The Windows Generic print driver simulates a line-oriented printer with a
fixed pitch font, like a TTY device or a line printer. Therefore, it
can only print text, and it can only position the text on a grid of
10 characters per inch in the horizontal direction and 6 lines per inch in
the vertical direction. (By contrast, most Windows print drivers can
position text on any pixel position.)
These limitations mean that any form or report using the Generic print driver to create a text file should be laid out so that everything lines up with this character grid.
The following are some considerations for your form or report layout:
- Ensure that each section of your report has a height that is
an integral multiple of 1/6".
- Lay out the text items in your report so that each falls on 1/6"
boundaries.
- Because the default hardware font for most printers is Courier
10cpi, you should set the font for all of your text items to
Courier 10.
- Do not use bold fonts because they will appear three times in your
output. (The Generic driver simulates bold text by overstriking.)
The following are some issues that frequently occur when using the Generic print driver to perform text output:
- Blank lines appear in the output -- text items or sections are slightly farther apart than 1/6".
- Overlapped lines appear in the output -- text items or sections are
slightly closer together than 1/6".
- Text appears three times in the output -- text is formatted as
bold.