>I have two identical or nearly identical reports that are giving strange results when printing. They are written in VFP 6, run on Novell Netware 4.11, and print on two different dot matrix printers, with generic drivers. The problems seem to be occurring randomly, because the same computer can send the same report with the same data to the same printer, and sometimes prints it fine, and other times it doesn't. Here's what happens:
>Letters are omitted in text labels. ("invoie" and "custoer".)
>Text labels print lower than they should, on the same line as the field below them (about 1" lower on the page).
>Fields and text labels don't line-field, and print onto each other (fields onto fields, text labels onto text labels, text labels onto fields).
>Text labels and fields (in the header and detail sections) randomly shift one or two characters to the left. (Some of the lines shift, some of them don't.)
>
>These errors seem to be random. If you run the same invoice 10 times, 6 may be perfect, and four may have various combinations of errors.
>
>I have tried to fix it(with some success) by widening the fields, deleting and re-pasting text labels, checking "Stretch with Overflow", and adjusting the position (float, fix with top, fix with bottom).
>
>Does anybody have any ideas about what's causing this? How can I fix it?

I have experienced something similar to this on a laserjet printer
It all came down to communications speed - it was using a Jetdirect box (one of those things that plugs into the network and then you plug a centronics cable in the other end) I think the jetdirect box was sending the data to the printer too fast and was missing stuff out.

I can't remember what the exact solution was, but it could be an idea to get a better (shorter) printer cable and give that a try.

HTH