }
17.     }

 

but its not run properly after i took built.

 

I have tried to import this line in my scripting, but my monodevelop does not support this.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using.System.Drawing;
3. using.System.Drawing.Printing;
4.  

I am using the unity 3.5.7, i dont know what the problem is this.
can we use this drawing property in unity 3d?

Thanks.

 

You just can't use System.Drawing[.xxx]. It heavily uses Windows GDI API and is not supported in Unity.

 

Code (csharp):

1. string filename = @"d:\screenshot.png";
2.            
3. if (File.Exists(filename))
4. {
5.     File.Delete(filename);
6. }
7.  
8. Application.CaptureScreenshot(filename);
9. System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("mspaint.exe", "/pt " + filename);

 

if i use any DLL and integrate with the system dll then can we call the printer through the scripting?

 

I didn't get the idea.

 

If by that you mean that you want to put all your printing code in a DLL that references System.Drawing.Whatever, build it outside of Unity, and then use that in your Unity project then the answer is still no.

That DLL will still use the .NET runtime that Unity uses, which still doesn't have any of the System.Drawing classes. This is how dynamic linking works; code from one DLL is not backed into another DLL at link time, but rather it's loaded at runtime. Doesn't matter if you have .NET installed since Unity will only use its own bundled version of .NET.

You can get around that with building a .NET EXE that does the printing and communicate with it from your Unity code using inter-process communication, but it's far from trivial.

Actually, alexzzzz's solution is looking rather elegant in its simplicity to me. Why are you not looking into it?

 

no,u can't.Because unity does not support that.

actually what u have to do. r u print an image using printer device.

 

I have tried this code to save my image but its not working all the path name is correct i dont know whats the problem in this.
This is the code:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. function Update()
3. {
4.     if(Input.GetKeyDown("e"))
5.          ScreenshotEncode();
6. }
7. function ScreenshotEncode()
8. {
9.     count++;   
10.      filename = Application.dataPath+"unity"+count+".png";
11.    
12.     //file will be save the AssetsUnity1.png
13.     File.WriteAllBytes(filename, encoder.GetBytes());
14.     Debug.Log(filename);
15. }
16.  
17. //when i press the button the last image file assetsunity1.png should open, but its not happening
18. function OnGUI()
19. {  
20. if(GUI.Button(Rect(10,10,100,30), "print"))
21. {
22.     System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("mspaint.exe", Application.dataPath+"unity"+count+".png");
23. }
24.  
25.  

 

Code (csharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class ImageOpen : MonoBehaviour {
5.    
6.     int count=0;
7.    
8.     // Use this for initialization
9.     void Start () {
10.    
11.     }
12.    
13.     // Update is called once per frame
14.     void Update () {
15.        
16.         if(Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.E))
17.         {
18.             count++;
19.             Application.CaptureScreenshot(Application.dataPath+"/Screenshot"+count+".png");
20.            
21.            
22.         }
23.    
24.     }
25.     void OnGUI()
26.     {
27.         GUI.Label(new Rect(100,100,100,30),count.ToString());
28.        
29.         if(GUI.Button(new Rect(10,10,100,30), "print"))
30.         {
31.             System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("mspaint.exe",Application.dataPath+"\\Screenshot"+(count)+".png");
32.         }
33.     }
34. }
35.  

 

Edit>project settings>player>optimization change .net2.0subset to .net2.0

 

Sorry to revive the post, but I found this when I was trying to do the same thing.
Maybe could be interesting to you guys.

http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php/ScreenCapture

 

try this...

if (GUI.Button(new Rect((Screen.width - 200) / 2, (Screen.height - 200) / 2, 200, 200), "Print Image"))
{
ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo(path + "/PrintImage.exe");
//info.Arguments = "F:/Temp/sample-icon.png";//default image width,height
info.Arguments = "F:/Temp/sample-icon.png,10,10,100,100";//assign Rectangle(x,y,width,height)
using (Process p = new Process())
{
p.StartInfo = info;
p.Start();
}
}

 

How to print photo on 10cm*15cm paper, and fit to sheet size, using PrintImage?

Also, same question to mspaint method?

 

Answering own question:

Code (CSharp):

1.         string app = Application.streamingAssetsPath + "/PrintImage.exe";      
2.         string image = Application.streamingAssetsPath + "/image.png,0,0,529,352";   // from 0,0 point of a sheet, resize image to 529x352 points.  calculation: 150mm / 28.346 px/cm = 529 points ,  100mm / 28.346 pm/cm = 352 points
3.      
4.         image = "\"" + image + "\"";   // if path contains spaces
5.         UnityEngine.Debug.Log(image);
6.  
7.         ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo(app);
8.         info.Arguments = image;
9.         using (Process p = new Process())
10.         {
11.             p.StartInfo = info;
12.             p.Start();
13.         }

 

Hi iLyxa3D,
would you care to explain how do you get the value of 28.346 px/cm?
I tried it to print my image using that value to A4 paper, but it is stretched

 

@EA

Hi ea9006271,
Where do you get the PrintImage.exe? And is there any other command for example specifying Landscape or Portrait?

 

Just hitting this forum post for printing from Android and IOS devices.

Goal here is to print a texture or a file saved as .jpg or .png from Unity application.
The easiest we could figure out is to open the image as a url link in an external browser and let users print it as provided by Android and IOS devices browser feature. But if we could print the image from Unity app directly, connecting to the printer using a wi-fi would be great.

Any guidance will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.