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>>I found something else that I don't understand and maybe you can explain .........
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>>The label gets printed to a special printer. I installed the printer driver on my machine and recompiled. Still got the same bad result. However, if I actually attach the printer and set it as the default, the label will print correctly. Is there a readily comprehensible reason for this?
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>>If not, it doesn't matter and I will just put it down as one of the myriad technical things I don't understand but have figured out how to get the results I want.
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>
>What is special about the printer?

Special was a poor choice of words. It's a label printer using a roll of labels rather than a "standard" printer using 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of labels.