Win98 won't print what W2K will print

rbuser

I use 6.02 RB Enterprise with Delphi 5. I have a template that prints
great in W2K on laserjet and ink jet printers. But when I use Win98 to
print the exactly same data on the exact same printers, none of the
printers will print a single page. The print queue shows about 510
bytes going into the queue and then the program says it is finished and
the queue is then empty with no paper generated.

What could it be?

digitalmetaphors

What components are you trying to print in the report?

The drivers for these printers are going to be specific to a particular
operating system. Try upgrading the drivers from the manufacturer, or test
with the HP Laserjet 4 driver- it should work with no problem, and if it
does work, then this means there is a problem with the other printer
drivers. Unfortunately, printer drivers are flaky at best.

Are any pages generated to the screen preview for these reports, when using
Win98?


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

"Jim Bennett (Digital Metaphors)" wrote:


Jim,

The component used is the ppImage component. I have suspected printer drivers
from the beginning, therefore I already have the "latest" printer drivers for
the OS. All the pages print fine in Win2000 with its latest drivers but Win98
is not even coming close to functioning properly with its latest drivers.

Yes. The pages are generated correctly in Preview for all OS's, it's just when
its actually printed that it fails to function. Of course the preview is at
screen resolution (~ 96dpi I believe).

When I resize the graphic (bmp file) smaller that is stored in the image
component, Win98 will print it. But because I resized the bmp file, the
resulting output is a lower resolution and too grainy and unsuitable for the
need. The application is printing an image of a data entry form. We actually
scanned the hardcopy of the data entry form, scrub the image using PaintShop
Pro, then put that image in the bmp file. I have run out of ideas on how to
keep the quality of the image high while working well in generic laserjet
printers using Win98 and Win2K.

Marlin

digitalmetaphors

Is it not feasible to create the data entry form using lines, shapes and
labels in the page style band of the report instead of creating an image?


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

"Jim Bennett (Digital Metaphors)" wrote:


It is not feasible to create the form with components. The image is quite
detailed and uses very "tiny" font point sizes and small special shapes. It is
a very involved image.

What's even more intriguing is that we have since tested with a Win95 standard
installation and the form prints correctly as it does in Win 2K. It seems to
get stranger as we investigate this issue.

We are a little frustrated simply because we converted the application from
using Crystal Reports 7 to use ReportBuilder Enterprise thinking we could give
the end-user a better output result with more options for them to use eventually
(end-user report generation, etc). Actually the Crystal Reports 7 version of
the application prints on the problem printers using the problem OS and doesn't
skip a beat.

Is it possible that Win98 and ReportBuilder Enterprise have some unresolved
issues that could be affecting us since we now know that our application prints
correctly with Win95 and Win2K?

Marlin

digitalmetaphors

Which exact Win98 printer driver can be used to duplicate the problem? We'll
download this driver and test it. Can you send a simple test report project
with this image in it? support@digital-metaphors.com

RB and Crystal (most likely) are using different API calls to render the
image on the printer's canvas.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

FYI:

We have found 1) on windows 98, the TppImage component cannot hold a
bitmap > 682K
2) on windows 98, two TppImage components can
hold bitmaps whose combined
size is > 682K but each TppImage
component's bitmap must be <= 682K




Email Reply, sent 1/9/02 :

Attached you will find a self -extracting archive containing a sample App
and associated D5 project files for the issues mentioned/discussed below.


You should find that the report will not correctly print the image portion
of the form using Windows 98
You should also find the report prints correctly on Windows 2000 and Window
95.

(Windows 98 :
****************************************************************************
**********************)

As requested, these are the exact printer drivers we are using ---

Using: HP LaserJet 4 Plus -- HP LaserJet PCL 5e Driver 9/15/00 rev
2.1.0.0 ~440 kB
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/software/lj388en.exe.html

Using: HP DeskJet 890C -- HP DeskJet 890 Printer Software 10/12/99
rev 11.12 ~4.4 MB
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/software/dj885en.exe.html

Using: Lexmark Z32 (ink jet) -- (Lexmark Printer Software) 11/27/01
rev 1.0.7.1 ~3.2 MB
http://drivers3.lexmark.com/drivers.nsf/printer+driver/96ADC6CA7186A61685256
90C00524DE3?OpenDocument

(***************************************************************************
****************************************)

rbuser

Sent an Email on 1/9/02 with a simple test report project. Just wondering
If you were able to reproduce the problem? If so, is a fix in the making or
even possible?

digitalmetaphors

When I run it, keeps locking up the Win98 machine. I'm gonna keep trying
other different drivers today.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors


"Matthew L. Foster"

rbuser

Hello, Jim:
We solved the problem already.
The solution is: cutting the image as two part (this makes each bitmap
size <682k), then put them to the same DetailBand (so, the background looks
still like one image). It works fine.
Thanks for help!

regards,
Meixi