probs on postscript pc

[the walker]

does any one know of any reasons why the printed result looks a mess and the preview looks fine

i am on XP fm 6 and 5.5 using a lexmark optra t614

the preview looks great but on the printed version there are fields missing and lines that seem to move a few pixels left and right

please help

[danjacoby]

FMP on Windows isn't WYSIWYG. Even the preview won't show you wnat the printout looks like.

It all started way back when, because Windows itself isn't WYSIWYG. By now, many other software developers (like, for example, Microsoft) have done something with their software to fix this Windows bug, but the folks at Filemaker haven't yet; whether this is because they just don't feel like it, or because MS won't release info they need, I haven't the slightest idea.

Why you have "fields missing" is something of a mystery.

[BobWeaver]

About the missing fields, my guess is a bad font. Try changing the problem fields to a different font. If it fixes the problem, then you have a bad font and need to reinstall it.

[the walker]

it could be a bad font but it is happening on multiple computers could it be the printer driver???

[BobWeaver]

Yes, it could be a problem with the driver. Check to see if you have the latest one.

Also, I've seen problems with printers that are advertised as "Postscript Emulation," which indicates that it's not real Adobe postscript, but the printer company's own proprietary Postscript workalike interpreter. I don't know if Lexmark has ever done this, but my experience with Postscript clones has been very bad.

[the walker]

yep its the latest driver

still not sure whats happening

any thoughts

[danjacoby]

Have you tried a "merge field"?

[Peter2543]

The whole mess, which is described in this post and others, happens from odd printer resolutions like 150 dpi, 300 dpi, and 180dpi, which do not divide evenly into 72dpi. Seemingly and obviously, internally, in Filemaker, the scaling is not done properly. Either it is rounding, or simple overflow in calculating, but anyway error calculi. It happens when there are multiple "lines" in the Detail section, be it fields stacked above, or multi-line fields. I have seen it only in list view.

Of course, Filemaker preview mode is to an internal 72dpi device and works fine.

The most easy way to reproduce the mess is to print to Acrobat PDFWriter, using a resolution of 150dpi instead of the MONITOR default. You have to play with the height of the Detail part a bit, to get the shifted lines in some fields at worst.

My best way to handle it, right now, is to play with the height of the Header part or the Detail part, upping or downing it pixelwise. The Header part seems easier. Another idea to try is to print at 96%, because that makes e.g. 300dpi to divide evenly into 72dpi. Based on theory, printing to Acrobat PDFWriter at MONITOR resolution should fix it too.

There is a TechInfo artice, 101515, which handles this a bit, but not to a full solution,and without any understanding, and it is about page breaks and line breaks.

There is no need to blame the OS, or the printer driver, or the fonts, or your "bad usage" of FM.