Printing Issues

[jay@bplogix.com]

Whe I print a report from the flash viewer, it takes a very long time. It seems that my reports ar 85meg per page that are being streamed to the printer. When printing from the HTML viewer, they are only about 140K ... is this a known issue?

Also, when I print from the HTML viewer, it seems to chop off the right-most inch of the report (8.5x11) ... and each page actually creates 2 pages on the printer (the second page is the bottom 1.5 inches of the report). Is there a better way to print from the HTML Viewer?

Thanks!

[Vladimir]

Hello,

1. This is due to the fact that printing is carried out using the image. This is a limitation of Flash Player. In the latest versions of our product, an option for choosing the print quality has been added, that will reduce the amount of data for the printer:

Code: Select all

StiWebViewerFxOptions.PrintQuality = StiPrintQuality.VeryLow;
StiWebViewerFxOptions.PrintQuality = StiPrintQuality.Low;
StiWebViewerFxOptions.PrintQuality = StiPrintQuality.Normal;
StiWebViewerFxOptions.PrintQuality = StiPrintQuality.High;  // by default
StiWebViewerFxOptions.PrintQuality = StiPrintQuality.Maximum;

2. In web only one way exists for better printing from Web Viewer. It is export to Adobe PDF format and then printing. As another way it is printing, provided by the browser. But you need to check your browser settings in the page settings for printing. Please remove headers and footers, and set all margins to 0. If you use Firefox, please also set the scale to 100%.

Thank you.

[jay@bplogix.com]

That makes sense with the Flash printing. On the HTML Print button you added the "Print to PDF" option right on the Print button. Would it make sense to add the Print to PDF to the Flash Print button as well, since the flash printing has the limitation of printing the image? That would make the Flash printing so much easier!

[Vladimir]

Hello,

Unfortunately, it is impossible to implement, because Flash Player does not automatically show or start to display the saved PDF file.

Thank you.

[jay@bplogix.com]

The Print to PDF from the HTML viewer (at least on IE) does not directly open the PDF either. It comes up with a Open/Save/Cancel dialog ... but that is fine. It makes it obvious to the user that they open the PDF to print it. On the HTML viewer, the Print to PDF does exactly the same thing as Save to PDF ... but again that works great!

For the flash viewer, I think it would be great for the user to have the option to print using PDF like the HTML viewer ... even if it comes up with the Open/Save/Cancel dialog. Basically even it it did the same as Save->PDF. This way the user knows that they can use PDF to print the document. It is not obvious that they can go to the Save->PDF to use PDF to print the document.

Also, the StiWebViewerFxOptions.PrintQuality settings do not seem to have any affect ... a single page is always around 85 meg in the print queue. In a perfect world, I would like to ONLY have the Print->To PDF on the button ... dont even let the users do a direct print because the Flash print driver is so slow.

[Vladimir]

Hello,

Unfortunately, Flash Player does not allow open the PDF file (or display the open dialog), this restriction of Flash Player security. Allowed only to save the file to the local disk.

Also, the StiWebViewerFxOptions.PrintQuality settings do not seem to have any affect ... a single page is always around 85 meg in the print queue. In a perfect world, I would like to ONLY have the Print->To PDF on the button ... dont even let the users do a direct print because the Flash print driver is so slow.

Please tell us what model of printer you are using?

Thank you.

[jay@bplogix.com]

HP 1320, Canon MX870, Dell 3100, and Dell 3130 all show between 80 and 125 meg per simple page. No matter what the StiWebViewerFxOptions is.

Also, Flash DOES open PDF files directly perfectly on all our computers. Save->Adobe PDF->OK comes up with an Open/Save/Cancel dialog. This works exactly the same as the HTML->Print with PDF option. Is there something different with your Flash viewer or security?

[Vladimir]

Hello,

HP 1320, Canon MX870, Dell 3100, and Dell 3130 all show between 80 and 125 meg per simple page. No matter what the StiWebViewerFxOptions is.

We tested the effect of printing quality option on various printers, unfortunately it has little effect on the size of the print queue, and this option has no sense. Also is not possible to improve the algorithm of the report printing.

Also, Flash DOES open PDF files directly perfectly on all our computers. Save->Adobe PDF->OK comes up with an Open/Save/Cancel dialog. This works exactly the same as the HTML->Print with PDF option. Is there something different with your Flash viewer or security?

We will implement print mode to PDF the same as in HTML viewer, the update will be available in the next prerelease build on May, 24.


Thank you.

[jay@bplogix.com]

It does not seem that the Print to PDF is available in the Flash Viewer in the release today. Was that supposed to be in the release?

thx

[Vladimir]

Hello,

We check out the latest prerelease build, this option is available (please see attached image). If you do not have this option, please download a prerelease build from our website again, it has been updated on May, 26.

Thank you.