Greetings all!
My installation has 5 Seikosha BP5870 printers which print very fast from my DOS programmes.
I have installed the printer and am printing the reports from my Windows VB app, but Windows insists on printing in graphics mode, printing each line twice or more - for perfect clarity o:{
I have set the quality to draft , and tried adjusting the Dithering and Resolution, but all to no avail.
Is there any way to get the printer just printing text in the good, ol' fashioned way?
Regards
Tony
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If you are using the printer object in vb. that is:
Printer.Print ........
....
....
Printer.EndDoc
then there should be no problem. try installing a generic text(make it default) instead of the actual printer driver. and you'll find your printer printing the old fashion way. (dont forget to set the font in the printer console ok? make it draft)
but if you're using a report writer like crystal report. we have the same problem and still seeking for an answer.
:)
Boy, I used to work for Seikosha Tech Support nearly 20 years ago. Didn't think I would ever hear that name again after all these years.
I think that you discribed the problem correctly. When windows prints to the Printer object it prints in graphics mode on those old dot matrix printers. What you need is to write directly to the printer port (LPT1:) instead of using the Printer object. However, I don't know if that is as easy as it used to be in VB. I can probably find out for you, but probably someone else will be able to answer the question faster. If not, then I'll look for something.
Yea...that works. You just need to use Open and Print. If you want to use fonts or bold or italic or any other text format then you will need to use the printer control codes to set those on your printer. For instance, if you want Elite type font you would look up the control code in the back of your Seikosha manual for Elite font (its something like 27, 69 though I don't remember so look it up). Still, lets say it is 27, 69 so I can show you how to make use of that control code. You would do something like this.
Open "LPT1:" For Output As #1
Print #1, Chr(27) & Chr(69) & "Hello World!!!!"
Close #1
Hope that helps; though, I might add that printing directly to the printer is not all that common an approuch to printing. But if you have an old dot matrix printer then it is probably the solution you are looking for.
Thanks, guys, for your speedy responses.
Enlade has given me the answer - the one I feared! o:}
I will have to write a completely different section for my printing routines (lots of work!) to allow for the dot-matrix printers - basically just the same as I did in my old DOS Basic programmes.
I'll check it out and report back
Regards
Tony
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by: eeshahidtPosted on 2004-10-11 at 12:35:12ID: 12280042
Is the program which is insisting on you choosing the best quality, you own vb app or someone else's. If someone else's, then he has probably written a poor app. If it is your vb app, you could try setting reference to 'Microsoft Common Dialog' controls and call the ShowPrinter function. Alternatively, you could just say...
Printer.PrintQuality = vbPRPQDraft or
Printer.PrintQuality = vbPRPQHigh or
Printer.PrintQuality = vbPRPQLow, etc...
Hope this answers your question