LIBRA PRINTER SETUP

Libra can accommodate a large number of printers and shared printer environments. This newsletter will attempt to cover the most common situations that users will encounter in typical network settings.

Local printers have become more common lately as the prices of personal laser printers both new and used have come down. Libra can support most Dot Matrix and Hewlett Packard compatible Laser printers (PCL-4, PCL-5, PCL-6). Check with your printer supplier to confirm DOS or PCL printing capabilities.

Printing to printers with a parallel port interface is seldom a problem, however those with USB interfaces may only be useable in Windows 2000 & XP environments. Under Windows 95/98/ME, Libra cannot print to USB printers.

When using local parallel printers, Libra printer setup is fairly simple. You need to define printers in Libra System Configuration / Printer Configuration by Libra printer number and the Manufacturer’s Model.

e.g. printer 10 = Epson FX-1050

printer 11 = HP Laserjet III & IV Portrait

printer 12 = HP Laserjet III & IV Landscape

To align the Libra Printer with its location, set up the following SPL commands in the System Configuration screen System Environment Parameter Setup.

For local printers use:

SPL10=LPT1

SPL11=LPT2

SPL12=LPT2

SPL13=LPT2

In the example above the HP Laserjet is defined multiple times on LPT2. This allows printing in:

Portrait # 11 - 60 lines per page

Landscape # 12 - 45 lines per page

Landscape Legal # 13 - 45 lines per page

WINDOWS PRINTER SETUP

Windows often installs many printers automatically. You may need to adjust printer properties as below:

Windows 95/98/ME

- turn off Spool MS-DOS jobs.

- set properties to print direct to printer.

Windows 2000/XP

- set properties to print direct to printer.

- or set spooling to print after last page spooled.

1) For USB printers under Windows 2000 & XP:

you may be able to print to the printer from Libra by:

a) Sharing the printer

b) Directing Libra to the Shared Printer Name

SPL10=!NET USE LPT1 \\Computer\Printer_name

ENDSPL10=!NET USE LPT1 /D ( Optional )

2) For shared Windows printers from 95/98 use:

SPL10=\\Computer1\Printer_Name1

SPL11=\\Computer2\Printer_Name2

3) For Novell Netware printers from Windows 95/98:

SPL10 = /Q=Queue_Name1/NB/NT/NFF/TI=10

SPL11 = /Q=Queue_Name2/NB/NT/NFF/TI=10

4) For Novell Netware shared printers from Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP workstations use:

SPL10=\\Server_Name\Queue_Name1

SPL11=\\Server_Name\Queue_Name2

Or ..CAPTURE LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, etc. in the Login Script and set System Environment Parameters to:

SPL11=LPT2

SPL12=LPT3

SPL13=LPT4, etc to match capture statements.

5) For shared Windows 2000 and XP printers use:

SPL11=!NET USE LPT1 \\Computer\Printer_name

ENDSPL11=!NET USE LPT1 /D ( Recommended )

The numbers in the SPL commands must correspond to a Libra Printer Number that you have defined above.

Substitute your local Server, Computer, Queue and or Shared Printer names as appropriate to reach the printer in question. Combinations of printer designations are possible where required.

SPL10=LPT1

SPL11=\\Computer\Printer

SPL12=/Q=Queue1/NB/NT/NFF/TI=10

In this way many different printers can be accessed as necessary to print your Libra forms and reports.