How to programmatically print files and web pages to PDF through “Microsoft print to PDF”?

Question

I'm working on a UWP application, written in c#, and I need to convert to pdf: - office documents (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx) - images - Web pages

The application has to work in x86, x64, ARM, ARM64 architectures.

I know there are third party converter libraries on the market but only a few of them work in an ARM64 context or in UWP.

My idea is to use (in Windows 10) the "Microsoft PDF printer" that allows the users to save most of the file formats to PDF.

I found many posts asking for the same question but none of them really contains a helpful answer.

The code I found and tested is the following:

PrintDocument doc = new PrintDocument()
{
//DocumentName = safeDir + fileName,
    PrinterSettings = new PrinterSettings()
    {
        // set the printer to 'Microsoft Print to PDF'
        PrinterName = "Microsoft Print to PDF",

        // tell the object this document will print to file
        PrintToFile = true,


        // set the filename to whatever you like (full path)
        PrintFileName = safeDir + fileName,
    }
};
doc.Print();

The above code generates a valid but empty pdf. How should I set the original file content?

For example, if I have a Word file named myreport.docx, should I convert it to byte array and set it in somewhere?

Thank you in advance.

With the upcoming WinUI you will be able to run the UI used on UWP on the Win32 App Model. This will make easier to do all kind of PDF manipulations. Check out #MSIgnite, Save the date: query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3TlM8 — Tony

g1b g1b · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-25T19:21:58

When using the PrintDocument class, you should read the file you are trying to print into a filestream as in the example here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.drawing.printing.printdocument?view=netframework-4.8

I personally prefer to use the Microsoft.Office.Interop libraries for Word and Excel to print. With these you just have to load the document, set the printer to "Adobe PDF", and save the document.

How to programmatically print files and web pages to PDF through “Microsoft print to PDF”?

2 Answers