difference video and print

rbuser

hello,
we have a prolem that repeats on several report :

when we show the report preview on video we see all the report detail
prefectly , without any problem , but when we proceed to pint it, in same
cases , the last detail band (or group) of the page insn't printed !
it seems not have enought space.

all ok if it's printed on second page , but several times never in the next
page the detail is printed : we lost it !
the strange thing is that if we have some SUM calculations they calc the
lost record too, so the total are right but we don't see all the detail.

in some other cases we have the inversal problem : the last line of one page
is repeated on the first line of the next page and so on. and in this case
too , the sum object make the calc right ( not consider the 2nd line
printed )

help us !!!!!!!!!
thanks a lot !

Diego

nicocizik

Hi Diego,

Usually when the output on screen is different from the output on the
printer, there is some code being executed during report generation that is
inadvertantly altering it. As a test, try commenting out all your event
handler code and see if you still get the same results. If this fixes the
problem, periodically begin adding the code back in to isolate the problem.

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rbuser

no important code written

maybe is because i put visible/invisible some label with a dynamic band ?
but we do this in video output mode too .....

for the moment , we resolved the problem putting a ppRegion (or ppGruop )
with "keeptoghether" and , where we use dot-matrix printer, setting the
height of single row of components at 1/6 " !

thanks
Ciao !

nicocizik

Hi Diego,

Sorry, I was unaware you were using a dot matrix printer. Since these
printers print on a much wider scale than others it is sometimes very hard
to get the output you desire. The following article gives some good tips to
follow when printing to a dot matrix printer.

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Article: Printing to Dot Matrix Printers
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Dot matrix printers are natively line and character based. Most dot
matrix printers can emulate graphical (i.e. pixel based) printing, but
there is additional overhead which degrades printing speed.

Some options for maximizing performance:

1. Use native printer fonts.

Each dot matrix printer normally has some built-in fonts. You can choose
these fonts when using the ReportBuilder Report Designer. Choose File |
PageSetup and select the dot matrix printer (or optionally use the
object inspector to set Report.Printersetup.PrinterName). The fonts
displayed in Report Designer's font drop down list located on the format
toolbar will display the printer native fonts (indicated by a special
printer icon next to the font name).

2. Vertically position and size objects in 1/6 inch increments.

A standard dot matrix printer can print 66 lines per 11 inch portrait
page. This translates to a line height of 1/6 inch. Therefore the height
of each band should be a multiple of 1/6 as should the size of the
margins, the vertical position of each object etc.

3. Keep the layout simple, avoid using graphics of any kind.

Alternatives to using the dot matrix printer driver:

1. Use the generic text printer driver.

When using the generic text printer you will need to use the courier or
courier new font and apply the layout techniques described above.

2. Use ReportBuilder's ReportTextFile device output format.

This ReportTextFile device can exports the report to a .txt file which
you can then send to the printer. Demo dm0107.pas in the main reports
demo app shows an example of printing a report to a .txt file and
previewing the results.

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