Generic / Text Driver with Access Reports

[colorado_ski_bum]

Can anyone tell me if the following is possible?

I am using an Epson DFX-8500 printer for this, with nothing entered for
printer codes or anything.

I am trying to make a report in Access 2003 (2000 format) and use the
Generic / Text Driver to increase my printing speed. I am currently
using the epson 8500 driver which takes the printer's maximum speed and
makes it less than half of that. When I take an existing report and
print it to the Generic driver or make a fresh report and print it to
the Generic driver the data is printed ok, but the printer cannot find
the end of page correctly. I am using standard tractor feed paper set
to letter size.

The page n of y should always be at the bottom and it will be anywhere
from too high on the page to on the next one. I cannot get any
commands on the printer tab to work. All they do for me is print on
the reports.

Is there any help out there for entering the Epson printer commands
into the printer commands tab?

Michael
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Marshall Barton]

Can anyone tell me if the following is possible?

I am using an Epson DFX-8500 printer for this, with nothing entered for
printer codes or anything.

I am trying to make a report in Access 2003 (2000 format) and use the
Generic / Text Driver to increase my printing speed. I am currently
using the epson 8500 driver which takes the printer's maximum speed and
makes it less than half of that. When I take an existing report and
print it to the Generic driver or make a fresh report and print it to
the Generic driver the data is printed ok, but the printer cannot find
the end of page correctly. I am using standard tractor feed paper set
to letter size.

The page n of y should always be at the bottom and it will be anywhere
from too high on the page to on the next one. I cannot get any
commands on the printer tab to work. All they do for me is print on
the reports.

Is there any help out there for entering the Epson printer commands
into the printer commands tab?

No. Just forget the whole idea of generating a text file
output from a report. Reports are graphic output and it's a
ridiculous exercise to try to make it come out as text.

If you feel that its absolutely necessary to generate a text
file with embedded printer codes, you should try to find a
way to output the result of a query directly or use VBA code
to write the file.

 

[Brian]

It works. You have to first make sure that you are using the device font
and make sure that all your text boxes are exactly 1/6 inch high and on a
1/6 grid. Things like page x of y really only work properly at the top of
the page You cannot have a line with a textbox on the right side of the
page and nothing at the beginning of the line. I think it's because the
driver is more along the lines of a line printer than a page printer (like
your ink/laser).
You have to get one of the really old printer manuals to get the codes. If
you have printer codes make sure you use <1B> for escape.

For even faster performance I generate the report line by line in code, save
it in a text file and then dump that to the text only driver. It has it's
restrictions and difficulties but printing 2000 2-part statements a 1 day
for cheap is worth it.

Regards
Brian

 

[colorado_ski_bum]

I have found that if I use a specific printer in the report and tell it
that I want to print in "draft" mode instead of Near Letter Quality and
use a non True Type font (one that has a printer as the icon instead of
the TT) that I can get significant speed increases without sacrificing
the layout ability that the report designer gives me. I am now using
the DFX-8500 print driver and have only plain text on the document. It
looks like now I can get approx. 500 sheets per hour now out of my
printer.

Hope this helps others out there.

Michael

 

[Brian]

If you were to look at the output that's going to the printer you will see
that if you are using the DFX driver instead of the Text Only, windows is
sending a lot of control codes to your printer which are actually slowing
you down. The Text Only driver with printer specific fonts is faster. If
you still need to double your speed, dumping the raw text to the Text Only
is the only way.
Brian