printing labels cut off

[dougerstew]

Hello again,
you've helped me find a great font for printing labels, but now I have another problem. I'm trying to print 4 3.4" label across a page, for a total of 13.6". Works great from my laptop, but when running the exe on another workstation, it cuts off the print at 8.5". is there a way to make it print all the way across the page. I'm using label form to print.

Thanks for your input.

Doug Stewart

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Are you using the same printer from your laptop and the workstation? Did you compare printer drivers and their settings on the laptop and the workstation? Printer settings are not stored to the printer, but are settings of the driver stored on each client. Different driver versions may specify different printable areas and different settings or margins may also influence the printable area seen by VFP on each client, even if using the same report.

The more so you have differences on different printers. Not every printer can print the full range a sheet may have, neither horizontal nor vertical, no matter if simple blank sheets or label sheets.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[dougerstew]

i think everything was the same both on my laptop and the other workstations. Are there other things to consider? in fpw 2.6, i had to have the printer setup come up each time, and choose the 13.6x2 page setup purposefully. i was hoping in vfp that I would not need to do that. Seems like there should be some settings in the label form that would allow it to print the full 13.6" page.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Seems like there should be some settings in the label form that would allow it to print the full 13.6" page.

There is. In the Label Designer, go to File / Page Setup / Page Layout. Then adjust the "Number" and "Width" settings. (Those two settings multiplied together should give you the total page width.)

But you must have already done that. If not, it wouldn't have worked on your laptop. Have you checked the settings in the printer's properties?

Mike



__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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[Olaf Doschke]

Well, that seetting in the rerport defines what foxpro would like, but if printer settings set the printable area lower you won't print the full width or height of sheets.

Do you use the same printer at all? If not then the different results for sure sure come from the printer info embedded in the frx/lbx. You have to remove that printer specific info or else the report only works where you develop it in conjunction with the printer on that machine.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[dougerstew]

Mike, i have done that, but it would appear that something is different on the windows printer drivers on the other workstations. it wants to default the page size to 8.5", even though I have set the paper size in advanced options in the windows printer dialogue to 13.6". I use three different printers - two are Tally T6215s, and the third is a Tally T6092. the 6092 it doesn't have any windows 7 compatible drivers so I'm using
@ PROW()+1, 0 SAY A+' '+A+' '+A+' '+A
@ PROW()+1, 0 SAY B+' '+B+' '+B+' '+B
etc for the 15 lines I want to print.
Then i use the command prompt to print the text file created:

RUN CMD.EXE /C Lpr -S xxx.xxx.x.xx -P LPDPRT1 u:\labelvfp\test.txt
This works and the print is nicer, but for higher volume label jobs, it takes a long time (several minutes) for the command prompt to disappear, and the user needs to wait to start another label job.

Any suggested alternate ways to print?
Doug

 

[Mike Lewis]

Doug,

I didn't follow your earlier threads, so you might have a good reason for foing this. But the fact is that the methods you are using are very out of date - not to mention slow and unreliable.

You asked if I could suggest an alternative way to print labels. Most certainly. I would strongly recommend that you abandon the @/SAY commands, and also the technique of writing to a text file and then printing it from the DOS prompt.

If you haven't already done so, you really should start using the VFP Label Designer. It's a simple interactive tool, and it has the great advantage of being independent of the printer. Essentially, once you've created your label, you should be able to print it to any printer without changing anything. (In practice, there are few snags that might catch you out, but nothing that can't be easily handled.)

I suggest you experiment with the Label Designer, using the Help if you're not sure how to get started. If you have any specific questions on it, come back here.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[dougerstew]

Mike,
i am using the label designer, except for the print jobs that have to go to the older printer. For all I can tell, the windows printer setups are the same on my laptop and the other workstations. Just wondering if I need to do something different in the label designer, or if there's a better way to print to the older printer w/o the label designer.

Doug

 

[dougerstew]

Also, i've changed the settings in the windows printer to refer to 13.6. In my program, I changed the "Label format" command to prompt the user for the printer settings, and windows seems to be changing the form back to letter. so either windows has a mind of its own, so there is some hidden command in my program telling the printer to use letter instead of 13.6.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

1. RUN /N helps you to continue using your foxpro application, while the cmd.com runs in parallel.
2. It still you have printer info embedded in your ldx. It's a well known feature of VFP to embed printer info and settings done with each REPORT FORM or LABEL FORM, and it's well known you should get rid of that. So
a) USE your.lbx
b) look into record 1 Expr Memo field
You'll see, what's defined inside. Easier: right click into the label, choose properties. In Report properties General Tab uncheck "Save printer environment". Most of the time embedding printer info is only okay, if you use a report or label on the one computer you define it, only.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Mike Lewis]

i am using the label designer, except for the print jobs that have to go to the older printer.

Why is that? What's special about the older printer that means you can't use the Label Designer with it?

Provided you have a driver for it, you should be able to use just about any printer with the Label Designer. If the printer came out any time in the last 20 years, it's certain there's a Windows driver for it. If it is older than that, you can always use the Generic / Text Only driver.

Mike


__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[dougerstew]

Mike the old printer doesn't have any win 7 drivers available. I can try to use a generic/text driver.

Olaf, I get rid of the reference to the Tally printer and now in report/properties it shows my default laser printer. Now when I run the program it defaults to the laser printer, even thought I issued the command set printer to Tally T6215-OLD (the windows printer I want to use) - just before the label form command.

Any other thoughts? i really appreciate your input.

Thanks
Doug

 

[Mike Lewis]

I get rid of the reference to the Tally printer and now in report/properties it shows my default laser printer. Now when I run the program it defaults to the laser printer, even thought I issued the command set printer to Tally T6215-OLD (the windows printer I want to use) - just before the label form command.

That sounds like the "embedded printer environment" problem that Olaf mentioned:

right click into the label, choose properties. In Report properties General Tab uncheck "Save printer environment"

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[dougerstew]

on the page layout tab of report properties, save printer environment is not checked, which appears to be why the printer is my default windows printer.

in the printer field, it automatically fills in my default printer.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

>even thought I issued the command set printer to Tally T6215-OLD

That's not how you set the printer a lbx or frx uses.

SET PRINTER TO [b]NAME[/b] "Tally T6215-OLD"

Better make sure it's the exakt known name by using SET PRINTER TO NAME GETPRINTER() and choose the Tally from that list.
LABEL FORM will then print there, no need to set the Tally as your default printer.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[dougerstew]

hi All,
got a bit sidetracked dealing with other issues, but also was able to have success installing the printers on the server, sharing them, and installing them on each workstation and for whatever reason, now it works! (one workstation still having similar issues, but 2 out of 3 work great). Olaf's first comments led me to try this, thereby making each workstation use the exact same drivers.
Thanks for all your input.

Doug