How do I print a MKMapView in OS X?

Question

Sending a MKMapView a -print: message results in an output that only contains the +/- buttons and the "legal" link. Same if I try [NSPrintOperation printOperationWithView:someMKMapView] or [theWindowThatContainsAMapView print] or [[NSPrintOperation PDFOperationWithView:someMKMapView insideRect:someMKMapView.bounds toPath:@"foo.pdf" printInfo:nil] runOperation].

Apple's own Maps.app does print the map, btw.

Has anyone managed to print a MKMapView?

Answer 1

The magic class is MKMapSnapshotter

Assuming there is a MKMapView instance mapView, this is a simple example to create an image of the current content of MKMapView as TIFF file written in Swift. This image is printable.

let options = MKMapSnapshotOptions()
options.region = mapView.region;
options.size = mapView.frame.size;

let fileURL = NSURL(fileURLWithPath:"/path/to/snapshot.tif")
let mapSnapshotter = MKMapSnapshotter(options: options)
mapSnapshotter.startWithCompletionHandler { (snapshot, error) -> Void in
  // do error handling
  let image = snapshot.image
  if let data = image.TIFFRepresentation {
    data.writeToURL(fileURL!, atomically:true)
  } else {
    println("could not create TIFF data")
  }
}

Edit:

with printing instead of creating a file

let options = MKMapSnapshotOptions()
options.region = mapView.region;
options.size = mapView.frame.size;

let mapSnapshotter = MKMapSnapshotter(options: options)
mapSnapshotter.startWithCompletionHandler { (snapshot, error) -> Void in
  // do error handling
  let image = snapshot.image
  let imageView = NSImageView()
  imageView.frame = NSRect(origin: NSZeroPoint, size: image.size)
  imageView.image = image

  let info = NSPrintInfo.sharedPrintInfo()
  info.horizontalPagination = .FitPagination
  info.verticalPagination = .FitPagination
  let operation = NSPrintOperation(view: imageView, printInfo:info)
  operation.showsPrintPanel = true
  operation.runOperation()