Problem printing reports in color

I should be most grateful to have help from the experts.

VFP8 SP1, Windows XP Pro SP2

I have a series of reports which have various items in color.
Preview on screen is perfect with colors appearing correctly.

When printing either to printer or PDF the output is always in black and
white.

Can anyone suggest how I can obtain color output to printer / PDF?

Thank you for guidance.
--
James Lyall.

Dan
Thu Dec 20 11:35:50 CST 2007

This is going to end up being a printer driver setup issue. Check properties
settings when you issue REPORT FORM TO PRINTER PROMPT.

I get color here on reports sent to a device set up to use color.

Dan

James Lyall wrote:
> I should be most grateful to have help from the experts.
>
> VFP8 SP1, Windows XP Pro SP2
>
> I have a series of reports which have various items in color.
> Preview on screen is perfect with colors appearing correctly.
>
> When printing either to printer or PDF the output is always in black
> and white.
>
> Can anyone suggest how I can obtain color output to printer / PDF?
>
> Thank you for guidance.

TonySper
Thu Dec 20 11:40:41 CST 2007

Are you using a color printer???? Most laser printers are black and white.
TonySper

"James Lyall" <james@lyall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OoMy7EDUHqaHFw1w@lyall.demon.co.uk...
>I should be most grateful to have help from the experts.
>
> VFP8 SP1, Windows XP Pro SP2
>
> I have a series of reports which have various items in color.
> Preview on screen is perfect with colors appearing correctly.
>
> When printing either to printer or PDF the output is always in black and
> white.
>
> Can anyone suggest how I can obtain color output to printer / PDF?
>
> Thank you for guidance.
> --
> James Lyall.

Cathy
Thu Dec 20 12:17:43 CST 2007

Make sure the printer environment is not saved with the report. Then make
sure the printers have the ability to print in color and the properties of
that particular printer still have color turned on and it's not turned off
or disabled.

Cathy


"James Lyall" <james@lyall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OoMy7EDUHqaHFw1w@lyall.demon.co.uk...
>I should be most grateful to have help from the experts.
>
> VFP8 SP1, Windows XP Pro SP2
>
> I have a series of reports which have various items in color.
> Preview on screen is perfect with colors appearing correctly.
>
> When printing either to printer or PDF the output is always in black and
> white.
>
> Can anyone suggest how I can obtain color output to printer / PDF?
>
> Thank you for guidance.
> --
> James Lyall.

James
Thu Dec 20 12:09:19 CST 2007

TonySper wrote ...

>Are you using a color printer?

Yes. However, using PDF , (via Adobe Acrobat Pro), still does not
yield colour. I use the FoxPro application to generate the PDF files
for distribution to clients. Works fine printing from other
applications but not from FoxPro.

Thank you for your response
--
James Lyall

James
Thu Dec 20 12:22:12 CST 2007

Dan Freeman wrote ...

>This is going to end up being a printer driver setup issue. Check properties
>settings when you issue REPORT FORM TO PRINTER PROMPT.

Sadly, this has not helped.

Thank you for your response
--
James Lyall

James
Thu Dec 20 12:48:46 CST 2007

Cathy Pountney wrote ...

>Make sure the printer environment is not saved with the report.

Thank you Cathy for your response.

Maybe I am being stupid, but I'm not sure what the printer environment
is or how it is set.

I fire up a preview of the report on screen (which is perfect) and then,
in the little print preview window, hit the printer icon having set the
default printer to Adobe PDF. The report produced is perfect but in
black and white.

Any suggestions?
--
James Lyall

Big
Thu Dec 20 13:49:15 CST 2007

James:

If you set it for Printer Prompt you can click properties and then click the
tab for Paper/Quality. There you can set it for color.

BR

"James Lyall" <james@lyall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:xI69T1GOkraHFwBF@lyall.demon.co.uk...
> Cathy Pountney wrote ...
>
>>Make sure the printer environment is not saved with the report.
>
> Thank you Cathy for your response.
>
> Maybe I am being stupid, but I'm not sure what the printer environment is
> or how it is set.
>
> I fire up a preview of the report on screen (which is perfect) and then,
> in the little print preview window, hit the printer icon having set the
> default printer to Adobe PDF. The report produced is perfect but in black
> and white.
>
> Any suggestions?
> --
> James Lyall

James
Thu Dec 20 14:13:50 CST 2007

Big Bubba wrote ...

>If you set it for Printer Prompt you can click properties and then click the
>tab for Paper/Quality. There you can set it for color.

Thank you. That works! Why the default mode of Adobe PDF (set to
colour) should be altered by FoxPro and should require to be reset is
beyond me. Surely, this should not need human input for each print.
There must be a way to get FoxPro to set the printer to do its job in
colour!!

Thank you for opening the door to a solution which I shall now try to
programme into the application.

I am most grateful to you.
--
James Lyall.

Tom
Thu Dec 20 14:38:18 CST 2007

I had this same problem last week, you need to open the report with USE
yourreport.frx and clear the expr, tag, and tag2 fields.

