C#/VB.NET – How to Print Preview PDF in WinForms

Before you send a PDF document to printer, you may want to preview the printing result in advance. In this article, you will learn how to print preview a PDF document in a Windows Forms application by using PrintPreviewControl and Spire.PDF for .NET.

Create a Windows Forms Application

The Windows Forms application simply consists of a PrintPreviewControl and a button. Once the user clicks the button “Preview”, the PDF document will be loaded and displayed in the PrintPreviewControl.

INSTALL SPIRE.PDF

After the Windows Forms application is created, you need to download the latest version of Spire.PDF from this link, and manually add the DLL files in your application as references. Or, you can install it directly via NuGet.

Now that you’ve successfully installed the library, let’s start to code.

Using the Code

Double click the button “Preview” to add the following code to the click event.

[C#]

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Spire.Pdf;

namespace PrintPreview
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //Create a PdfDocument object
            PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();

            //Load a sample PDF file
            document.LoadFromFile(@"C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\sample2.pdf");

            //Get the page count
            int pageCount = document.Pages.Count;
   
            //Set the row number and column number for displaying
            this.printPreviewControl1.Rows = (int)Math.Ceiling(pageCount*1.0/3);
            this.printPreviewControl1.Columns = 3;
        
            //Call Preview method to print preview PDF in the control
            document.Preview(this.printPreviewControl1);
        }
    }
}

[VB.NET]

Imports System
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports Spire.Pdf
 
Namespace PrintPreview
    Public partial Class Form1
	 Inherits Form
        Public  Sub New()
            InitializeComponent()
        End Sub
 
        Private  Sub button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
            'Create a PdfDocument object
            Dim document As PdfDocument =  New PdfDocument() 
 
            'Load a sample PDF file
            document.LoadFromFile("C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\sample2.pdf")
 
            'Get the page count
            Dim pageCount As Integer =  document.Pages.Count 
 
            'Set the row number and column number for displaying
            Me.printPreviewControl1.Rows = CType(Math.Ceiling(pageCount*1.0/3), Integer)
            Me.printPreviewControl1.Columns = 3
 
            'Call Preview method to print preview PDF in the control
            document.Preview(Me.printPreviewControl1)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Run the program, click “Preview” and you’ll get the following output.