Header VERY small in ladder printouts

[Controls Guy]

When I print out ladder, I will sometimes get the header showing the date, processor type, and project name very, very small.  Looks to be less than one point, maybe.  If I go to the print setup dialog, the settings show normally, say 9 point Arial.  Now if I act like I want to change them, and go into the font selection dialog, even if I Cancel without making any changes, it will work OK and the header will print in the selected font. Not sure if it only happens with ladder.

I generally print to PDF.  Not sure if it would happen if I printed using a printer, but since it appears in the preview the way it will print, I assume it's driver independent.

[franji1]

Possibly your DirectSOFT printer settings file is messed up???

Shut down DirectSOFT, then go to c:\DirectSOFT5\Program\Bin and RENAME the PRINTSERV.RST file to PRINTSERV.BAK (or something else).  Now try printing and see if that doesn't fix it.  This will change all the print options back to their default values.

If this didn't fix it, you can rename the .BAK back to the .RST version if needed.

[Controls Guy]

I'm skeptical because the desired font does display in the print setup dialog even though it doesn't get used.  I'll try your suggestion and let you know.

[Controls Guy]

OK, this problem kind of went away on its own, so I couldn't try your suggestion.  Today (after a reinstall of DSoft), it started it up again, with greater consistency, and with slightly different details.

This time, I don't seem to be able to reset it and get it to work by just going in as if I were going to select a new font (even if I then cancel out of the dialog without selecting a new font), and now it does show as desired in the preview, but then tiny on the actual printout.  (As opposed to tiny on the preview and tiny on the printout like before.)

So I deleted the Printserv.rst file and it fixed the problem (this time at least).  I'll keep you posted if it recurs.

[Controls Guy]

NOW it's doing the same thing except that neither deleting Printserv.rst nor entering the font selection dialog, nor actually selecting a different font fixes it.   

[MikeS]

does it look the same in print preview as it does on the actual printout ?

[Controls Guy]

No, it shows correctly in the preview.  I seem to remember that the last time I was having this problem, it did preview the same as it was going to print, but my memory might be faulty.

[Controls Guy]

New detail.   Fired up DirectSOFT, opened a project and printed.  Small header.  Printed again with no setting changes and normal size header.  I'll see if I can reproduce it at will in some way.

[Controls Guy]

OK , now we're getting somewhere!   

Since it hosed up the first but not the second time I printed after opening Directsoft, I decided to investigate that a little.

I closed DSP5x.exe but not DSLaunch.exe, restarted DSP5x, and printed again.  Small header.  Printed again and it's fine.

Killed and restarted DSP5x again.  Small header on the first printout, then fine five times in a row.

[Controls Guy]

I had a general sense that this affected only ladder printouts and not docs or xrefs, but since it seems to be related to how many times one's printed since starting DSP5x and I usually print ladder first, then docs, then xrefs, I thought that might be why I never had a problem with those.

So I killed and restarted DSP5x and printed docs without doing ladder first, then did it again with xref and they're both fine on the first try.

Decided to measure repeatability and other aspect of the first-print screwup and not worry about subsequent attempts.  Fired up DSP5x 10 times, and printed once.  Small header after normal preview all 10 times.  No preview done on the previous tests.

Hmm. Seems to maybe be an Adobe printer driver problem.  Earlier tests all done while printing to PDF.  Tried the real printer (HP 5650) once with "Use Default" checked and once by picking it explicitly from the pull down list, and it worked on the first shot after starting DSP5x each time, which PDF repeatably fails to do.   I thought that I remembered this problem occurring on the printer as well as PDF, but again, I may be getting my usual head start on Alzheimer's.

Could this still be a DirectSOFT issue?  Does the app issue exactly the same commands to Windows regardless of the printer selected?  If it is an Adobe problem, how come I can reset it by restarting DSP5x?  And why would it only affect ladder and not docs or xrefs if DirectSOFT isn't somehow involved?

[Controls Guy]

So far we had: the header prints out small on a ladder (not xref or docs) printout the first time you print after starting DSP5x if you print to PDF but not if you print to a printer.

I tried printing to the printer first, then PDF, and it still came out small on the PDF.  So it's small the first time you print to PDF after opening DSP5x, even if it's not the first time you print.

[Controls Guy]

Wow, this is interesting (I think, anyway).  Since it seemed to matter what was printed (ladder vs. docs vs. xref) if the problem would occur, I decided to try printing using Print All.  If I include docs (or perhaps anything that would print before ladder) it works correctly, including the ladder section.  If I print ladder only or multiple items of which ladder will print first (ladder and xrefs say) the header is tiny in ladder but normal in the subsequent sections.

 

[8bits]

Don't know if this is any help as you keep testing the print out. Take a look at Fineprint utility program (Google for it).
You can download a free/demo trail version. When you print to that 'printer' it will display on your screen prior to actually sendingto the printer you select while viewing the document as seen by Fineprint.
Fineprint has additional features that I won't elaborate on here. It works pretty good for me and can save on printing long documents and can print to PDF as well.
Good Luck.

PS: No connection to the fineprint folks, just a user.