Black bars on printouts
Hi,
We are using RB standard, latest version, with Delphi 7.
Some of the users of the application has a problem where certaion areas of
the report is printed in absolute black. The reports are printed, with a
heading
in a white font, which is a TppLable inside a TppRegion, with brush and pen
set to give a blueish background color 15707648.
The same color is used as a font color on a white background in some places.
Some other areas of the reports have a black font, and use a lighter blueish
color, RGB value 16643297.
There is also a small logo in a TppImage in the title band on the rhs, and a
single wide "strip" footer logo on each page.
On a handfull of users computers, on 3 different makes of printers, one or
more of the logos, shapes or regions prints as a solid, ink smuddged black
bar,
On most other computers, printing the same report, does not do this. The
aplication can also email pdfs, but if the same users email the pfds to
themselves, they appear normal, and alos print normal.
So this is only when these users print directly to a printer! According to
the desktop suppoer guy who went to test this, the people with the problem
has various versions of windows. So unfortunately we can not say it is
windows verion specific.
Was any problems like this reported before, ands maybe solved by someone?
Best regards
Kedul (Louis Kriel, Huge Telecom, www.hugetelecom.co.za )
We are using RB standard, latest version, with Delphi 7.
Some of the users of the application has a problem where certaion areas of
the report is printed in absolute black. The reports are printed, with a
heading
in a white font, which is a TppLable inside a TppRegion, with brush and pen
set to give a blueish background color 15707648.
The same color is used as a font color on a white background in some places.
Some other areas of the reports have a black font, and use a lighter blueish
color, RGB value 16643297.
There is also a small logo in a TppImage in the title band on the rhs, and a
single wide "strip" footer logo on each page.
On a handfull of users computers, on 3 different makes of printers, one or
more of the logos, shapes or regions prints as a solid, ink smuddged black
bar,
On most other computers, printing the same report, does not do this. The
aplication can also email pdfs, but if the same users email the pfds to
themselves, they appear normal, and alos print normal.
So this is only when these users print directly to a printer! According to
the desktop suppoer guy who went to test this, the people with the problem
has various versions of windows. So unfortunately we can not say it is
windows verion specific.
Was any problems like this reported before, ands maybe solved by someone?
Best regards
Kedul (Louis Kriel, Huge Telecom, www.hugetelecom.co.za )
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Exactly which components one which machines/printers are printing in all
black? Is this limited to rectangles (regions) or are there some images
printing black such as bitmaps? Are any of these components set to be
transparent? Are all the printers in question black and white only
printers?
My first suggestion would be to be sure your users have the latest
version of the printer driver installed on their machines. If so,
please let me know the information below and we'll move forward trying
to isolate the issue.
Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
I will have to send out a desktop support technician to all the workstations
to gather info regarding the printer and computer makes and models, and to
make sure the latest printer drivers are loaded.
I already know that none of the printers are black and white only.
Most of the black areas are rectangular, and included images, regions and
shapes. The only exception that is not rectangular is a footer image, which
is really a page wide narrow TppImage, containing a jpeg file. The picture
is mostly white with 4 icon sized "partner logos " next to each other in the
same picture. The image prints out with the icon sized images as a black
irregular shape of the outline of the "icons" ... no color as it should
have.
Regarding transparent components: I found that in only one of the reports,
the heading image was set to transparent. The only other components set to
transparent are Lables, dbText, memos etc.
I will ned more info A.S.A.P.
This is hard to debug, since I can't duplicate it on my own computer /
development system, and I only have desktop support staff to travel to
various offices to gather info of where it happens.
Best regards
Louis
1 X Model MP C2550
2 X model MP C2050
All printer drivers are updated to thge latest version.
The issue is on both Win7 and WinXP computers., but NOT all user have the
problem.
I created a small delphi app that MAY be able to regenerate the problem in a
simplified progarm.
The desktop support guy will now go and try that application on the affected
computers, and if it show the same black bars, I can forward the full source
code to you.
Best regards
Louis
did NOT regenerate the problem.
Thanks for the information. Would it be possible to send your customer a
test report (similar to the report with issues) with the regions removed?
On paper, regions are simply rectangles and could be what is causing the
problem with these printers. Is it also possible they could test with a
printer other that a Rico?
Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
I will continue with this on Monday. The problem is that this is an in house
application that is almost 14 yeares old. The highset level of Delphi ever
used was V7. It makes use of a lot of form inheritence. A recend redesign of
the looks of the reports demanded some lighter and darker coloured "bars"
for cerain areas of the range of reports. We actually send out billing for 3
different (but related) companies, and each once has different ligth and
dark colours as backgrounds for e.g. the title, column headings, the font
colour in some cases, and also different footer and title logos. We
initially did not upgrade RB since about V6.something, but with all the
changes I insisted we get an upgrade so at least I can ask on your forumns /
news groups.
To refactor an application that uses RB with form inheritence is extremely
chalenging. I chose to add regions to e.g. tghe title, and around the
heading abiove details bands, and around totals in summary and footer bands,
to get the background colour that was required. I did choose to use a shape
instead on the detail band, which alos had to have a lighter colour
background.
It will be quite a job to again refactor the application, i.e. just to gte
rid of the regions, and I will need another mechanism to get the background
colours.
I did add a "work=around" which I may release on Monday, that actually saves
the report as a pdf, then print the pdf using a shell print command, and
delete the pdf afterwards.
Oh well, just one of the stresses that I have to handle I guess
Thanks a lot for your help so far.
Best Regards
Louis Kriel
Time zone is GMT+2.
I am working towards simnply printing my reports by 1st saving the report as
pdf, and then print it using Acrobat.
I also have problens with preview: some lables / dbtext disappear (likely
behind shapes that is suppose to just give me a background colour) at
seemingly random times when I resize the preview.
I will also try to change my preview to simply open the reporrt as a pdf
rendered file.