Problem with Page size printing to non-default printer 1

[nelsonsk2]

Has anyone seen a problem with a document or label not printing correctly when sending it to a non-default printer where it resizes the output to the size of your default printers stock? My issue first arose with some labels we print using Crystal Reports. We have two standard label stock sizes, 1x3 and 2.25x4. Rather than changing out stock all the time and having to change the settings we have multiple label printers with the different stock that my users can print to. Initially the problem was that when they pulled up the report if the appropriate printer wasn't selected it would adjust to the size of whatever printer was the default. When it started I wasn't seeing the problem elsewhere and neither the printer manufacturer or software support would even look into the issue pointing to each other as the problem.

My work around has been to have my users change their default printer before printing the label. Now I'm seeing issues arise where they forget to change their printer back and when they try to print a letter size document it changes the size to the size of the label, even after they've selected the correct printer before sending it. It is as if it won't adjust the output based on the printer the document or label is sent to.

So far I've seen this problem growing on WinXP SP3 and Win7 Pro PC's; I've experienced it with newer Zebra printer and three different Canon printers(drivers are up-to-date); and I've also experienced it in Crystal Reports, IE7, IE8, IE9, Exact Max 5.0.8/5.5.1, Word 2007 but not other MS Office 2007 products. It is also not happening on all my PC's but periodically I'll have another user that it will start happening to without any indication as to a trigger. I've compared software and OS updates, print drivers, and a number of other factors between computers that exhibit and don't exhibit the problem but have been unable to idenfify any clear cause.

Our environment is a Windows Server 2003 domain. We've never has a print server set up, but rather use network shared printers or TCP/IP config for our large office printers.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cdogg]

Not sure if this will help, but on a Win7 PC having the issue, you may want to try installing this update:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2522422

Run Windows update and it will be listed under optional updates. Obviously, this only applies to Win7, IE9, and Canon, so it doesn't explain the issues you are having outside the browser in other operating systems. But hey, it's worth a shot!

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

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[nelsonsk2]

Thanks for the reply. I will go ahead and test it for the IE issues. I'm not getting the errors it mentioned though so I'm sceptical whether it will even correct my IE issues.

 

[zelgar]

Because different printers have different print drivers, they may change the format of a document slightly. Depending on the printer, fonts may be slightly adjusted as well as margins. The best thing to do is make certain the user change their default printer when they're first working with the documemt, so that everything looks correctly on the screen & the final printout.

 

[nelsonsk2]

Zelgar, I agree that the different printer drivers likely are causing the problems. It just seems strange that I'm using all the same flavors of printers we've been using for several years and the problem has just come up in the last 6 to 8 months; doesn't affect all users although all have the same printers added; and on a weekly basis I'll see one or two users that start having the problem even though they hadn't over that same 6 to 8 month period.

I suspect that perhaps it's the drivers in conjunction with a lagging Windows update that may be causing it.

Thanks for the reply.