PCL Printing Issues Frequently Asked Questions

10-30 Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle Reports Services

10.9.4 Font-Related Printing Issues

How do you check whether a font is used in Oracle Reports printing? PostScript files have a list of fonts, which is created after reading the PPD file. If you examine the PostScript file, you can check the fonts by looking for the following tags: ■ DocumentNeededResource has the list of fonts referenced in the PPD file. ■ DocumentSuppliedResource has the list of fonts for which the PostScript driver was able to find corresponding AFM files. ■ Page before the fields IncludeResource:font has the font name that will be used for the field. For PCL output files, you can check whether a particular font was used. Depending on this information, the font settings in Oracle Reports or the printer can be modified. What is the real difference between running reports to Screen and Preview? Formatting a report to Screen, for screen fonts, guarantees that the report will look good in the Paper Design view of the Report Editor. If an attempt is made to print a report formatted with screen fonts, though, it is likely to come out with some differences because screen fonts typically map very poorly to printer fonts. If Preview is selected instead of Screen, the report is formatted with printer fonts and the output on the screen is almost certain to match the printed output. Will there be any font issues if I do not have a valid printer installed? Prior to Oracle Reports 10g on UNIX, you had to set the DISPLAY environment variable in order for Reports Server to use the windowing system display surface for creating images and getting pixel resolution. This dependency is removed with Oracle Reports 10g. Additionally, earlier releases required a valid printer on UNIX for fonts. When no valid printer was available, Oracle Reports Services used the screen fonts, which again required setting the DISPLAY environment variable. Now, Oracle Reports Services includes a default screen printer surface, ScreenPrinter, that emulates a screen or printer for fonts in the absence of an available printer. As a result, Oracle Reports Services no longer requires a printer on UNIX.

10.9.5 Printed Output Issues

Why does my report look okay on the screen but have truncated data when printed? Any one of a number of possible causes may account for the truncation of fields. ■ Check the field and determine if it is allowed to expand. See Also: ■ Chapter 9, Managing Fonts in Oracle Reports for more font-related information. ■ Chapter 12, Font Model and Cross-Platform Deployment for resolving cross-platform font issues. See Also: Section 10.8, Removing DISPLAY and Printer Dependencies on UNIX . Printing on UNIX with Oracle Reports 10-31 1. In Oracle Reports Builder, double-click the field in the Paper Design or Paper Layout view to display the Property Inspector. 2. Find the Horizontal Elasticity property. 3. If it is set to Fixed, you should change it to Variable or Expand. 4. Run the report to the printer. 5. If it still truncates, it could be that the field requires multiple lines. 6. Return to the Property Inspector for the field and check its Vertical Elasticity. 7. If it is set to Fixed, you should change it to Variable or Expand. 8. Run the report to the printer again. ■ If the right most fields on the page are always the ones truncating, it could be an issue with the printable area of the printer. If you are using a PCL printer, then you will have to estimate the size of the printable area and resize your margins accordingly: 1. Open the report in Oracle Reports Builder. 2. Go to the Paper Layout view. 3. Click the Margin tool on the top tool bar. A thick black line appears indicating where the body of your report ends and the margin begins. 4. Click and drag the black line to the left approximately 0.5 inches. 5. Save and run the report to the printer again. 6. If necessary, repeat steps 4 and 5 to determine approximately where the printable area boundary is located and then ensure that your report body fits within that area. ■ If you are using a PostScript printer, you can get the printable area boundary to appear in the Paper Layout view as follows: 1. Open the report in Oracle Reports Builder.

2. Choose File Page Setup.

3. Verify that the margins are small and that the orientation is correct.

4. Click OK. The Paper Layout view should now be able to read the boundary.

5. Go to the Paper Layout view. 6. Click the Margin tool on the top tool bar. A thick black line appears indicating where the body of your report ends and the margin begins. A black hashed line also appears indicating the boundary of the printable area. 7. Ensure that the thick black line is inside of the black hashed line. If it is not, click and drag the black line inside the printable area. 8. Click the Margin tool to leave margin mode. 9. If necessary, reposition your fields to fit within the new body boundaries. 10. Save and run the report to the printer. ■ For PCL, if it is still truncating, try using a fixed space font instead of a proportional font. Sometimes PCL printers have problems interpreting proportional space fonts and it leads to truncation. You should try using a fixed space font, such as Courier, and possibly font aliasing.