Has anyone ever had to print to a dot matrix printer from Crystal Reports
and struggled with the fonts?

My customer has an Epson LQ 570+ dot matrix printer.  After adding the
printer to Win95 (and loading the default drivers), I don't seem to get any
additional fonts that would allow me to utilize the firmware fonts in the
printer.  All I can seem to use are true type fonts that put the printer
into graphics mode which is very slow!

On the other hand, when I add my Okidata ML380 printer to Win95 (and load
the default drivers), I can select this printer within Crystal and see a
whole new list of fonts that allow me to select a firmware font for the
printer.

There are two acceptable solutions for the moment.  The first is if anyone
knows how to access the firmware fonts for the Epson printer.  I have talked
with Epson Web support and Crystal Web support and can't get a satisfactory
answer from either of those sources...

The second (and best) solution is if anyone can point me to a font that I
can use that is basically a 10 pitch character font that will allow me to
print to ANY dot matrix printer in that printers own draft mode (ala as if
you were sending a text file to the printer from DOS).

I even tried printing the report to a text file and then shelling out to DOS
to send the file to the printer, but was not able to make this work w/o
leaving a DOS window open and that doesn't seem very user friendly...

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Russ Kauk

Hi,

download the dot-matrix printer driver for epson printers from the
following website http://www.epson.de/cgi-bin/epson-de/driver.pl

the website is german, but the Driver is multiligual.

If you need draft font for oki printers use the following website
http://www.oki-osd.com/english/

both installations are the same and you can select different fonts
within the printerdriver(e.g. Draft 10cpi,Draft 17.1cpi,Courier 10cpi
...)

for NEC printers I found out, that Courier New is working very fast.

Mike Mitchell

Thanks for the information.  I have tried to access the epson web site, but
get errors...I will try later.  Maybe the server is down right now.

Regarding using Courier New...That is what we are using, but it still puts
the printer in graphics mode, PLUS it does not produce exactly 10 cpi at 6
lines/inch.  So we are not able to match pre-printed forms very well.

Sorry,
try the following website http://www.epson.de/support/download/#winmac
or http://www.epson.de/support/download/
and then under 24-Nadeldrucker you have to select your printer and
under
Betriebssystem your Windows Version and under Sprache your Language.

good luck
Mike Mitchell

I have download the drivers from this site, to no avail...

The exact printer I am having to interface to is the Epson LQ 570+ Esc/P2...
The Win95 drivers from this site that presume to run Epson LQ 570+ printers
are not capable of driving my specific printer???  After installing the
drivers and trying to print a test page to the printer, Windows tells me
that it cannot access the printer.

Interestingly enough, early in my process of trying to solve this problem, I
downloaded a Win3.1 driver from the Epson web site.  I had been reluctant to
install this not knowing how it would work with Win95.  After downloading,
installing, and trying to run with the Win95 drivers, I tried the 3.1
driver...It seems to work!

Does anyone know of problems that might arise from using Win3.1 drivers with
Win95???

Also, if anyone knows of a generic text driver that is printer independent
please respond.  That would be the ideal solution and would negate the need
to 'recompile' reports for each buyer because of a different printer that
they might be using.

Russ Kauk

We use the exact printer (LQ 570+) and struggled with the same problem.
Basically, there are two options:
1. Force the printer to use the Generic Text Driver, which forces the
printer to print in draft mode.  Crystal does not work well at all with the
Generic Text Driver. though.  We experienced missing rows, etc.
2. There is a new LQ570+ driver available on Epson's site which supports
newer fonts that, when you make your report using these fonts, Crystal will
print faster.  You are limited to Courier 12cpi, 16cpi, etc. type fonts.

Other than that, there isn't much you can do.