Not all printers work with XPRINT

[BRENT GARDNER]

Bought a HP all-in-one printer model c4385 just over 90
days ago. Trying to print to a specific area on a standard
sheet (8 1/2" x 11"). A Epson and a Canon top load
printers work ok. But, with the HP, in Landscape mode,
the set pos does not start at default left margin like other
printers. In Portrait mode, it does not start at(or measure
from) top margin? The code to work for all printers is
for left margin is something like:
x1=71 'left margin
XL1 = (6.3750*ppiY)-x1

With HP, it starts printing not at the default left margin of
71 pixels (.118") for 600 dpi, but from left edge of page.
Thus, it prints at 6.257" from left margin.

Other printers start at default left margin, say .118" and
then print (6.3750-.118) or 6.257+.118=6.3750 from left.

I'll have to put in my program requirements, that some
printers (I don't know how many) do not support changing
margins in text mode, like the HP C4385.

I don't see any other possible solution?

[Kev Peel]

What code are you using for the alignment? Can you create a sample demonstrating the problem?

[Chris Boss]

All printers are not the same, when it comes to margins.

Many printers have a fixed margin area where the printer can not print to. I wouldn't even call it a margin, its just the printers limitation of how close to the edge of the paper it can print to. This is a physical limitation of the printer. Thats why you need to retrieve the printers actual printable area , before printing and not just the paper size.

Some printers can print almost right to the edge of the paper.

[Adam J. Drake]

See XPRINT GET MARGIN in the help file - and ensure that you don't attempt to set a position outside those boundaries.

Note - it retrieves the size of the margin, not the actual physical coordinates of the margins. You can also use XPRINT GET SIZE to decide where to print based on these numbers. I have not tried XPRINT GET CLIENT yet.

[Dennis Pearson]

Chris is dead on. If you must print at an exact spot, you need to query the driver for the unprintable area and factor that into your print location.

For example:
GetDeviceCaps(gPrnDC, 112)
GetDeviceCaps(gPrnDC, 113)
Or the XPrint Get Margin (have not used it myself - yet).

Even then there are drivers that report incorrectly, as well as paper feed issues, so you really need to be able to configure a fudge factor as well, preferably to allow adjustment in both positive and negative directions.

For my current printer (HP2015), I have to manually offset left by -.03 inches and manually offset top by +.05 inches.

[BRENT GARDNER]

Here is a snippet of code I use.

XPRINT SET ORIENTATION 2 ' Landscape mode
XPRINT GET MARGIN TO x1, y1, x2, y2 ' left, top, rgt, bot
XPRINT GET PPI TO ppiX, ppiY ' both = 600 dpi
XPRINT FONT "Times New Roman", 8, 1 ' size 8 bold


YH1 = (5.9375*ppiY)-y1 ' Height position
XL1 = (.3125*ppiX) rem -x1 ' Left column positon

XPRINT SET POS (XL1, YH1) ' Position on 8 1/2" x 11" paper to start printing
XPRINT ACCT ' Print accout number

' the client size(printable area) 8" x 10.685"
' the page size is 8 1/2" x 11"

After reading on-line help for HP printer, it says that in text mode some
margins cannot be changed and there is no fix for the problem.

So, how would one know what their printer will do? I mean, changing the margin
should be pretty standard or else the printer is no good to me.

[Michael Mattias]

So, how would one know what their printer will do? I mean, changing the margin
should be pretty standard or else the printer is no good to me.

I have never reset printer margins, ever.

I just set 'em in code and always use them when calculating the print position.

e.g

PRINT_X =   LEFT_MARGIN +  DESIRED_INDENT_FROM_MARGIN
PRINT_Y =   TOP_MARGIN  +  DESIRED_DOWN_FROM_TOP_MARGIN

i.e, I never print relative to the PHYSICAL page, I always print on a LOGICAL page.

[Walt Thompson]

Get Printer Margins

Here's a small utility that will return the name and margin setting of all printers attached to your network or, hopefully, your PC.

On my PC printers 1 through 3 are not physical printers and return 0 for the margins.

