Printing defaults to "Custom" page size

jkraft · Post by **jkraft** » Wed Oct 12 2005

Greetings.

I've recently purchased / deployed the PDF converter to several workstations on my network. It works great, and is very fast.

I have one issue that is making me scratch my head. When print jobs are sent to the PDF print driver, it seems to be setting the paper size to "custom" rather than using the "Letter" default.

This has the effect of cutting off the bottom edge of Landscape formatted reports when they are rendered into the PDF, along with some other odd behavior depending on the particular report.

If the user opens the Properties dialog and changes the "Custom" back to "Letter" with each print, the PDF formats perfectly.

I must be missing something.

Thanks.

Joan · Post by **Joan** » Thu Oct 13 2005

Hello,

When installing the printer please check that the default paper setting is 'Letter'.

Please note that the PDF Printer prints whatever is sent to it from your application, if the paper size of your applicaton is set to custom than it will be printed as custom.

Which version of the PDF Converter are you using?

jkraft · Post by **jkraft** » Thu Oct 13 2005

I did some additional testing to see if I could narrow down the issue. I'm using print converter version 2.50d-3

I removed and re-installed the print converter, just for good measure, and confirmed the "Letter" paper size default.

I discovered that the issue apparently stems from having a printer other than the PDF converter set as the default printer for the workstatiion.

When a print job is created, and the printer dialog pops up, the user has the option to print to the default network printer, or select another printer (i.e. the PDF Converter)

At this point, when the user changes the printer to the PDF Converter, the paper size in the properties dialog will be set to "custom".

If the PDF Converter is used as the default printer, it retains the "Letter" paper size with no trouble.

The effect is indeed application dependent. Trying the same test using MS Word, the paper size doesn't change. Printing reports from our ERP system seems to change the paper size every time, unless the PDF Converter is set as the default printer.

While I'd like to understand more about what's causing this, the work around is simple... just set the PDF Converter to be the default printer.

Thanks.

John K

Post by **Jose** » Fri Oct 14 2005

Hello,

Based on the information you have provided we unfortunately suspect that you are incorrectly retrieving and/or setting the DEVMODE structure.

This situation can typically occur when an application has been developed in Delphi and we actually have an FAQ on our website about this situation.

http://www.amyuni.com/en/support/faq9.html#9e

Let us know if this is what you are experiencing?

jkraft · Post by **jkraft** » Fri Oct 14 2005

The particular app in question was developed with CA-VisualObjects. It appears to be something similar to the Delphi issue.

For our particular application, Setting the default printer to be the PDF Converter is just fine as a work-around. There are piles of other quirks in the application we're using, so the app passing goofy info to the PDF converter does't really surprise me.

Thanks.