Custom height continuous forms

rbuser

Hello,

We're trying to print to a weird-sized pre-printed continuous form. Its
width
is 8.5 inches, and its height is 3.66 inches, i.e. 3 pcs are as large as 1
A4
letter (8.5x11) page. We are using D7/RB9/WinXP/Epson LX-300+.

But after printing one page, we can't seem to get the next page to print at
the right spot. We tried setting the page height, but it "drifts" after a
few
pages. The LX-300+ has an "auto form-feed" feature that works perfectly
with
ReportBuilder, but the form height must be selected on the printer, and
there
is no option for 3.66-inch-forms.

Can anyone please help?

Thanks so much in advance.

nicocizik

Hi Poch,

Take a look at the following article on printing to continuous paper.

----------------------------------------------------
Article: Printing to Continuous Paper
----------------------------------------------------

1. Layout

For continuous printing (for example a receipt) use Title/Summary and
removing the Header/Footer. Set the PrintHeight of each to phDynamic. Layout
the DetailBand to print a single line item. Set the margins to 0 or to the
smallest that the printer driver will support (some printers have an
unprintable area).

With this configuration The Report will generate a Title followed by a
variable number of Detail bands that span pages if needed, and then finally
print a Summary at the end.

2. Pagination

a. dtPrinter

Some printer drivers have a continuous paper size setting. If not then try
setting the paper size to be very small - perhaps the size of the tallest
band in the layout. Or try setting the page height to be the size of a
detail band. Note that some printer drivers will only accept page sizes
within a certain range of paper sizes.

b. dtReportTextFile

With the above layout, the report text file will generate the page breaks
properly, however the device will fill up a page with blank lines. You can
control the number of lines per page by configuring the CharacterGrid
property in the Report.BeforePrint event:

example:


procedure TForm1.ppReport1BeforePrint(Sender: TObject);
var
lDevice: TppReportTextFileDevice;
begin

if (ppReport1.FileDevice <> nil) and (ppReport1.FileDevice is
TppReportTextFileDevice)then
begin
lDevice := TppReportTextFileDevice(ppReport1.FileDevice);

{120 characters per line, 66 lines per page}
lDevice.CharacterGrid(120, 66);
end;

end;

--
Regards,

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

rbuser

Thanks Nico. Very helpful article.
But I see that the article discusses variable page sizes,
(varying number of detail rows). Since we only need to print the same page
height everytime, do we remove the detail band, and just use a
Title/Summary band?

Can we somehow print a page and then scroll to the next page to be ready
for the
next one, and also to allow the user to tear-off the printed form? I'm
sorry I
posted about the "auto form-feed" feature of the LX-300, but what I really
meant
was the "auto tear-off" feature.

Thanks again.








On Fri, 29 Sep 2006 23:31:51 +0800, Nico Cizik (Digital Metaphors)

nicocizik

Hi Poch,

The detail band will only print a variable number of times if needed. For
instance if you have your report connected to a dataset that will print a
different number of records per report. The same concept should apply when
printing a static height report.

--
Regards,

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