Printing a report to a line / dot matrix printer

[Chris Strug]

Hi,

A quick question if I may.

I was wondering if it possible to print from an Access report to a dot
matrix printer "natively" in that text is printed out as "text" (like when
you're prinint from a DOS text editor) rather than as a graphic.

I.e. I have seen Access printing to a dot matrix printer in the past and it
appeared to print the report as a graphic rather than the native text that a
dot matrix prints in - for example when referring to the CPI speed of a
printer. Naturally this was *slow* rather than the furious speeds at which I
have seen dot matrix printers print at when printing text.

I hope I've explained what I mean well enough.

My question is, given a common dot matrix (an Epson for example), is it
posible / trivial to configure a report to print like this. Assuming
pre-printed stationary can I use access to print "text" rather than as a
graphic - is it simply a function of the printer driver or do I have to
configure Access

Any advice and assistance is gratefully received.

Kind thanks

Chris.

 

[SA]

Chris:

1. Access reports are natively graphic elements and there's little way
around this. It runs through the GDI subsystem no matter what you do. You
may want to look at your printer installation, and try changing the spool
setting (i.e. start printing immediately rather than running through the
spooler).
2. When using a dot matrix printer select a fixed width font (e.g. Courier),
preferably one that is a printer font to speed things up.
3. Other than that use as few graphic objects on your report as possible
such as lines, rectangles etc.