How "Print Area" setting in the Report Designer affects margins, particularly the right and bottom margins?

[Vince Wen]

I'm seeking clarification on how the "Print Area" setting in the Report Designer affects margins, particularly the right and bottom margins, when set to "Printable Page" versus "Whole Page."

Initial setup:

• Print Area is set to "Whole Page" (letter size page, if that matters)
• I have placed my report controls (labels, fields, etc.) such that there is 0.25" margins on all sides (Left, Right, Top, Bottom) in the Report Designer.
• When I print, the report respects my 0.25" margins.
• If the printer's minimum hardware margin is wider than 0.25" (e.g., 0.5"), some content may be cropped, which I understand and expect.

Now, when Print Area is set to "Printable Page" (with all other settings unchanged):

• It appears that VFP9 adds my 0.25" margins to the printer's minimum hardware margin. For example, if the printer's minimum margin is 0.25", I end up with 0.5" margins on the Top and Left.
• However, content on the Right and Bottom is cropped.
• Additionally, I sometimes encounter a "Page header band is too large to fit on page" error, which seems related to the report height. (Note: This error is triggered by excessive height but not width, even though cropping occurs on both Right and Bottom.)

Questions:

1. When using Print Area > "Printable Page," should I move all report controls (labels, fields, etc.) to the top-left corner (i.e., no Top or Left margin) to avoid cropping? If so, this leaves excessive white space on the Right and Bottom. Is that normal?
2. To avoid the "header band too large" error, I can reduce the report height by shrinking bands. However, how do I handle the excess white space on the Right margin? Unlike the Bottom margin, the Right margin doesn't seem to trigger the "header band too large" error. Why is this?
3. In your experience, is it more reliable to use "Printable Page" or "Whole Page" for consistent printing across different printers?

 

[Chriss Miller]

Printable Page means VFP regards teh actual paper size as printable area of the whole page only and applies your margins etc. to that.

If you want reproducable outcomes you a) set whole page and b) pray the hardware margins are less than the margins you define. I would say you don't have to hope for much, as even ink jet printers can print almost the whole page, usually. So printable page and whole page are (almost) the same, anyway.

I prefer that as it allows me to concentrate on the page layout without taking into account different printers hardware margins and I set report margins high enough, naturally, as a margin is recommended for readability anyway. In the least cases I would need slim margins. To state the obvious: As long as your own set pargins from paper size are making the report region smaller than the printble page everything shows with no cut offs, all growth by "stretch with overflow" will remain within the report area, which should be smaller than the printable area unless you have the bad luck someone uses a very old printer with very large margins due to hardware limitations.

That resolves question 1 by not needing to care for it. Re 2: No idea (I never had the problem and why would you get that problem at all?), Re 3: Whole Page, obviously.

Most problems will then only arise if the page size the printer is fed isn't actully the same as what you assume in report design. That's where you may fail and get cropping.

 

[mJindrova]

Chriss, I update your first sentence:
Mode "Printable Page" means VFP regards printable area defined in printer driver - paper size (width, length, orientation) and page margins (left, top, right, bottom).
Mode "Whole page" is good for e-documents printed within virtual printer and will not be printed on paper.
VFP report can add special Left margin (in Page Setup dialog) to Page Left Margin.
If a report has set mode "Printable Page", then VFP designer change width in designer by current printer.

Error message "Page header band is too large to fit on page" can shows VFP if a report designed for some paper try print on smaller paper or same paper but page margins (top, bottom) are bigger then pager margins (top, bottom) behide design and height of Page Header is bigger then printable height (paper length - page margin top - page margin bottom).

 

[Chriss Miller]

Mode "Printable Page" means VFP regards printable area defined in printer driver - paper size (width, length, orientation) and page margins (left, top, right, bottom).

Yes, and that's usually defined by hardware limitations of the printer of what parts of a page it can even print on. I.e. these limitations define the set up page margins at minimum. It's pointless, if you don't print on the printer you design on, as that can change later at clients using other printers.

Mode "Whole page" is good for e-documents printed within virtual printer and will not be printed on paper.

You can also print to paper with that setting, though.

if a report designed for some paper try print on smaller paper or same paper but page margins (top, bottom) are bigger then pager margins (top, bottom) behide design and height of Page Header is bigger then printable height (paper length - page margin top - page margin bottom).

Which essentially is happening if a paper try is not the page size a report is designed for.

So when you design very precisely on a page size you expect you can get such results. If you don't design for an extreme outcome the same report can print on US Legal or LEttersize and in Europe and most of the rest of the world on A4 paper fine without any problems. No matter if you design for Letter or A4 or other such very similar page sizes.

A modern printer can also support with output fitting by resizing to fit to paper, let alone printing half sized for double page book layout with page reordering etc. So what you can't control in VFP a user that's fit with their printer can correct at the printing stage, too.

 

[Vince Wen]

Thanks. I will just go with 'whole page'.