Is there a way to use the graphics class methods (Graphics.DrawString or Graphics.DrawLine) for a PrintDocumet outside of the PrintPage event? - vb.net

Question

I'm rewriting a VB6 application in VB.net. Instead of using the VB6 printer namespace, I'm trying make the code natively VB.net compatible.
The VB6 application has a bunch of printer.print statements as well as a bunch of printer.line statements. (I believe the lines use TWIPs.) Here is an example of some of the lines.
Printer.DrawWidth = 1.5
Printer.Line (200, 12940)-(11275, 12940)
Printer.Line (200, 13680)-(6660, 13680)
Printer.Line (6712, 13680)-(11275, 13680)
Printer.FillStyle = vbFSTransparent
Printer.DrawWidth = 1
Printer.DrawStyle = vbDashDot
Printer.Circle (5700, 6000), draw_scale * BC_Diam / 2
media.FontItalic = True
Printer.Print "some text"
media.FontItalic = False
Printer.Print "additional, non italic text"
The only way I've been able to find how to do any of this in VB.net is by using the PrintDocument's PrintPage event. A problem with doing it this way is you have to pass all of the text to this subroutine all at once and deal with a "printArea" for word wrap. Another problem is it makes it very difficult to switch between italic and non italic text. In the same way for text, I think I would have to pass in all of the line/circle coordinates as well, then draw them from the event subroutine.
Private Sub document_PrintPage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles document.PrintPage
Dim printFont As Font = New Font("Courier New", 8.5, FontStyle.Regular)
' Set print area size and margins
With document.DefaultPageSettings
Dim leftMargin As Integer = .Margins.Left 'X
Dim topMargin As Integer = .Margins.Top 'Y
Dim printHeight As Integer = .PaperSize.Height - topMargin * 2
Dim printWidth As Integer = .PaperSize.Width - leftMargin * 2
End With
' Check if the user selected to print in Landscape mode
' if they did then we need to swap height/width parameters
If document.DefaultPageSettings.Landscape Then
Dim tmp As Integer
tmp = printHeight
printHeight = printWidth
printWidth = tmp
End If
Dim lines As Int32
Dim chars As Int32
'Now we need to determine the total number of lines
'we're going to be printing
Dim numLines As Int32 = CInt(printHeight / printFont.Height)
' Create a rectangle printing are for our document
Dim printArea As New RectangleF(leftMargin, topMargin, printWidth, printHeight)
' Set format of string.
Dim format As New StringFormat(StringFormatFlags.LineLimit)
e.Graphics.MeasureString(txtText.Text.Substring(curChar), printFont, New SizeF(printWidth, printHeight), format, chars, lines)
e.Graphics.DrawString(txtText.Text.Substring(curChar), printFont, Brushes.Black, printArea, format)
'Increase current char count
curChar += chars
'Detemine if there is more text to print, if
'there is the tell the printer there is more coming
Debug.Print("curChar < txtText.Text.Length:" & (curChar < txtText.Text.Length))
If curChar < txtText.Text.Length Then
e.HasMorePages = True
Else
e.HasMorePages = False
curChar = 0
End If
End Sub
There has to be a better way to do this, right? How I can call Graphics.DrawLine, Graphics.DrawEllipse, Graphics.DrawString, etc. for the PrintDocument from outside of the PrintPage event in VB.net like you could in VB6?