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Printing problems ...

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    Printing problems ...

    I am having big frustrations trying to print to a pre-printed form. I know this has been a topic of discussion over the years, but has it ever been worked out?

    A form that looks perfect on one printer, does not come out with the data in the right boxes on another printer. Has anyone else found an answer to this problem?

    Also, I now have another problem. One computer on my network prints the data perfectly - perfectly in the right boxes. None of the other computers on the same network, and printing to the SAME printer, get a good result. All of the other computers get different results from one another, and none are perfectly aligned in the correct boxes. They are not even just slighly off. Some data prints just above the box, other data just below, other to the right, etc. You get the idea. It doesn't look pretty.

    So, I am getting inconsistent results across printers AND across computers that use the same printer. Weird ...

    Has anyone else seen this? And more importantly, is there a solution???

    Gary
    Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.


    #2
    Re: Printing problems ...

    Originally posted by drgarytraub View Post
    is there a solution???
    Gary,

    To side step your question (don't get mad at me), have you considered scanning said form(s) and placing them as a bitmap report background? Then place your fields over the slots. Now ALL printers will print the form (i.e. report) correctly.
    Last edited by Peter.Greulich; 02-13-2009, 11:21 PM.
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

    [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


    Comment


      #3
      Re: Printing problems ...

      P.S. I have also gone another route on this. That is, tediously recreate said form(s) entirely within the report editor, using RTFs etc. Again, perfect printouts every time.

      ---
      My point is, why flog a dead horse, spend untold hours trying to get something to work that will never work, when for the same amount of time, using a different approach, it will work - resulting in headache gone once and for all.
      Peter
      AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

      [email protected]
      https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


      Comment


        #4
        Re: Printing problems ...

        Hi Peter,

        These are excellent suggestions!

        The first one would be great, but unfortunately, my application requires printing on to a standard, paid for, pre-printed form - no copies are allowed. That would be the easiest but unfortunately will not work for this. I will however keep this idea in mind for other instances in the future where I may need to print to a "pre-printed" form.

        As for the second suggestion, it sounds like you know this will work so I really want to understand it. Could you give a little more detail as to how to create the form with rtf's ...

        Thanks Peter!

        Gary
        Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Printing problems ...

          Hi Peter,

          I understand your second method now - the one with RTF's - and again, that does not slove my problem because I have to print to a pre-printed form in this case - no copies.

          Any other suggestions - please .... :D

          Gary
          Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Printing problems ...

            Just one note about RTFs. It's not that the whole report uses RTFs, just in places where they help in recreating the original. Basically, you do whatever works.
            Peter
            AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

            [email protected]
            https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


            Comment


              #7
              Re: Printing problems ...

              Originally posted by drgarytraub View Post
              I have to print to a pre-printed form in this case - no copies.
              Since A5 merely sends the same code to the window's printer driver(s), it seems that this might be a window's problem, not an Alpha issue. I can't imagine what the cure might be. But some bright soul out there...
              Peter
              AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

              [email protected]
              https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


              Comment


                #8
                Re: Printing problems ...

                My two cents....having developed in MS Access and Alpha I wuod tend to agree with Peter that this is a Windows problem. In all cases where I had to deal with this issue I used the report writers in both Access and Alpha to "duplicate" the form. I know this doesn't help your immediate problem Gary. Some years ago I worked for a firm that developed a real estate package and they took they same approach - that is their report writer duplicated the form. The examples I know of that were successful with a pre-printed form usually recommended a certain model of printer were they could ensure the results - even then things had a way of happening. Going way back, the old sprocket fed dot matrix printers seemed much better adept at the precise positioning needed for this type of task.

                Perhaps you can capture the printer output and do some diagnostics to see where it is not matching up. If you print to a PDF file for example, how do
                things line up when you print the pdf file? Can you seem some consistency of results based on any particular combination? When it does not match up are you seeing line creep or are you off by a character or two? For example, if you are off by a character does the rest of the print stay consistent?


                Hope this helps,

                Steve

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Printing problems ...

                  Peter and Steve,

                  Thanks for your insights. They are truly helpful and appreciated.

                  What I have found thus far is that I have no problem printing a txt file from notepad to the printer from any computer. Specifically, I have written an xbasic script that writes the entire report to a txt file, being careful to place all the pieces of data in exactly the correct spots. This gives me a txt file that if I open it in notepad and then print it out, all computers get the same good results. That is, of course, if Page Setup of Notepad is set the same on all computers.

                  I could use this technique to print the pre-printed forms, though not ideal, as I would rather display a PDF to the user rather than a TXT file. Given this, though, does it give you guys any notion as to what may actually be going wrong with the regular report. Doesn't this rule out a windows problem, that it has something to do with either alpha's report form, or perhaps with the PDF driver on each machine??

                  Gary
                  Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Printing problems ...

                    Originally posted by drgarytraub View Post
                    Doesn't this rule out a windows problem, that it has something to do with either alpha's report form, or perhaps with the PDF driver on each machine??
                    Gary,

                    Given the simplicity of the text format, it stands to reason that Windows printer drivers might yield consistent results over various printers. Whereas, PDfs and complex reports have a million code bits that Windows may construe slightly differently for diff. printers.
                    Peter
                    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

                    [email protected]
                    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Printing problems ...

                      I remember struggling way back in DOS days with some of these issues and the best solution was building my own forms. The old dot matrix and pin feeders were better at this. Your comment about txt files also rang a bell. Could you try Courier font, which is most similar to typewriter or txt font with less variation in spacing size difference between letters. Someone familiar with printing could explain this better but most font use different amount of real estate for different letters. Not sure why this moves around from machine to machine but perhaps different version of window and machines handle the generation of fonts differently.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Printing problems ...

                        John,

                        I am using Courier New.

                        Gary
                        Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Printing problems ...

                          Gary,

                          Are you printing directly from Alpha the report or are you printing to a pdf and then printing the pdf from each work station? I assume you are printing pdf's. I had that problem and grew frustrated but the fix for me was easy. Work stations had acrobat set up differently, some auto shrunk, some no shrink, etc....

                          Marc
                          Thanks,
                          Marc

                          I'm now using Version 12.4.4.4, Build 4335, Addin Build 4887

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Printing problems ...

                            Hi Marc,

                            That is a very interestiing idea, and is probably the problem. Do you recall what settings were critical, and where to set them?

                            Gary
                            Gary S. Traub, Ph.D.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Printing problems ...

                              Printing to HICFA 1500's is tough. Fonts are not an issue but printer margins are crucial. Be sure all printer margins are the same, and be sure all of the printers (if they are mixed) can be set to the required margins - HICFA 1500's require almost the entire page and many printers will not permit margins small enough to accomodate.

                              I think you said you were, but you might have to have the same printer at all workstations. And if you want to use PDF's, like the other fellow said, be sure all settings are exactly the same.

                              I'm not sure, but I think I read somewhere that you can now process HICF's electronically - i.e., not printing to forms.
                              Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                              972 524 8714
                              [email protected]

                              ____________________
                              "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

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