How to avoid paper ejection after printer.enddoc

[gevanand]

Hi buddies,

I am doing a project in vb6 for a restaurant. They are using continous paper roll of 5" width for billing. They need multi language printing. I tried it with Crystal report and even using printer.print command. As the bill is not having default size, i couldnt set a predefined paper size. When i give printer.enddoc the dotmatrix printer ejects enormous paper. I had searched many sites regarding this. Oops! no use.
Plese my buddies help me to make it succeed.

note: my competetor suceeded on this in various projects

[Guido Geurs]

What type of printer is it?
Is it possible to find details of the codes that can be send to it?
I know that on my old-old-old printer (9 pins Star NL-10) it was possible to send control codes for the page length like = [ESC] "C" chr$(0) n .
Sets page length to n inches.

[gevanand]

dear ggeu
its dotmatrix printer and you cant use escape sequence hence its printer.print command
thanks for try

[Guido Geurs]

I have found this in: http://www.bigresource.com

I don't think you can use the PRINTER object.

Try opening the PRINTER as a file - with something like OPEN 'LPT1:' AS FILE...

Then do PRINT #1,CHR$(7)

I've never tried this on a PC with VB - but that is the way we talked to old-style printers on mainframes.

[gevanand]

Dear ggeu
print # command wont support change of font
because its DOS style Printing
I tried it also.
Thank you again for follow-up

I tried with bigresource also nobody found a best solution for this.

Upto my knowledge, whomsoever going to tell the solution for this, will be the first person on net.

[Guido Geurs]

Do you know the ASCII code for "End of page" for your printer?
Once we know this, the only problem is the way how we must talk to the printer.

some say: (http://www.xtremevbtalk.com)

Well, the "best" way to do this, is to use s.c. Escape characters (defined in the printers manual) and send them to the printer directly. This means, if the printer is attached via LPT port, you send commands to it just like you would print to the plain text file. Something like this:
Code:
Open "LPT1" For Output As ...
Print #1, "Hello!"
Print #1, Chr$(10) 'line feed
Close #1
and if your printer is on COM port, You'd use MSCOMM component to output those same commands.

As I said, those commands are usualy listed in the printers manual.

[gevanand]

Hi ggeu
I am extremely happy with your intention on my query.
But I like to inform you that I need different fonts of different columns. Your code I think, wont supports Windows fonts. Please keep in touch on this.

[Guido Geurs]

Are you using a form print ?
I have used this for a print in a game.

'§ Send a PRINTSCREEN-Window to the printer
Private Sub Com_print_Click()
'§1 Save Print Screen Window in Clipboard
   On Error GoTo Print_Error
   Clipboard.Clear
'§ call the Windows keybd_event sub, passing the built-in
'§ VB keyboard constant vbKeySnapshot (44) to the sub and 1& for the window catch.
   keybd_event vbKeySnapshot, 1&, 0&, 0&
'§ pause to let Windows update the clipboard
   DoEvents
'§2 retrieve the clipboard bitmap to the Picture
  With Picture_print
      .Picture = Clipboard.GetData(vbCFBitmap)
'§3 Wake up printer
      Printer.Print
'§ print
      Printer.PaintPicture .Picture, 1000, 1000
'§ close printer
      Printer.EndDoc
   End With
Exit Sub
Print_Error:
   If Err.Number Then MsgBox Err.Description, vbOKOnly, "Printer Error!"
End Sub

it's also using Printer.Enddoc !!! but it sets the picture size.

You can change the form size depending on the lines to print !

Or is it the command "printer.enddoc " that is misunderstand by the printer.
If so, do you have the right printerdriver for Windows xx ?

[gevanand]

any how i got a solution
With Win98 printer.print works well.
I donna know why its not with windows xp

[Guido Geurs]

Maybe the version of the printerdriver (not compatible with XP) ???

[gevanand]

not like that, because i am using in-built driver "EPSON COMPATIBLE 9 PIN" driver in both OS

[INFOCARE VENKATESH]

How to avoid paper ejection after printer.enddoc

I have over come this problem,
Method 1:
You can use Server Properties in the Printer and Faxes Menu in XP to define a custom paper size and call in your report writer. This works 100% for me.

Method 2:
You should print the bill in text format and redirect it to the printer by the DOS command :TYPE MYBILL.TXT>>PRN .
This method is very easy and the print out is faster rather than the windows print. There are also some fonts which prints faster like dos printing. Try those fonts.

Bye!!

[gevanand]

Dear Venki
Thank you for your msg.
But understand me I have to print english and tamil fonts with the bill. so your Text print option wont apply me.
Then I am not having fixed length of paper as its roll paper and the print has to end at the end of bill.
Plz Help me!

[Stewart Ross]

Hi Gevanand. I think our posters have made all the suggestions they can to assist you with what is a very unusual request. That you can print using the methods listed to an old 9-pin dot-matrix printer at all is something of a miracle. I note that this is a project you are undertaking - even if we had a complete solution, it would not be in keeping with the spirit of your project for you to keep asking others to solve it for you!

-Stewart

[gevanand]

Dear Stewart
It works fin with Windows 98SE.
But not in XP thats y i am confusing