Colour printer is set to Black and White but Report Designer prints it out in color

rbuser

Hi,

I'm using Report Builder 9.03 with Delphi 7. When I print a
report out it prints it out in color even though the printer properties
are set to Black and White.

Other Windows applications like MS Word, print out color documents in
black and white.

If I go into the printer properties and just press Ok. it will print out
in black and white. I've been through all the printer settings numerous
times and can't see anything else that I could change.

Printer is Lanier LD124c if that's any help.



--- posted by geoForum on http://delphi.newswhat.com

nicocizik

Hi Brenton,

Where exactly are you setting the printer to print black and white? If you
are doing so from the Properties dialog of the printer accessed from the
Print Dialog, this is using the Windows API to make the setting for your
printer. Note that ReportBuilder does not communicate with your printer
directly, it uses generic Windows API commands that are received by the
printer driver. It is the job of the printer driver to understand and
process these commands correctly.

My first suggestion would be to download the latest version of the printer
driver you are using and see if that helps the problem.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Hi Nick,

The Printer was changed to Black and White from the Windows Control Panel.
Other applications as noted above will print color documents in black and
white fine but for some reason Report Builder continues to print out
reports in color. I'll update the printer drivers now and see if this
makes any changes

Regards
Brenton




--- posted by geoForum on http://delphi.newswhat.com

rbuser

I've updated to the latest drivers and it still continues to print out
color reports even though the settings are black and white.

Any suggestions would be great as its costing me a little over 100% extra
per page at the moment.




--- posted by geoForum on http://delphi.newswhat.com

nicocizik

Hi Brenton,

I did a quick check and it looks like we enhanced the TppPrinter class to
better support the DEVMODE structure values for RB 10. Try downloading a
trial edition of RB 10.04 and test with that.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

I've got this to work but it wasn't an out-of-the-box solution. (DM may slap
me here because I've had this for a while and it may not be needed in
version 10).

My app has a common print dialog for all reports. What I wanted is to have
the default printer settings, and if the user changes them in the app, they
stay that way during the whole run of the program.

What I did was create two variables that are not part of an object, they are
declared under the implementation section of the report form:

var
FPrinterDevMode: THandle = 0;
FPrinter: TppPrinter = nil;

then in the constructor of the print dialog, I check if they have been
assigned, and if not, assign them:

ppPrinter.SetDevMode(0);
if (FPrinterDevMode = 0) then
begin
ppPrinter.GetDevMode(FPrinterDevMode);
ppPrinter.SetDevMode(FPrinterDevMode);
end;

the user can edit the pritner setup in the following code:

procedure TfrmTRAKPrint.btnSetupPrinterClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
if not assigned(FPrinter) then
begin
FPrinter := TppPrinter.Create;
FPrinter.PrinterSetup := FppReport.PrinterSetup;
end;

ppPrinter.SetDevMode(FPrinterDevMode);
if FPrinter.ShowSetupDialog then
FPrinter.GetDevMode(FPrinterDevMode);
end;

And I check that the report has the printer assigned before printing:

if assigned(FPrinter) then
FppReport.PrinterSetup := FPrinter.PrinterSetup;
FppReport.Printer.SetDevMode(FPrinterDevMode);

and in the BeforePrint event, check that the printer device is set
correctly:

if (FppReport.Publisher.DeviceCount = 1) then
begin
...
else
if (FppReport.Publisher.Devices[0] is TppPrinterDevice) then
TppPRinterDevice(FppReport.Publisher.Devices[0]).Printer.SetDevMode(FPrinterDevMode);
end;

and in the finialization of the unit, do some clean up:

finalization
if (FPrinterDevMode <> 0) then
GlobalFree(FPrinterDevMode);
if assigned(FPrinter) then
FreeAndNil(FPrinter);


HTH,

Ed Dressel
Team DM

nardmoseley

RB 10.04 includes improvements for merging the Report.PrinterSetup
properties with the DevMode settings from the Windows Control panel.

--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

> RB 10.04 includes improvements for merging the Report.PrinterSetup

:-)

The only difference then in my code sample and app is that my TppReport
object doesn't live the whole session, it is only created when the user
wants to print, and I need to keep my settings as long as the app is open.

--
Ed Dressel
Team DM

nardmoseley

Makes sense then.

There are really two cases here

- I want my report to use the Printer settings (DevMode) from the Windows
control panel (plus the Report.PrinterSetup settings)

- I want my report to use the Printer settings chosen by the user from the
Printer Properties dialog (plus the Report.PrinterSetup settings).



--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com