I need a way to print only 2-3 labels at a time, but not waste the whole
sheet of labels. Any ideas? I have tried every option in Access that I can
find.
I have found that when printing a single label as a PDF file from
Access onto a sheet of label paper, that an origin translation PDF
command can be used to translate the entire PDF output (an individual
label) to a desired location. Note that the technique doesn't apply
to the A2K7 PDF Add-in output AFAICT. You must be creating PDF files
directly from Access or using some kind of PDF creation tool in order
to be able to add your own PDF commands to a command stream.
I have a set of eight toggle buttons on an Access form that are
arrayed in two columns of four to approximate the location of the
specific label desired. Each toggle button sets all the other toggle
buttons to False in its OnClick event.
tgl1 tgl2
tgl3 tgl4
tgl5 tgl6
tgl7 tgl8
Note: I also use a larger white bitmap on an image control under the
gray toggle buttons so that the margin locations are illustrated on
the form.
strOutputStream = ""
If tgl1.Value = True Then
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 54 555.75 cm"
ElseIf tgl2.Value = True Then
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 305.5 555.75 cm"
ElseIf tgl3.Value = True Then
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 54 396 cm"
ElseIf tgl4.Value = True Then
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 305.5 396 cm"
ElseIf tgl5.Value = True Then
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 54 236.25 cm"
ElseIf tgl6.Value = True Then
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 305.5 236.25 cm"
ElseIf tgl7.Value = True Then
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 54 76.5 cm"
Else
strOutputStream = "1 0 0 1 305.5 76.5 cm"
End If
That splits the area available on the label paper to eight rectangles,
each about 2.21875" tall and 3.354167" wide. The coordinates
correspond to the eight lower left corners of the rectangles as
expressed in points (1/72") from the lower left corner of the page.
The PDF command above will move the page origin to the lower left
corner for all subsequent PDF commands, effectively moving the label
output to the correct location.
That is followed by a layout stream that starts with the following:
%Light yellow background rectangle
q
0.5 w
1.0 1.0 0.8667 rg
0 0 252 161 re
f
Q
....
After the static layout stream is appended to the output stream, the
information from the form controls are placed.
As long as the output keeps the x coordinate under 241.5 pts and the y
coordinate under 159.75 pts, it will stay within the perforations of
the label paper. The light yellow background rectangle is designed to
cover just past the perforation. The individual labels were required
for the creation of visitor badges. I think the secretary who prints
the badges had better success putting the label page through an inkjet
printer multiple times when using the bottom rectanges before the top
rectangles. Naturally, the coordinate transformation technique is not
required when printing out full sheets of labels.
I have had success putting multiple bitmap images on PDF documents
from Access, so it will be possible in the future for me to put both
an authorizing signature and a digital photo on the visitor badges.
The signature bitmap (with a light yellow background
) doesn't
change from PDF to PDF so it can be precompressed and ready for the
PDF creation process without having to read and compress its RGB
values. A new photo image could change the PDF creation time from a
second or two to perhaps five or six seconds depending on how much
resolution I want, but a badge photo is fairly small anyway so a
little extra resolution doesn't add much time to the process. I place
the line that goes under the signature on top of the signature image
instead of including it as part of the image. For a signature in
black ink, it is barely detectable that the intersection of the
signature and its underline is slightly darker than it should be. I
think that a combination of photo, logo and signature on a badge
generated and printed within about a minute from when the photo was
taken would be quite impressive to visitors.
The inkjet printer seemed to be better at handling the thicker paper
used for badges, plus I'm not sure that laserjet printers are reliable
for multiple passes of the same paper given that electromagnetic
charges are used to make the toner adhere to the paper. I don't
remember exactly which Avery Label number was used for the badges, but
this technique gives me precision control for setting up any size and
arrangement of labels to be populated with information from Access.
The program was written in A97, but in such a way that no changes are
required to convert it to A2K3.
James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)
