Awkward Printing?

[ProDeZigner]

Alright, so I got that cheap receipt printer, it works great, but DHPOS is broken down kind of odd. Other POS apps print just fine and line up fine. Any idea how to fix this?

[daleadmin]

ProDeZigner,

Some details would help. How does it print wrong? Do you have a graphic to show us? Will the printer print 40 characters wide?

Dale

[ProDeZigner]

I'll try to explain this is clear as possible.

The printer has an option for two settings. Print as Image and Print as Soft Text.

Printing as Image, no matter what application, prints, but the right margin is truncated, and doesn't even act like a margin exists.

Printing as Soft Text, however, prints fine. It uses the margins, wraps text, it's just text only, no images. Judging by how the self-test page looked, they were using the Soft Text option at factory.

All other POS software I've tried, uses Soft Text fine. I don't have a sample to give you at this time, as I had to recycle printer paper last night to test it and various settings. Essentially the lines have the totals on a new line, left aligned, so it just looks wacky. The dashed lines only have like six or so dashes, and then stop, not going across the full width. It could be the way DHPOS prints, since I've never seen a receipt printed on DHPOS before. However I have seen a receipt printed 80 columns with DHPOS, and it looks great on a standard printer.

[brucef2112]

Here is what a receipt looks like from Star300 with a wornout ribbon (Sorry, all i had on hand at the moment.)
This receipt paper is about 83mm~ wide (3.25in ~).
At the bottom you can see how dhpos new Add Note feature is displayed on a receipt.

Have you gone into the posconfg.exe > Printer Setup and made sure it is set to 40 characters wide?

Try opening Windows Notepad and copy/paste the following line into notepad and then print to the receipt printer.
0123456789012345678901234567890123456789

How does it show on the reciept?

try saving the above to a text file. Like c:\testme.txt

then open a cmd window (DOS prompt) and type: TYPE C:\TESTME.TXT > LPT1
Tell us how it show on the reciept?

[ProDeZigner]

It's a USB printer for one, so printing to LPT1 is a no-go. It looks NOTHING like yours, using the Soft Font imagine the margin being set after description, price is on a separate line, indented. If I print using the Print as Image, it looks like that, but it doesn't shrink to fit.

It's a 58MM width printer. I dunno I wasted a whole roll of paper last night trying to get it set up.

I'll try to get a roll of paper today and take some pictures.

Also, it is set for 40 characters wide. And it's an Epson based printer. I'll take screen shots of all the printer settings when I get home, and then I'll scan in a copy of a receipt in both Image and Soft Text modes.

[daleadmin]

In the APRINT6 setup you can set the font and the font size. Did you select a fixed width font with a font size small enough?

Dale

[ProDeZigner]

I've tried Courier 10 pt. (and 8 pt.)

Even the Windows test print is all kinds of crazy.

[brucef2112]

Pro' said

....using the Soft Font imagine the margin being set after description, price is on a separate line, indented.

no answer but just noting that its wrapping after 26 character.

[ProDeZigner]

I just got a fresh roll of paper from the guy that I'm setting this up for. I'll post pics of the receipts in a few.

[ProDeZigner]

First up in Print as Image option.

[ProDeZigner]

And this is Print as Soft Text.

Sorry for the horrible quality on both.

[daleadmin]

ProDeZigner,

In your top photo the printer is printing 27 characters per line and then omitting the next 13 characters. In the bottom photo the printer is printing 27 characters per line and wrapping the last 13 characters on the next line. It seems pretty determined to print no more than 27 characters per line.

On your trials with other POS software how many characters per line were being printed? If the other software prints receipts that are formatted to print 27 characters per line then their receipts will be fine but DHPOS receipts that require 40 CPL will not print correctly on this printer.

It is time to look in your printer's manual. Are there DIP switches that can be reset to configure the printer to print 40 CPL? Is there a control code that can be sent to the printer to reconfigure it to 40 CPL?

If you change the font size in APRINT6 to different values does the actual font size change on the printed receipt or is the font size that is selected ignored by the printer?

In the specifications for this printer does it at state that it will print 40 CPL?

Another consideration is that if you can get the printer to print 40 CPL is that the font size will have to be about 2/3 the current size to fit on the paper. Will that be too small to read?

Dale

[ProDeZigner]

It is time to look in your printer's manual. Are there DIP switches that can be reset to configure the printer to print 40 CPL? Is there a control code that can be sent to the printer to reconfigure it to 40 CPL?

No DIP switches in the manual, so I ripped it apart anyway. No DIP switches in the unit.

If you change the font size in APRINT6 to different values does the actual font size change on the printed receipt or is the font size that is selected ignored by the printer?

I don't think it matters, for the fact that even the Windows test page prints only the supposedly 27 characters.

In the specifications for this printer does it at state that it will print 40 CPL?

It doesn't specify really. But under the "Character Size" it has:

ANK Character, Font: A: 12*24 dots, 1.5(W)*3.0(H) mm
Simplified/Traditional: 24*24 dots, 3.0(W)*3.0(H) mm

Another consideration is that if you can get the printer to print 40 CPL is that the font size will have to be about 2/3 the current size to fit on the paper. Will that be too small to read?

Probably, at 8 point it looks REALLY faded (as you can probably tell by the test print.

I've got the programmer's manual, but I really don't know what I'm looking for in terms of columns. It's in Word format, I can email it to someone to help me figure this thing out...

[daleadmin]

ProDeZigner,

The most important question, that you did not answer, was, "On your trials with other POS software how many characters per line were being printed?"

On an earlier post you stated, "All other POS software I've tried, uses Soft Text fine. I don't have a sample to give you at this time." Dig up one of those "other POS" receipts and count the characters per line. Do any of them have 40 CPL?

If the other software could also only print a maximum of 27 CPL then printing 40 CPL may not be possible and it is time to ship this thing back.

Dale

[brucef2112]

The smaller of the two built in fonts; ANK Character, Font: A: 12*24 dots, 1.5(W)*3.0(H) mm is twice the size of what would be needed for 40cpl.
Given the width of the paper, the font would need to be 6*12 dots (1.01mm * 1.5mm~) to get 40 character to fit across that size paper.
I think the printing industry's technical term for this font is; mice type. And its not listed as font set for this printer. :-)