C# - Stampante direttamente con comandi nativi

Poco tempo fa ho avuto la necessità di stampare, con comandi nativi, su una stampante termica Zebra.
In passato mi era capitato di dover stampare con comandi nativi, ma su stampantine con porta seriale, quindi i comandi altro non erano che stringhe inviate in seriale.
In questo caso, invece, la stampante era collegata via usb e accessibile solo tramite drivers. Come fare? Incredibilmente la Microsoft ci viene in aiuto, e ha pubblicato una classe fantastica chiamata RawPrinterHelper che permette proprio di interagire direttamente con la stampante, a qualsiasi porta essa sia collegata (parallela, usb, seriale).
E' una classe statica, e per usarla è sufficiente eseguire il metodo SendStringToPrinter; il primo parametro sarà il nome della stampante, così come è definita nell'elenco stampanti di Windows, mentre il secondo parametro sarà la stringa di comandi da inviare direttamente alla stampante.
Ad esempio, in caso di una stampante Zebra:

RawPrinterHelper.SendStringToPrinter("Zebra GX420T", "^XA^FDESEMPIO^FS^XZ");

Di seguito posto anche il codice originale della classe, che si può trovare comunque a questo indirizzo: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322091/it

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Printing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.IO;

namespace TintoLavaApp
{
    public class RawPrinterHelper
    {
        // Structure and API declarions:
        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
        public class DOCINFOA
        {
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pDocName;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pOutputFile;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pDataType;
        }
        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "OpenPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool OpenPrinter([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string szPrinter, out IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pd);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "ClosePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartDocPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, Int32 level, [In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)] DOCINFOA di);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndDocPrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "WritePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount, out Int32 dwWritten);

        // SendBytesToPrinter()
        // When the function is given a printer name and an unmanaged array
        // of bytes, the function sends those bytes to the print queue.
        // Returns true on success, false on failure.
        public static bool SendBytesToPrinter(string szPrinterName, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount)
        {
            Int32 dwError = 0, dwWritten = 0;
            IntPtr hPrinter = new IntPtr(0);
            DOCINFOA di = new DOCINFOA();
            bool bSuccess = false; // Assume failure unless you specifically succeed.

            di.pDocName = "My C#.NET RAW Document";
            di.pDataType = "RAW";

            // Open the printer.
            if (OpenPrinter(szPrinterName.Normalize(), out hPrinter, IntPtr.Zero))
            {
                // Start a document.
                if (StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, di))
                {
                    // Start a page.
                    if (StartPagePrinter(hPrinter))
                    {
                        // Write your bytes.
                        bSuccess = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, dwCount, out dwWritten);
                        EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
                    }
                    EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
                }
                ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
            }
            // If you did not succeed, GetLastError may give more information
            // about why not.
            if (bSuccess == false)
            {
                dwError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
            }
            return bSuccess;
        }

        public static bool SendFileToPrinter(string szPrinterName, string szFileName)
        {
            // Open the file.
            FileStream fs = new FileStream(szFileName, FileMode.Open);
            // Create a BinaryReader on the file.
            BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(fs);
            // Dim an array of bytes big enough to hold the file's contents.
            Byte[] bytes = new Byte[fs.Length];
            bool bSuccess = false;
            // Your unmanaged pointer.
            IntPtr pUnmanagedBytes = new IntPtr(0);
            int nLength;

            nLength = Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length);
            // Read the contents of the file into the array.
            bytes = br.ReadBytes(nLength);
            // Allocate some unmanaged memory for those bytes.
            pUnmanagedBytes = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(nLength);
            // Copy the managed byte array into the unmanaged array.
            Marshal.Copy(bytes, 0, pUnmanagedBytes, nLength);
            // Send the unmanaged bytes to the printer.
            bSuccess = SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pUnmanagedBytes, nLength);
            // Free the unmanaged memory that you allocated earlier.
            Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pUnmanagedBytes);
            return bSuccess;
        }
        public static bool SendStringToPrinter(string szPrinterName, string szString)
        {
            IntPtr pBytes;
            Int32 dwCount;
            // How many characters are in the string?
            dwCount = szString.Length;
            // Assume that the printer is expecting ANSI text, and then convert
            // the string to ANSI text.
            pBytes = Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemAnsi(szString);
            // Send the converted ANSI string to the printer.
            SendBytesToPrinter(szPrinterName, pBytes, dwCount);
            Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pBytes);
            return true;
        }
    }
}