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(Class, DocFlavor, AttributeSet)
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.
implements