>I make reports with a PANASONIC FX1170 installed in my workstation. What happens is after I've deployed my application, to those workstations that have different printers installed in them, the font i used (DRAFT17cpi), is not recognized anymore and certain fields in the report have asterisks (********) values in them... Now how could I solve this problem that whatever printer my client uses, the same output, as what I have designed and made, is previewed and printed, without having to substitute the font I used during development.
The problem is you elected to use an internal font on the Panasonic printer; this font is not universally available on all printers, and even if it is, the odds are that the print codes are different. You have a couple of choices, virtually all of them will be unpalatable:
(1) Redesign the report to use a Windows graphical font, preferably a scalable font such as a TrueType font. Doing this leverages Windows' GDI - it uses the print driver to graphically render the output based on the printer installed. The major drawback is that the output is rendered graphically; print speed will be much slower than sending ASCII streams interspersed with a few control characters. OTOH, it will be able to be properly rendered by any Windows-supported printer.
(2) Create the output as a pure ASCII stream, and then set the printer's mode of operation by hand through the printer's pushbuttons/internal menus, etc. You send only ASCII to the printer; it's your responsibility to manually configure the printer correctly by hand before the report gets sent to the printer. You can only use whatever the font is that you set up by hand, but output will be fast since just ASCII characters are sent.
(3) Find a preinter model whose capabilities can be emulated by all the printers that will be used by the system. Design the report using the fonts for this least common denominator model; the IBM ProPrinter seems to have been about the most widespread commonly-supported dot matrix emulation. Install the printers on all stations to use the driver for the common printer modeal, and only use internal fonts for that common printer. You sacrifice the advanced features that might be available on specific models, but the printers should all be able to handle the simpler, common emulation mode. In the laser printer marketplace, emulating an old HP LaserJet Series II is available for almost any laser that uses any version of the PCL control set. Inkjet printers pose real problems; there never was a universally-accepted emulation mode for inkjets.
(4) Generate the same report for each model of printer you have to support, and have each version of the report use only fonts available for that printer model internally. Lots of work.
(5) Use a third-party preoduct that tries to handle close emulation of specific printers' internal fonts through the product; such report tools exist, but they are not free, and you have to restart building the reports using the new tool.
My inclination would be to use a Windows font and take advantage of Windows' native hardware independence, and accept the slower performance. My attitude towards clients who want all the freedom and formatting capabilities of Windows is that if speed is an issue, they can spring for a faster printer, or decide to live with the limits of trying to cheap things out. THey make the decision.
