MediaPrintableArea

Class Overview

Class MediaPrintableArea is a printing attribute used to distinguish the printable and non-printable areas of media.

The printable area is specified to be a rectangle, within the overall dimensions of a media.

Most printers cannot print on the entire surface of the media, due to printer hardware limitations. This class can be used to query the acceptable values for a supposed print job, and to request an area within the constraints of the printable area to be used in a print job.

To query for the printable area, a client must supply a suitable context. Without specifying at the very least the size of the media being used no meaningful value for printable area can be obtained.

The attribute is not described in terms of the distance from the edge of the paper, in part to emphasise that this attribute is not independent of a particular media, but must be described within the context of a choice of other attributes. Additionally it is usually more convenient for a client to use the printable area.

The hardware's minimum margins is not just a property of the printer, but may be a function of the media size, orientation, media type, and any specified finishings. PrintService provides the method to query the supported values of an attribute in a suitable context : See PrintService.getSupportedAttributeValues()

The rectangular printable area is defined thus: The (x,y) origin is positioned at the top-left of the paper in portrait mode regardless of the orientation specified in the requesting context. For example a printable area for A4 paper in portrait or landscape orientation will have height > width.

A printable area attribute's values are stored internally as integers in units of micrometers (µm), where 1 micrometer = 10^-6 meter = 1/1000 millimeter = 1/25400 inch. This permits dimensions to be represented exactly to a precision of 1/1000 mm (= 1 µm) or 1/100 inch (= 254 µm). If fractional inches are expressed in negative powers of two, this permits dimensions to be represented exactly to a precision of 1/8 inch (= 3175 µm) but not 1/16 inch (because 1/16 inch does not equal an integral number of µm).

IPP Compatibility: MediaPrintableArea is not an IPP attribute.

Summary

[Expand] Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object Object clone() Creates and returns a copy of this object. boolean equals(Object obj) Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one. void finalize() Called by the garbage collector on an object when garbage collection determines that there are no more references to the object. final Class<?> getClass() Returns the runtime class of this Object. int hashCode() Returns a hash code value for the object. final void notify() Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. final void notifyAll() Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. String toString() Returns a string representation of the object. final void wait() Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object. final void wait(long timeout, int nanos) Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed. final void wait(long timeout) Causes the current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed.
From interface javax.print.attribute.Attribute abstract Class<? extends Attribute> getCategory() Get the printing attribute class which is to be used as the "category" for this printing attribute value when it is added to an attribute set. abstract String getName() Get the name of the category of which this attribute value is an instance.