Problem with printing 'label-forms' with laser-printer.

[Nifrabar]

Hi!
Next problem.
Here in Holland, and probably in other countries as well, we do have forms of 12" containing 3 vertical forms for kind of 'billing purpose' (don't no a better translation).
Each form for a different bill.
There is a need to have printed data to be on EXACT vertical location to enable banks optical reading of the form.
To be sure I kept the exact height (difficult to manage using the report writer) I opened th ereport as table and put value 40000 in the column 'height'. That must be OK for each form is 40.000 x 1/10.000" = 4" high.

The strange thing once I start printing is that form 1 and two seems to have right vertical distance in printing while printing the no. 3 is about 0.75 mm to low.

Once I start printing a number of about 10 sheets we are having big problems!
Almost nothing is printed at the right place.
I feel this has to deal with the high temp generated in the laser-printer??? which is HP1020. Does the paper stretch in the printer?? I kept the sheets very well between the side-guides of the printer.

Any suggestions?

TIA

-Bart

 

[RickBorup]

Check the properties of your field(s) in the report writer and be sure 'Object Position' is not set to Float and also that 'Stretch with overflow' is unmarked. Also, is there anything in the page header that could stretch with overflow and push the detail down?

I doubt the paper is stretching in the printer. I have applications that print checks on laser printers where the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) characters have to be precisely positioned relative to the bottom of each check, and have never seen any problems like you describe.

 

[Nifrabar]

Rick,

Thanks for your advices.
My report did met all you advices.
I'm afraid that the now-a-days lowcost HP printers cause the error.
Although not allowed by the financial institutes (to less black image) I tried printing with my HP-deskjet. The result was very fine related to the margins.
I also saw that, printed using the laser the vertical distance of the 3 forms at one sheet was OK.
Same report printed on the deskjet gave a very slight different size.
So printers do possibly magnify + or - a bit.
For normal purpose no real problem but for mine it is.

You are using profesiional printers?
Thanks for your reply.
-Bart

 

[RickBorup]

> You are using profesiional printers?

Mostly my clients and I use HP LaserJet printers, so yes, I guess you would call them professional-grade printers.

> I'm afraid that the now-a-days lowcost HP printers cause the error.

Maybe so, but one other thing to check is do you have printer-specific information stored in the report? That can cause problems when a report is printed on a different printer than it was designed on.

To check this, open your report file (e.g., myReport.frx) in VFP and inspect the EXPR, TAG, and TAG2 columns of the first row. These are memo fields. In the EXPR column you can comment out everything except Orientation, PaperSize, and Copies. You can also comment out the Color setting unless you need color output. If there is anything in TAG or TAG2 you can delete it entirely. Again, do this ONLY in the first row of the FRX table. And standard advice: make a backup of the FRX file before editing it.

 

[Nifrabar]

Rick,

In my projecthook I do clean-up the TAG and TAG2 prior to compiling the application.
For the moment I remain believe that the HP 1020 is causing the problem. The reason why I am saying is that I also tried printing with an HP-inkjet printer and..... exact the result as expected. But it seems that the inkjet printer magnifies (minus) the print-out very little.
Anyway, thanks for your suggestions, but the problem seems to be real hardware-related.

-Bart

 

[Dan Freeman]

Inkjet printers are notorious for having paper feed problems. They usually manifest in printing the bottom of the page, but if the paper feeds wrong it will affect the rest of the page as well.

This is a common issue in the Word community where mailing labels don't line up properly.

Your deskjet may THINK it is printing in the right place, but the printer isn't physically feeding paper properly.

Non-inkjet printers don't seem to exhibit this behavior.

 

[Nifrabar]

Danfreeman,

Thanks for your feedback.
As discussed I just only used the inkjet for comparing the results with the lowcost HP1010.
I agree with you about the feed-problems of inkjets.
But as printing in this situation gave good results it confirmed me that the software is OK.
Currently the software is tested on a HP2840 which is more professional. The only problem now is how to configure that printer for use of 12" sheets i.s.o. A4-size. But that's a Q for another forum.

-Bart