Rocky Smolin
rockysmolin at bchacc.com
Tue Dec 1 10:31:15 CST 2009
Mark: Thanks again. This guy wants the printer on his desk to just pump them out one at a time, slap on a promo piece or envelope. So, real low volume. Means real low cost of HW & SW. That's why I'm trying to figure this before I get into it too deep. He favors the Brother QL-500 - low cost and available at Staples. Rocky -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Mark Breen Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 7:57 AM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Label Printer Hello Rocky, It is not wishful thinking, the printing process is identical to printing from MS word on a laser printer. In fact, when I try to learn a new printer, I often start off with MS Word. If you cannot do a test with Word or Excel to the Zebra / Printronix / Other printer, how can MS Access print. So, 1) get the hard ware installed 2) review the setting in the printer (do not skip this bit) 3) review the driver options 4) install the driver that ships making sure to check it is is Vista / 64bit / Windows 2008 Server etc compatible 5) try to set the page size to 1 inch by 1 inch (or what ever your label size is) 6) try to print from Word or Excel 7) create a report in Access and try to print that 8) Get clever with a few lines of code to call the docmd.openreport command and experiment with not print printpreviewing, which will allow you to send three docs sequentially which may be a header, body and footer. 9) Presto - it is all easy to do and MS Access proves to be a brilliant Reporting / code behind tool with only 10 lines of code. On one big application I work in for the last few years, we have printer thousands of complex in this mode and it is so each to make changes when required. If you have to print millions of labels a month, I have a whole other set of advice to give :) Which is what I spent my youth on. Again, if you are struggling just call me any time on +353 86 8066970 GMT time though Mark 2009/12/1 Rocky Smolin <rockysmolin at bchacc.com> > Mark: > > Thanks for the advice. Is it wishful thinking that if I install the > label printer as a printer and set the report to that specific printer > that the label will just come out all nice and neat? > > Rocky > > -----Original Message----- > From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto: > dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Mark Breen > Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 7:10 AM > To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues > Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Label Printer > > Hello Rocky, > > I have lot and lots of experience with printing single labels. Not > sure how to help here but.... > > First thing to get right is your page size and orientation. Playing > around has always worked well for me in Access. You can try setting > the page smaller than the actual labels to start with then gradually > expand the label to fit the actual size of the paper. *Primary > advice. Do not rush this phase. *If you do not get the page size and > orientation right, first, you cannot print labels. So create a single > table with five records, with one field with values test1, test2 ... > test5 and get that printing. You will have to play with drivers and > margins (usually I find it best to set 0 as the margins and handle the > layout within the label. At times you will find you are unable to get > something to work for you in the Access/Windows Printer Driver working > and then you will start to notice that there are printer settings that > you can manually set. At other times, you will notice that the windows driver overwrites the printer settings. > > Sometimes you will notice that a setting does exist in the printer > driver, but you could not see that from within MS Access. I repeat > again, get this stuff right and the rest will be easy. Until you > learn your Printer / Driver and then MS Access printing abilitys in > little labels, you may struggle. > > Sometimes you find that the Windows Driver for the printer is poor, > and you need to remove it and switch to the Manufacturers driver, and > sometimes you need to trash the manufacturer's driver and find that > Bill Gates driver works a treat ! > > If you need to print qtys, sometimes it is useful to set the qty in > the printer itself. > > Finally, for manufacturing environments, I usually printer a Header > label and the footer label with job numbers etc, this also works well. > > I have used many termal transfer printers, but in recent years I have > learned to love Printronix machines, but Zebra are also some of the best. > > When you have your hardware, and labels, let us know and if I can > help, I will try. > > Oh, and make sure to have ten thousand labels to start with :) > > I recall once telling the customer that I needed about 30,000 labels > for volume testing, when the customer told me that the labels cost > approx €0.50, I adjusted my qty down to 10 labels :) > > I have spent my youth printing labels :) > > Mark > > > > > > 2009/12/1 Rocky Smolin <rockysmolin at bchacc.com> > > > Dear List(s): > > > > I have a client who wants a label printer - single labels off a roll. > > It will be printing the label from a record in my database from a > > bound > form. > > So I want as simple as possible. Haven't fooled with these for years. > > Any recommendations - cheap, simple, easy to drive from an Access app? > > > > > > > > MTIA > > > > > > > > Rocky > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > dba-Tech mailing list > > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com