Hi All, Just in case anybody cares, I did figure out about 99% of the problem. If you have a client that needs to use the generic text only driver, then you might want to read this...otherwise, DELETE! The generic Text only driver works very well with a dot matrix printer using RBase 9.1. It is much faster than using the native Panasonic KX-P1150 driver. It also understands printer control codes. But as far as page length is concerned, that was a nightmare. In the end, all I had to do was create a new form under Server Properties and assign it the desired length, and assign the form to the printer. If found this PDF file which really helped...http://www.telpar.com/files/drivers_support/tech_bulletins/GenericTextOnlyPrinterWithoutFormFeed.pdf However, in the end, I did have to give up. My paper documents are exactly 4 and 3/16 inches in height plus the perforation. That works out perfectly on rbase version 6.5 using 8 lines per inch. But there was no way for me to get the generic text only driver to accept the printer control codes I needed, such as set page length to n lines. I tried playing with page length in 0.01 mm increments, but the printer driver would round up or down. Each time I would print a perscription, the perforations moved a little farther away from the cut off bar which means that my staff would have to hand adjust the postion of the perscriptions after each run. That would never happen. I was able to make it work with the native printer driver, but it was using up a lot of ink on the ribbon and it was very slow...pretty...but way too slow. The good news is, after spending weeks trying to figure it out, I went to plan B. I created a label on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper that prints 4 perscriptions per page, complete with graphics, beautiful fonts, etc. And it only took about 20 minutes!! Anybody wanna buy a very used Panasonic dot matrix printer? (just kidding....) Thank you again for your help. Mike
________________________________ From: Dennis McGrath <[email protected]> To: RBASE-L Mailing List <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, March 4, 2012 8:23 AM Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Lines per page and Page Footer Line Number OOPS, only ONE suggestion! Dennis McGrath [email protected] [email protected] On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 7:23 AM, Dennis McGrath <[email protected]> wrote: Mike, > > >I have two suggestions for you. > > >1. >With the dot-matrix, just write text to a file including all control codes you >need. >Do not use a report or label, create the text in code instead. >When done, copy the file to the printer. >This avoids using a windows printer driver. > > >If the printer is on your local LPT1 that is easy. >If not, you can use the operating system NET USE commands to map a shared >printer to LPT1. > >Dennis [email protected] >[email protected] > > > > >On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 3:54 PM, Michael J. Sinclair <[email protected]> >wrote: > >Amazingly, 1 minute after I posted my question, I think I found a partial >answer.... >>I am using a Panasonic KX-P1150 printer. >>I was using the Generic / Text Only Driver (to speed up the printing) and the >>page length seems to ignore Rbase. >>I changed the driver back to the Panasonic KX-P1150 and the page length >>problem seems to have resolved, but now the printing takes forever...the text >>appears to be printing is some sort of graphics mode instead of the lightning >>fast draft mode. >>Does that make any sense? >>Mike >> >>
