Frequently Asked Questions Library Reporting

Why does the stationery layout change between printers?

It is normal that the “same” report or document can print in a slightly different way on different printers. In fact it is possible that the same report/document could look different when printed on the same printer because it all depends on the printer driver settings.

Printer drivers are a piece of software that typically sits on a Windows server or PC and turns the report “output” into something the printer can understand. Printer drives usually send the printer commands in either Postscript or PCL5/PCL6 (Printer Control Language).

Printer Paper SettingsSometimes you can notice a difference in the final printed result. This is because the position of the actual print is controlled by the settings on each individual printer driver. The printer driver can be configured for different paper sizes like A4, US Letter etc. as per sample screen shot. There can also be settings to perform additional formatting like shrinking the output to the page. None of these we control via Online Advantage so there is the potential to get different results on different client devices.

PrinterSettings-2The “shrinking” option, also called “Scale to Fit” or “Fit to Page” is a particularly useful function for printers to ensure that they print within the confines of the printers paper size. What essentially happens when this option is turned on in the printer driver is that output sent is “shrunk” to fit within the size of the destination printer and its paper source. In other words, the driver makes the output for each page fit onto an A4 page (or US Letter, or A3 etc. depending on the settings). An example of this option is shown here.

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