ACE and HP4 printers

Posted by "James Ware" <jware@cdpa.state.ms.us> >We have recently added a HP 4 printer to our SCO box running Informix. >Unfortunately, I am at my WITS END (an admittedly short trip for moi) >trying to get my ACE reports to plop out on the HP with the page framing >right. First page is ok, next page is off a bit, and the next etc... > >I'm sure someone has dealt with the dreaded "HP Creep"? It's a very sweet >printer but it's giving me CRAMPS. Thanks in advance for tips & >tricks... This is most likely caused by the fact that most line printers print at 66 lines per page while most lasers print at 60 lines per page. If this is the case, I have a few different work-arounds, if not, disregard all... Simplest solution is to code your reports for 60 lines per page ( in the output section of your report). If you really want a report that can support line and laser printers you are faced with three options. 1. Write the report in 4gl and do something fancy that will handle printing to any page length specified (see faq for one solution). 2. Support the laser printer with a trick to get it to look acceptable on the line printers. Code linefeeds in the header and footer so the report will look like 66 lines per page to a line printer. This requires a flag or something to control when to print the linefeeds. 3. Support the line printer at 66 lines per page and set the laser printer to be able to print 66 lines per page. This can cause some excessive blank space at header and footer because you will have whatever blank lines you defined for the line printer plus a half inch at top and bottom. We do this using a filter. All output to laser printer is piped through a shell script that will tack on the appropriate escape sequences to kick the printer into 66 printable lines and back out when done. (if you want the shell script, let me know. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Informix Premier Var -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Miguel A. Caldera Antares Development Corp. Phone (210) 490-9626 Director, Cust Svcs 1000 Central Pkwy North Fax (210) 490-0874 mac@antares-dev.com San Antonio, TX 78232 USA #include <std_disclaim.h> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-> You can teach 'em code, but you can't teach 'em logic! <-=