Technical Q&A's

GXPD 43 - Using `GXNewPaperType` (9-Jan-97)

Q How can I create a new GX papertype on the fly within my QuickDraw GX application? I use GXNewPaperType, but for some reason the new papertype doesn't show up in the page set-up dialog.

A This is actually related to a known bug in QuickDraw GX. If an application uses GXNewPaperType to create an application-defined paper type, GX doesn't find it in the page set-up dialog as it should. This is because GX is setting up the paper type flags incorrectly. But there is a workaround...

You need to create a job and custom paperType and flatten it to a file within the extensions folder. GXNewPaperType will create a valid paperType, but it does not set up the creator and the paperType flags correctly. Therefore, after calling GXNewPaperType to set up the new custom paperType, you'll need to set the paperTypeFlags and the creator. The following code fragments will do the trick.

The globals used to set up the creator and paperType flags:

OSErr           collectionErr = noErr;
Str255          paperTypeName;
gxRectangle     paperDims;
gxRectangle     pageDims;

Collection      paperTypeCollection;
gxFlagsInfo     paperTypeFlags;
gxCreatorInfo   paperTypeCreator;
                    
        
//
//  We use this information to check to make sure that our
//  new paperType was set up as we thought after calling GXNewPaperType
//  
GXGetPaperTypeName( theNewPaperType, paperTypeName );
GXGetPaperTypeDimensions( theNewPaperType, &pageDims, &paperDims);


//
//  We need to set our new paperType's flags and creator to allow
//  GX to recognize it.
//
paperTypeCollection = GXGetPaperTypeCollection( theNewPaperType );
            
paperTypeFlags.flags = gxOldAndNewPaperTypeFlag;
            
collectionErr = AddCollectionItem( paperTypeCollection, gxFlagsTag,
                                   gxPrintingTagID, sizeof(gxFlagsInfo),
                                   &paperTypeFlags );
                                               

paperTypeCreator.creator = gxUserPaperType;
            
collectionErr = AddCollectionItem( paperTypeCollection, gxCreatorTag, 
                                   gxPrintingTagID, sizeof(gxCreatorInfo),   
                                   &paperTypeCreator );

At this point, when a print dialog is displayed, the paperType list is recreated each time. This behavior ensures that any newly created paperType will be found from within a running app which is creating paperTypes.

After you have created the custom paperType and valid job, you'll need to call GXFlattenJob and GXFlattenPaperType and save this info into a file within the extension folder. Then it should show up in your page setup paper type list.

--Ingrid Kelly
devsupport@apple.com

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GXPD 43 - Using GXNewPaperType (9-Jan-97)

GXPD 43 - Using `GXNewPaperType` (9-Jan-97)