GtkPrintOperation is the high-level, portable printing API. It looks a bit different than other GTK+ dialogs such as the #GtkFileChooser, since some platforms don’t expose enough infrastructure to implement a good print dialog. On such platforms, GtkPrintOperation uses the native print dialog. On platforms which do not provide a native print dialog, GTK+ uses its own, see #GtkPrintUnixDialog.

The typical way to use the high-level printing API is to create a GtkPrintOperation object with [gtk.print_operation.PrintOperation.new_] when the user selects to print. Then you set some properties on it, e.g. the page size, any #GtkPrintSettings from previous print operations, the number of pages, the current page, etc.

Then you start the print operation by calling [gtk.print_operation.PrintOperation.run]. It will then show a dialog, let the user select a printer and options. When the user finished the dialog various signals will be emitted on the #GtkPrintOperation, the main one being #GtkPrintOperation::draw-page, which you are supposed to catch and render the page on the provided #GtkPrintContext using Cairo.

The high-level printing API

static GtkPrintSettings *settings = NULL;

static void
do_print (void)
{
 GtkPrintOperation *print;
 GtkPrintOperationResult res;

 print = gtk_print_operation_new ();

 if (settings != NULL)
   gtk_print_operation_set_print_settings (print, settings);

 g_signal_connect (print, "begin_print", G_CALLBACK (begin_print), NULL);
 g_signal_connect (print, "draw_page", G_CALLBACK (draw_page), NULL);

 res = gtk_print_operation_run (print, GTK_PRINT_OPERATION_ACTION_PRINT_DIALOG,
                                GTK_WINDOW (main_window), NULL);

 if (res == GTK_PRINT_OPERATION_RESULT_APPLY)
   {
     if (settings != NULL)
       g_object_unref (settings);
     settings = g_object_ref (gtk_print_operation_get_print_settings (print));
   }

 g_object_unref (print);
}

By default GtkPrintOperation uses an external application to do print preview. To implement a custom print preview, an application must connect to the preview signal. The functions [gtk.print_operation_preview.PrintOperationPreview.renderPage], [gtk.print_operation_preview.PrintOperationPreview.endPreview] and [gtk.print_operation_preview.PrintOperationPreview.isSelected] are useful when implementing a print preview.

Fluent builder for [gtk.print_operation.PrintOperation]