Envelope Printer - Brother Printer Issue - SOLVED

[Engineer]

I have been trying to use your Envelope Printer - currently tested to v1.5.0.  I am attempting to print a US #10 envelope (4 1/8" x 9 1/2") on a Brother MFC-9840CDW Color Laser Printer.  I am utilizing the manual tray.  All things seem fine up until I actually print.  The printer takes the envelope from the manual tray and then gives a "Check Paper Size" error on its LCD display.  If I should then place an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper into the manual tray, it will print without error - However, the position of the printing will NOT be correct.  If an envelope is placed over the area that it would have occupied, the printing is good for the envelope top to bottom, but starts 5 1/4" from the left edge.  If I should have the program "Auto Select" the Paper Bin, then print to an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper, it again seems good top to bottom, but starts 6 1/2" from the left.  I have tried to "tweak" the sizes.dat file - to no avail.

I do not experience any printer problems when printing from other programs - even when printing to this same envelope size from the manual tray.

Additionally, the "Print Quality - DPI" shows "(0 Total)" and the drop down provides 0 choices.  Yet, the printer does print and does have several choices of quality settings.

My System: Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center x64 with all updates installed

I am more than happy to experiment - just point me to what you would like me to try ...

Thanks,
Will Friend

[Shane]

I know that my hp laserjet will not allow custom sizes from the program while other printers will. It all depends on the printer and its driver.

Are you selecting the size that says printer support or one of the custom sizes?

For the paper sizes and DPI it is what windows reports them to my program, some drivers dont offer all the info, such as the dpi. My program doesnt work directly with the printer but instead goes through windows.

So first thing to check is if your trying a custom size or one of the reported supported ones.

Also thanks for letting me know, I dont have multiple printers to test with and obviously I cant test them all lol So by letting me know you help me find problems and make the program better.

So far the error you are telling me sounds like the printer isnt taking the paper size the program is telling it to use.

Shane

[Engineer]

My testing has included Envelope Size of both Custom and Printer Supported.  Regardless of the choice, I do get the left offset.  However, when I select "Printer Supported - 70: A6 (4.13x5.83)" the left offset is 5 1/4".  When I select "Custom - US Official 10 (4.125x9.5)" the left offset is 6 1/2".

The Brother MFC-9840CDW claims to support any paper size from 2.75"-8.5" in width and 4.57"-16.0" in length.  Regardless of paper size, the unprintable margins are 0.16" uniformly all around.

As for the windows printer driver reporting various printer capabilities, several programs have no difficulty accessing these settings - All Microsoft Office programs, Quicken, Paint,Net, and PDF-XChange Viewer to name a few.

More than happy to send you the various printer manuals.

[Shane]

Interesting. How the program sets the paper size is like this.

When you see the "Printer Supported - 70: A6 (4.13x5.83)" the left offset is 5 1/4" you will notice the number after printer supported, in this case it is 70. That is the papersize number that windows reported to the program, so when it sets the paper size the program tells the printer to use paper size number 70.

On the custom ones "Custom - US Official 10 (4.125x9.5)" the left offset is 6 1/2" my program will actually create a new paper size form called tweaking and then set the paper size for to the size in the list. My HP doesn't support the custom forms, but most newer printers do.

So I am wondering if the program isnt setting the right number for the paper size or if something else is going on.

The VB command for setting the paper size is just 1 line, in this case it would be
printer.papersize = 70

If you are up for it I wouldnt mind teamviewering in and taking a look with you, maybe I can see what is different.

I will also see if anyone on a google search has had the same probolem with the VB printer object.

Shane

[Shane]

Ok I found another person who had the same problem with the paper size not setting.

I have an old application that was written to print envelopes on an old printer that just recently died. It was an HP Laserjet 4300. I am now using a Brother HL-6180DW. I am setting the printer object properties as follows:

    If chkEnvelope = 1 Then
        Printer.PaperBin = vbPRBNManual
        Printer.PaperSize = vbPRPSEnv10
    End If

When I get to the PaperSize property, I get a Run Time Error 380 - Invalid Property Value.
Not sure what to do to set the envelope size.

Any suggestions?

What did end up working for him was this

vbPRPSEnv10 equates to "Envelope #10, 4 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches"

So instead of setting the PaperSize property, try setting
Printer.Height = (4.125 * 1440)
Printer.Width = (9.5 * 1440)

So instead of setting the paper size they set the printer height and width instead and the brother printer took it fine.

I am going to test that out right now and see how it does with the HP and get a new build to you to test

Shane

[Shane]

I did a ton of testing and any other way that I do it wont work with the hp or the bull zip pdf printer. Turns out that you can not set the width and height to a printer if the driver doesnt allow it, and turns out my hp driver doesnt allow it.

The list of support paper sizes is what is reported by window that it supports. I am curious, are you able to create a custom paper size in the printer properties and see if it shows up in the list? My HP will let me creat a custom paper size from with in the printer properties and then it shows up in the list, but that is the only way it allows it.

I would still like to take a look at yours if your up to it.

Shane

[Engineer]

Shane,

I suppose I am up to "teamviewering".  However, I do have to reconfigure my router, and firewall to do so.  If it is easier, send me your phone number to my e-mail and I shall call so that we can move a bit easier/faster.  Note: I promise not to post your number on too many bathroom walls!

[Shane]

That is what is nice about teamviewer, no port forwarding or anything is needed since it goes through their servers

shoot me an email
shane at tweaking.com

I also found out why my HP wont take custom form, only postscript and pcl drivers support it. My HP is host based which means the driver does it all.

Shane