#COMPILE EXE "Printer Test"
#DIM ALL

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG

  LOCAL ix          AS LONG
  LOCAL LeftM       AS DWORD
  LOCAL RightM      AS DWORD
  LOCAL TopM        AS DWORD
  LOCAL BottomM     AS DWORD
  
  LOCAL sPrinters   AS STRING
  LOCAL Drucker     AS STRING
  
  
  FOR ix = 4 TO PRINTERCOUNT
    sPrinters = sPrinters & PRINTER$(NAME, ix) & " "
    Drucker = PRINTER$(NAME, ix)
    XPRINT ATTACH Drucker
    XPRINT GET MARGIN TO LeftM, TopM, RightM, BottomM
    sPrinters = sPrinters & "Left: " & FORMAT$(LeftM) & " Right: " & FORMAT$(RightM) & " Top: " & FORMAT$(TopM) & " Bottom: " & FORMAT$(BottomM) & $CRLF & $CR
    XPRINT CLOSE
  NEXT

  ?sPrinters


END FUNCTION

[BRENT GARDNER]

Walter,

Nice bit of code, except when my HP PHOTOSMART C4380 series is hooked up and turned on, it does not show? The other printers that are not turned on do show?
Epson Print monitor C86 series
Canon ip1800 series
network \\K1L4d5/epson

[Cliff Nichols]

This may be silly, or actually a point to take a look at.

How are these printers attached? USB? Serial? Parallel? (GPIB? or other????)

Could be an underlying problem overlooked?????

[Fred Buffington]

Brent did you use Walter's code unmodified? or did you change the 4 to 1 and try it ?

[BRENT GARDNER]

Fred,

Thanks! When changing code to ix = 1 to PRINTERCOUNT
It shows all printers in the control panel.

Problem! I would like to know what the default printer is?
What code do I need to get the default printer's name?

Thanks

[Michael Mattias]

>What code do I need to get the default printer's name

The deviously-named Windows' API function "GetDefaultPrinter"

[Walt Thompson]

Improved Printer Utility

Here's an improved version of the utility I posted on Dec 17.
This version lists the default printer and all other printers attached to the system. I started the PRINTERCOUNT at 4 in order to skip non physical printers.

'Find the Default Printer and all system printers

#COMPILE EXE "System Printers"
#DIM ALL
#INCLUDE "Win32Api.inc"

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG

  LOCAL ix              AS LONG
  LOCAL LeftM           AS DWORD
  LOCAL RightM          AS DWORD
  LOCAL TopM            AS DWORD
  LOCAL BottomM         AS DWORD

  LOCAL sPrinters       AS STRING
  LOCAL Drucker         AS STRING
  LOCAL HauptDrucker    AS STRING


  'First find all printers Note: ix should start at 1 unless you need to skip non physical printers.
  FOR ix = 4 TO PRINTERCOUNT
    sPrinters = sPrinters & PRINTER$(NAME, ix) & " "
    Drucker = PRINTER$(NAME, ix)
    XPRINT ATTACH Drucker
    XPRINT GET MARGIN TO LeftM, TopM, RightM, BottomM
    sPrinters = sPrinters & "Left: " & FORMAT$(LeftM) & " Right: " & FORMAT$(RightM) & " Top: " & FORMAT$(TopM) & " Bottom: " & FORMAT$(BottomM) & $CRLF
   
    XPRINT CLOSE
  NEXT ix
  
  'Now find the default printer
   XPRINT ATTACH DEFAULT, ""

   FOR ix = 4 TO PRINTERCOUNT
      HauptDrucker = PRINTER$(NAME, ix)
      IF HauptDrucker = XPRINT$ THEN
          EXIT FOR
      END IF
   NEXT ix

   XPRINT CLOSE
   
   'Show Default Printer and a list of all system printers.
   ?"Default Printer: " + $CR + HauptDrucker + " " + FORMAT$(ix) + $CR + $CR + "Printer List: " + $CR + sPrinters

END FUNCTION

[BRENT GARDNER]

Walter,

Thanks! Looks like the XPRINT$ has the name of default printer.

After checking user's password, just want to know if default printer is the "HP Photosmart C4380 series", then direct printing to a different print routine designed
specifically for the HP series.

XPRINT ATTACH DEFAULT
DefPrt = XPRINT$
? "DEFAULT PRINTER IS: "+DefPrt
XPRINT CLOSE
IF TRIM$(DefPrt) = "HP Photosmart C4380 series" THEN
PrResult = %IDYES
ELSE
PrResult = %IDNO
END IF

Have not checked all printers yet, but looks like it should work.