Connecting and printing to a printer in Java

Question

Is there an easy way in Java to do the following?

1. Connect to a printer (will be a local printer and the only printer connected to the machine).
2. Print pages that are 2 pages in 2 different printer trays.
3. Get the current print queue count, i.e. I have 100 items to print and 34 have been currently printed, the printer queue should now read 66.

Answer 1

Some quick hints:

• print from java: see A Basic Printing Program

• status of printing job: you might be able to get something useful by using a PrintJobListener:

Implementations of this listener interface should be attached to a DocPrintJob to monitor the status of the printer job. These callback methods may be invoked on the thread processing the print job, or a service created notification thread. In either case the client should not perform lengthy processing in these callbacks.

Answer 2

A very good printing tutorial: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/2d/printing/index.html

Also check answers to my question about printers, the Printer Job API is what are you looking for, but checking this out will also help:

How to Send JTable data to Print Job from Java Application?