Tom

"James Lyall" <james@lyall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OoMy7EDUHqaHFw1w@lyall.demon.co.uk...
>I should be most grateful to have help from the experts.
>
> VFP8 SP1, Windows XP Pro SP2
>
> I have a series of reports which have various items in color.
> Preview on screen is perfect with colors appearing correctly.
>
> When printing either to printer or PDF the output is always in black and
> white.
>
> Can anyone suggest how I can obtain color output to printer / PDF?
>
> Thank you for guidance.
> --
> James Lyall.

TonySper
Thu Dec 20 14:51:00 CST 2007

James,
As Cathy said you may have to hack the report file. Open up the report file
like you would a table. That is USE ????.frx. Look at the first row Col
EXPR, TAG, and TAG2. You will find that the printer name and setups are in
there. Delete the printer names and configurations which set up the printer
commands. They may be shutting off your color. Also when you are in the
report editing make sure the printer environment is not checked. From the
report editor click on REPORT, you will see PRINTER ENVIRONMENT make sure it
is not checked.
TonySper

"James Lyall" <james@lyall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:EMmwS+I+zsaHFwXX@lyall.demon.co.uk...
> Big Bubba wrote ...
>
>>If you set it for Printer Prompt you can click properties and then click
>>the
>>tab for Paper/Quality. There you can set it for color.
>
> Thank you. That works! Why the default mode of Adobe PDF (set to colour)
> should be altered by FoxPro and should require to be reset is beyond me.
> Surely, this should not need human input for each print. There must be a
> way to get FoxPro to set the printer to do its job in colour!!
>
> Thank you for opening the door to a solution which I shall now try to
> programme into the application.
>
> I am most grateful to you.
> --
> James Lyall.

Tom
Thu Dec 20 14:52:00 CST 2007

Those fields should be cleared on the first record only.

"Tom Libby" <tlibby@bigblue-usa.com> wrote in message
news:O3aNch0QIHA.5976@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I had this same problem last week, you need to open the report with USE
>yourreport.frx and clear the expr, tag, and tag2 fields.
>
> Tom
>
> "James Lyall" <james@lyall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:OoMy7EDUHqaHFw1w@lyall.demon.co.uk...
>>I should be most grateful to have help from the experts.
>>
>> VFP8 SP1, Windows XP Pro SP2
>>
>> I have a series of reports which have various items in color.
>> Preview on screen is perfect with colors appearing correctly.
>>
>> When printing either to printer or PDF the output is always in black and
>> white.
>>
>> Can anyone suggest how I can obtain color output to printer / PDF?
>>
>> Thank you for guidance.
>> --
>> James Lyall.
>
>

Cathy
Thu Dec 20 16:17:26 CST 2007

The printer environment is something that is saved in the FRX file. It holds
code that is specific to the printer that was used when you save a report.
In older versions of FoxPro, it always saved this information and you didn't
have a choice in the matter. In more recent versions, you can control
whether to save this information. Just click on the menu and pick Reports
and Printer Environment.

In older versions you have to hack the FRX file to get rid of the printer
environment.The first record in the table contains 3 fields with the
information. Start by clearing the TAG and TAG2 fields. The 3rd field you
have to hack is the EXPR field.. but you can't blindly clear it. It has some
information that you want to keep. Edit the table, look at the field and get
rid of anything that is printer-specific.It's a real PITA .. but it's HIGHLY
recommended to always get rid of the printer environment because it causes
problems .. like the color issue you are experiencing. You can write a
program that goes through all your reports and strips this out and then hook
it up to a Project Hook. That way every time you build your app it can make
sure the reports are okay. You have to remember that ANY time you save the
report, it will save the printer environment.


Cathy


"James Lyall" <james@lyall.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:xI69T1GOkraHFwBF@lyall.demon.co.uk...
> Cathy Pountney wrote ...
>
>>Make sure the printer environment is not saved with the report.
>
> Thank you Cathy for your response.
>
> Maybe I am being stupid, but I'm not sure what the printer environment is
> or how it is set.
>
> I fire up a preview of the report on screen (which is perfect) and then,
> in the little print preview window, hit the printer icon having set the
> default printer to Adobe PDF. The report produced is perfect but in black
> and white.
>
> Any suggestions?
> --
> James Lyall

James
Fri Dec 21 03:02:51 CST 2007

Tom Libby wrote ...

>I had this same problem last week, you need to open the report with USE
>yourreport.frx and clear the expr, tag, and tag2 fields.

Thank you very much Tom. I never have failed over the years, since the
birth of this newsgroup, eventually to have a problem resolved by you
experts. I am most grateful.
---
James.

James
Fri Dec 21 03:10:02 CST 2007

Cathy Pountney wrote ...

>The printer environment is something that is saved in the FRX file.

Thank you so much Cathy. Now I have something to get my teeth into!
--
James.

James
Fri Dec 21 03:20:02 CST 2007

TonySper wrote ...

>From the
>report editor click on REPORT, you will see PRINTER ENVIRONMENT make sure it
>is not checked.

Thank you very much. Does the trick. There is so much in VFP which we
never come across until jumping out of a well ploughed furrow!
--
James.