Question

“How can I get the printer’s default settings, such as the paper name?”

Solution

The Printer.DefaultPrinterSetup property provides access to the printer’s default settings. Here is an example that iterates over the installed printers and populates a list box with the printer name and default paper name.

Download: DefaultPrinterSetup.zip

Sample Delphi code:

uses
  ppPrintr;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  lPrinter: TppPrinter;
  liIndex: Integer;
  lsDescription: String;
begin

  lPrinter := TppPrinter.Create;

  // iterate over installed printers
  // skip the first two entries (Default and Screen)
  for liIndex := 2 to ppPrinters.PrinterNames.Count-1 do
    begin
      lPrinter.PrinterName := ppPrinters.PrinterNames[liIndex];

      // get the default paper name
      lsDescription :=  lPrinter.PrinterName + ': ' + lPrinter.DefaultPrinterSetup.PaperName;

      ListBox1.Items.Add(lsDescription);

    end;

  lPrinter.Free;

end;