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Selective Duplex Printing - First two pages only.

edited July 2014 in General
Good Morning,

We have a customer that wants the ability to have duplex printing for a
report - but only for the first page. (So that the first two pages print
on the same piece of paper back to back, but all subsequent pages print
on their own).

I was wondering if this is possible to do with Reportbuilder?

Thanks & Regards

Adam.

Comments

  • edited July 2014
    May be next example will be useful for you:
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com:8080/Design/Pagination/How_To...Collate_Subreport_Pages

    On Mon, 14 Jul 2014 04:07:43 +0300, Adam H.
  • edited July 2014
    Hi Adam,

    It is not possible to change the duplex setting while generating for
    most printers. Some customers have had luck doing so in the OnStartPage
    event by altering the Report.Engine.Page.PrinterSetup.Duplex property.
    As I said above, this does not seem to function well with most printers
    (especially small office printers) but may be worth a try.

    Another option would be to separate out the first and second page into a
    Section style subreport and the rest of the report into another Section
    subreport with their NewPrintJob set to True. This way you can set the
    PrinterSetup.Duplex property of the first subreport separately from the
    second.

    Best Regards,

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited July 2014
    Hi Dima,


    Thank you, but I'm not sure how this applies.

    Best Regards

    Adam
  • edited July 2014
    Hi Nico,

    Thanks for your response.

    It looks like it's not all that straight forward. As you've mentioned
    the only option may be seperating them - except in this instance our
    problem is more along the lines of the first report is page 1 (front).

    The second report we want starting on the back of page 1, but continuing
    to print simplex after then. Sort of the opposite.

    The first page is actually going to be a cover page for windowed
    envelopes, so only prints the address. We might just have to go either
    full duplex with the whole lot, or have a completely separate cover
    page, which is unfortunate in this instance because at least half of
    them will only be single pages.

    Best Regards

    Adam.
  • edited July 2014

  • edited July 2014
    Thanks for the clarification Ed,

    Seems that this isn't a Report Builder, or even a windows solution, but
    what the individual printers can handle.

    One work around I've come up with is to have all pages duplex, but
    create artificial blank pages for page 4, 6, 8, etc that are blank.

    This way pages 1 and 2 are on the same piece of paper, and subsequent
    pages are single sided only. (Or double sided but one side is 'blank' if
    you want to get technical ).

    Obviously this would be messy if the printer can't support duplex
    printing anyway - but this could be turned off for such printers. It
    would be up to the user to specify whether duplex is to be used ornot.

    Thanks again for everyone's help.

    Adam.
  • edited July 2014
    Adam H. wrote:



    Indeed - and I've even seen differences within the same make/model: for
    example, the Kyocera printer I mentioned - one of my customers leased a
    second printer. It didn't support toggling duplex until a firmware
    patch was introduced.


    Where this gets messy is when you have to pay "per page" on a large
    printer (e.g. in the lease situation above).

    It's the difference between spitting out a page in non-duplex mode vs
    pulling the page back in and printing nothing on the reverse - the fact
    that it had to be pulled back in triggers the page counter, not the
    application of toner to the page!

    EdB
  • edited July 2014
    Hi Ed,

    Thank you, yes I would be interested in getting the example from you and
    creating an article in our Wiki so others can utilize the information.

    Please send the example to support@digital-metaphors.com.

    Thanks,

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

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited July 2014
    Hi Ed,


    Good point. But in the end I'm only a developer, not a miracle worker,
    and can only support what's available to me. The client will need to
    choose which way to go - but thanks for bringing that up, because I
    wouldn't have even considered it!

    Cheers

    Adam.
  • edited July 2014
    Nico Cizik (Digital Metaphors) wrote:


    Ok - I'll want to test against the Kyocera printers before I send it in
    - I'm booked to see that customer end of next week, so it won't be
    before then...

    EdB
  • edited July 2014
    Adam H. wrote:


    Heh, calling that particular customer "frugal" is the nicest possible
    way of calling them cheap-... .

    You can bet THEY would be considering it!

    EdB
  • edited August 2014
    Ed Blanchard wrote:



    Customer bailed on me (started their holidays early).

    I haven't forgotten about this, but might be end of August before I get
    there to test against a duplex-sensitive printer...

    EdB
  • edited August 2014
    Thanks Ed,

    No problem, there is definitely no rush at all.

    Best Regards,

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com
  • edited September 2014
    Nico Cizik (Digital Metaphors) wrote:


    Just sent it in, forgot to add that it was created in D7 with RB15.

    EdB
This discussion has been closed.