the report prints only the left side of page

rbuser

Hi,

Sometimes the right side of report it?s not printed and the prevew of
reportonly shows the left side.
I?ve this problem with a dot matrix printer and a desjeck printer.

thanks

nicocizik

Hi Felix,

I do not think we have seen this behavior before. Are you only see half the
report when you preview on screen as well as when you print to the printer?
Are complete report components being cut off or are the objects on the right
side simply not showing up? A screenshot of this may help me understand
what is happening here. Please be sure you are using the latest printer
drivers for your printers and take a look at the following article on
getting the best results out of your dot matrix printer.

-----------------------------------------------
Article: Printing to Dot Matrix Printers
-----------------------------------------------

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.

Tip: When designing the report, use the PrinterSetup property to specify a
printer that contains 600 dpi. Then set Report.Units to PrinterPixels. Now
100 pixes = 1/6 of inch when specifying the positions of objects in the
layout.


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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rbuser

when preview the report I see half report and when print only print?s half
the report. But the report it?s OK because this error only happend?s
sometimes.

nicocizik

Hi Felix,

As a test, try commenting out all your event handlers and re-run the report.
If this helps the issue, slowly begin adding the event handlers back to
isolate the problem area. If this does not help the issue, it may be a
printer driver issue. Try printing to a different printer and see if that
helps.

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rbuser

the problem it?s that it?s a random problem and I can?t genrate it. the
problem happens in a Windoes XP Home system

cheers

nicocizik

Felix,

This is not a known issue with ReportBuilder. Did you try to print to a
different printer? I am still unclear about what is happening. Are you
just missing some components or are complete components being cut off?
Either way, this problem is either due to a printer driver issue or event
handler issue.

--

rbuser

Hi,

yes, whit a desject printer I had the same problem. The problem it?s that
only prints the left side of the report, but only sometimes, and alwys
happend in the the first print.

thanks

nicocizik

Felix,

Please send an example demonstrating this behavior in .zip format to
support@digital-metaphors.com.

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rbuser

Hi Nico,

Do you want a scanner copy of the page?.

The report has custom size (210 * 152,4 mm). The error only happens (if
happend) on the first print, and in the desing of report you only see the
left side of report 105 mm ( however the size it?s ok 210). the folow report
it?s Ok.

cheers

nicocizik

Hi Felix,

The best way for me to get to the bottom of this problem would be for you to
create a small example that demonstrates this error on your machine so I can
try to recreate it on my machine, then solve/debug the problem from there.

--

rbuser

Hi Nico,

That?s a problem because the problem happens in the compueter of a client,
and I can?t reproduce it on my compueter


cheers

nicocizik

Hi Felix,

Have you had your client try to print to a different printer? Perhaps the
printer(s) they are using are not capable of handling that size of custom
paper. If they print to default Letter or A4 size paper, do you still see
the same behavior?

--

rbuser

Hi Nico,

if the printer wasen?t capable to print this size, it will print all bad,
but it?s only the first.

the printer it?s a epson LQ 570 +ESC P2.

nicocizik

Hi Felix,

Well, I am sort of at a loss on this one. As I said before, since I have
never heard of this problem before and am unable to reproduce the problem
myself, it is very difficult to find the reason in ReportBuilder (if any)
for this problem. The fact that you too are unable to recreate the issue on
your machine leads me to believe that the problem does not lie in
ReportBuilder, but rather how the external devices/Operating system is
handling the ReportBuilder API commands. Perhaps if the first print always
shows this behavior, you could write some special code that skips it by
printing the first copy of the report to a .prn file, then automatically
print a second copy which should be correct.

--

rbuser

Hi Nico,

How I can do it?

thanks

nicocizik

Hi Felix,

To print to a .prn file, simply set the Report.PrinterSetup.FileName
property and the report will output the binary print file to the .prn file
of your choosing. Then remove this setting and print directly to the
printer. I have no idea if this will work but as far as this problem goes,
anything is worth a try .

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