WinRT Printing with Zebra

[adamaka]

So I've created a few basic (one line of static text) reports that I want to print on 4x6 labels from a Zebra label printer. I'm getting some odd behavior. I installed the printer locally via usb, and it was only printing blank labels. I could print the label to a different printer or .xps, so it wasn't the label file. I could print a test page, text file, or even the desired label FROM THE LABEL DESIGNER, but when I tried to run my app and print it turned up blank. So, I decided to try and print to a printer of the same make/model shared on the network. It worked fine! Curious. Then I noticed some oddities in the preview when selecting different printers.

1) Here is the label before printing.
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2) After clicking the (built-in from Stimulsoft) print button, the printers are shown. The top "ZDesigner LP 2844" is the locally installed printer. I try first to click on that.
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3) This, if I click print, prints a blank label.
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4) Instead, I click back and select the network shared printer "LP 2844 on ts-wi-ws-061". If I were to click print here, the label prints correctly.
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However, if you look back at the label previews for each printer, the local printer in step 3 is oddly wide and has extra margins on either end, unlike the network printer's preview in step 4. If I first select the network share printer like in step 4, then click back and instead select the local printer, I get something different...


It is now showing the same preview as the network printer... and it prints fine! What is happening?! I'm so confused as to what is going on here. Any help/insight?

[Andrew]

Hello,

The problem is strange. When we checked it on our printers and found no issues. We need time to investigate the problem.

Thank you.

[Alex K.]

Hello,

We check the print and does not found the problem.
Can you please provide more detail information, which page size do you uses for testing?

Thank you.

[adamaka]

I'm using the LP 2844 with 4" x 6" labels. Maybe it's something to do with my driver version? Here is the About on the driver:

Zebra Print Driver

Driver.PNG (130.41 KiB) Viewed 6615 times

And using Windows 8 Pro.

[HighAley]

Hello.

Please, send us your report template which reproduces the issue.
As the Windows 8 is a new system, we don't have enough experience in it.
It could be the printer drivers or any other cause.

Thank you.

[adamaka]

I was able to re-create this problem using a copy of the same label in a test project. I've attached the project here, which includes the report TestReport.mrt and a screenshot of the app running with the same issue (screenshot.png) in the Assets folder of the project.

[Alex K.]

Hello,

Thank you for the sample. We need some time for check the issue.

Thank you.

[Alex K.]

Hello,

The problem may lie in the fact that when you send a print to different printers, Windows 8 sets different page sizes.
For example, in one case the size A4 is set, so you have plenty of space in the print preview.
In the second case, given the smaller size, so the preview image appears more similar to what is displayed on the report page in our viewer.

Compared with Silverlight, in WinRT has more available printing settings, but still not enough to fully print like in WinForms.
Before printing, we can set the size of the preferred page, but not with the numerical values ​​but using the enumeration (A4, A3, Letter, Prc16K etc.).
But in most cases where users set the Custom size, we cannot do something so the system sets its value, depending on the printer.
So the problem like yours appear. You need to try it yourself manually set the page size in the settings.

Thank you.

[adamaka]

Do you mean in the printer settings on my device, or the print settings in WinRT? I have my Zebra printer device set up to be the correct size. Both the local and network printers are set up identically. So are you saying in code I have to set some printer settings?

[HighAley]

Hello.

We need some time to solve your problem.

Thank you for your patience.