I'm using Graphics.ScaleTransform to stretch lines of text so they fit the width of the page, and then printing that page. However, this converts the print job to a bitmap - for a print with many pages this causes the size of the print job to rise to obscene proportions, and slows down printing immensely.

If I don't scale like this, the print job remains very small as it is just sending text print commands to the printer.

My question is, is there any way other than using Graphics.ScaleTransform to stretch the width of the text?

Sample code to demonstrate this is below (would be called with Print.Test(True) and Print.Test(False) to show the effects of scaling on print job):

Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing.Printing
Imports System.Drawing.Imaging

Public Class Print

    Dim FixedFont As Font
    Dim Area As RectangleF
    Dim CharHeight As Double
    Dim CharWidth As Double
    Dim Scale As Boolean

    Const CharsAcross = 80
    Const CharsDown = 66
    Const TestString = "!""#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~"

    Private Sub PagePrinter(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As PrintPageEventArgs)

        Dim G As Graphics = e.Graphics
        If Scale Then
            Dim ws = Area.Width / G.MeasureString(Space(CharsAcross).Replace(" ", "X"), FixedFont).Width
            G.ScaleTransform(ws, 1)
        End If

        For CurrentLine = 1 To CharsDown
            G.DrawString(Mid(TestString & TestString & TestString, CurrentLine, CharsAcross), FixedFont, Brushes.Black, 0, Convert.ToSingle(CharHeight * (CurrentLine - 1)))
        Next

        e.HasMorePages = False

    End Sub

    Public Shared Sub Test(ByVal Scale As Boolean)

        Dim OutputDocument As New PrintDocument
        With OutputDocument
            Dim DP As New Print
            .PrintController = New StandardPrintController
            .DefaultPageSettings.Landscape = False
            DP.Area = .DefaultPageSettings.PrintableArea
            DP.CharHeight = DP.Area.Height / CharsDown
            DP.CharWidth = DP.Area.Width / CharsAcross
            DP.Scale = Scale
            DP.FixedFont = New Font("Courier New", DP.CharHeight / 100, FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Inch)
            .DocumentName = "Test print (with" & IIf(Scale, "", "out") & " scaling)"
            AddHandler .PrintPage, AddressOf DP.PagePrinter
            .Print()
        End With
    End Sub
End Class