Text doesn't fit the text box when printed, but does in the Design 2

[JNeave]

Hi,

I'm running crystal reports 7.0.1.100. A text field on the report contains the text "Debt Type Sub Totals" in Georgia 9pt, and at 100% and 150% zoom, the text appears to not fit it's text box. At 200% the text fits fine.

Our rule of thumb has always been, if it looks OK at 200%, it prints fine. This has always worked. But now that is all out of the window and I'm wondering if anybody knows the workaround for this?

Cheers,

Jim.

 

[Ngolem]

Make the box bigger....Crystal isn't WYSIWYG.

Another problem maybe that you have designed the report for one printer but using it on another printer...this can be a problem if there are multi-users... Jim Broadbent

 

[JNeave]

And there lies the problem, This report looks fine on our printer, most printers in fact. Then a new client comes along and it all goes wrong.

So, basically, it's trial and error, yes?

...doh...

Ta,

Jim.

 

[Ngolem]

you are welcome....I had this problem alot once....we had an old clunker printer that was terrible and we designed to that printer...if it looked good there it worked everywhere else

One thing you might do though is get that driver for the printer from your client....if they are important enough.

You don't need the printer per se....just the driver so you can test the report in design...that may help Jim Broadbent

 

[JNeave]

I don't need the printer?

How can I not need the printer and just the driver?

Cheers,

Jim.

 

[jdemmi]

Here is what I have found as far as Crystal report designing and printers go. The format of the report, when printed is effected by both the print driver used to create the report and to print the report. If these are different you will get different results. So what I have started doing is creating\designing my reports with no printer. This seems to prevent me from "over-formatting" the report.

To try this, go to the file menu, choose printer setup and the select "No Printer".

 

[JNeave]

It's so crazy that it might just work...

Cheers mate,

Jim.

 

[Ngolem]

I would not do that personally...

Crystal takes the information from the printer driver and tries to create as WYSIWYG a report as possible. To select "No Printer" in my mind would just create a default report which might not work properly on many printers.

Hardware is not a forte of mine but I recall that you can have your computer set up for printing on a printer that in fact isn't in your real printer network (afterall you don't have to uninstall a printer driver simply because you added a new printer and threw away the old).

So...set up your computer so that it COULD use that printer. Crystal will do its best to display the report on the screen as it would appear when printed....then just flip to other printers to see if there are other issues before finally setting it to work on a Default Printer when you decide it is ready to roll out for real. Jim Broadbent

 

[JNeave]

Ah, but that stil doesn't get round the problem of the text not scaling correctly with the Zoom factor, does it?

As I said, the report looks fine at 200% and awful at 100% and somwhere in the middle when printing. Is getting that right all just trial and error? Or is there a certain zoom I should check the formatting at?

thanks,

Jim

 

[Ngolem]

When you say it was looking fine at 200% was that with the problem printer driver being used?

I have never designed my reports this way...interesting thought though... Jim Broadbent

 

[JNeave]

That's with any printer driver we use, although they are both HP Laserjets...

Yes, generally we find that fonts that are cut off when viewing the report at <200% print out fine. This has always been our rule of thumb and I design the reports at 200%.

But in the last report I designed some of the text was cut off in on of the text boxes. As it turns out, it was cut off on out own printer driver as well as the foreign machine. This is the first instace that our 200% workaround has failed.

OK, thanks for all your help guys,

Jim.