Printing Jtext area

Question

I have a program where I have loded the contents of a file to a Jtextarea. I know how to set up my menu and actionlistener to print, but I do not know how to print the contents to a printer. Code below shows my class, Jtextarea declaration and my method to open the text file which works fine. I need to know how to take the text that was loaded to my text area and sent it to the printer. I assume there is also a way to set the pages and have a print dialog prior to printing? Thanks
public class Project extends JFrame implements ActionListener
private JTextArea textArea;
int result = fileget.showOpenDialog(this); //create integer variable for choice of open file dialog box
               if (result == fileget.APPROVE_OPTION)     
               selectedFile = fileget.getSelectedFile();     
try                              
     textArea.setText("");     
     FileReader fr = new FileReader(selectedFile);
     BufferedReader bufRdr = new BufferedReader(fr);                               
String line = null;                    while ((line = bufRdr.readLine()) != null)                {
     textArea.append(line);               
textArea.append("\n");                
bufRdr.close();                    
     catch(Exception x)          
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "Error opening file", "Error", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
               }}

Answer 1

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.io.*;
import javax.print.attribute.standard.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.print.*;
import javax.print.attribute.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
textarea = new SimplePrintableJTextArea();
textarea.print();
* SimplePrintableJTextArea.java
* @author David J. Ward
class SimplePrintableJTextArea extends JTextArea implements Printable {
     * Holds value of property jobName.
    private String jobName = "Print Job for "+System.getProperty("user.name");
    /** Creates a new instance of PrintableJTextArea */
    public SimplePrintableJTextArea() {
        super();
    public SimplePrintableJTextArea(String text) {
        super(text);
    int inchesToPage(double inches) {
        return (int)(inches*72.0);
    int left_margin = inchesToPage(0.5);
    int right_margin = inchesToPage(0.5);
    int top_margin = inchesToPage(0.5);
    int bottom_margin = inchesToPage(0.5);
    public void print() {
// Create a printerJob object
        final PrinterJob printJob = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob();
// Set the printable class to this one since we
// are implementing the Printable interface
        printJob.setPrintable(this);
        printJob.setJobName(jobName);
//Collect the print request attributes.
        final HashPrintRequestAttributeSet attrs = new HashPrintRequestAttributeSet();
        attrs.add(OrientationRequested.PORTRAIT);
        attrs.add(Chromaticity.COLOR);
        attrs.add(Chromaticity.MONOCHROME);
        attrs.add(PrintQuality.NORMAL);
        attrs.add(PrintQuality.DRAFT);
        attrs.add(PrintQuality.HIGH);
//Assume US Letter size, someone else can do magic for other paper formats
        attrs.add(new MediaPrintableArea(0.25f, 0.25f, 8.0f, 10.5f, MediaPrintableArea.INCH));
// Show a print dialog to the user. If the user
// clicks the print button, then print, otherwise
// cancel the print job
        if (printJob.printDialog()) {
//You may want to do the printing in a thread or SwingWorker
//But this gets the job done all the same.
            try {
                printJob.print(attrs);
            } catch (Exception PrintException) {
                PrintException.printStackTrace();
    public int print(Graphics graphics, PageFormat pageFormat, int pageIndex) throws PrinterException {
        Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) graphics;
//Found it unwise to use the TextArea font's size,
//We area just printing text so use a a font size that will
//be generally useful.
        g2.setFont(getFont().deriveFont(9.0f));
        int bodyheight = (int)pageFormat.getImageableHeight();
        int bodywidth = (int)pageFormat.getImageableWidth();
        int lineheight = g2.getFontMetrics().getHeight()-(g2.getFontMetrics().getLeading()/2);
        int lines_per_page = (bodyheight-top_margin-bottom_margin)/lineheight;
        int start_line = lines_per_page*pageIndex;
        if (start_line > getLineCount()) {
            return NO_SUCH_PAGE;
        int page_count = (getLineCount()/lines_per_page)+1;
        int end_line = start_line + lines_per_page;
        int linepos = (int)top_margin;
        int lines = getLineCount();
        g2.translate(pageFormat.getImageableX(), pageFormat.getImageableY());
        for (int line = start_line; line < end_line; line++) {
            try {
                String linetext = getText(
                        getLineStartOffset(line),
                        getLineEndOffset(line)-getLineStartOffset(line));
                g2.drawString(linetext, left_margin, linepos);
            } catch (BadLocationException e) {
//never a bad location
            linepos += lineheight;
            if (linepos > bodyheight-bottom_margin) {
                break;
        return Printable.PAGE_EXISTS;
}