Y-axis label when printing CNiGraph using PS comes out as black square

[Mikael Setterberg]

Hi,
when printing CNiGraphs on a printer using PostScript the Y-axis lables come out as black squares (picture attached). On screen everything looks fine and they print nicely when using PCL.
Does anyone have any ideas on why this happens or what might cause it?

I'm using Measurement Studio 8.0, .NET 2003., MFC/C++.

Thank you,

Mikael Setterberg

[Matt M.]

Hi Mikael,

I'm not sure why your PostScript file would be printing this way. In order to further assist you, I am going to need more information.

Does the y-axis label contain any special characters that may not be interpreted correctly by PostScript or your printer?

Is there anything different from when you print the graph using PCL as compared to when you print using PostScript?

Is your graph the correct size? In other words, is it shrinking when you print it, causing the y-axis label to be overwritten?

Have you tried saving the PostScript file to your computer and viewing it with a program such as Adobe Acrobat or GhostScript (you can check out Printing and Viewing PostScript Files from Windows and DOS for more information on GhostScript)?

Finally, have you tried printing other PostScript files (ones that look correct, including graphs with y axis labels) on your printer?

The answer to these questions should help us solve the problem, or at least point us in the correct direction.

Matt Mueller
National Instruments

[Mikael Setterberg]

Hi Matt,
thanks for your quick reply.
The y-axis labels do not contain any special characters (brackets ok?), today the look like "Channel 1 [V]" etc. I can't think of anything being different when printing using PCL, I use the same printer only selecting PCL instead of PS. The graphs are of the correct size, I'm currently implementing a WYSIWYG-style report and everything has the same size on the screen as on paper.
I just tried Printing to a file and viewed it using Acrobat (Acrobat first distills  the file to a PDF) and GhostView. The labels still don't come out correct.
This is what I have found out so far:
- Printing to printer using PS --> Does not work
- Printing to same printer using PCL --> Works
- Printing to file using Microsoft Image Document Writer --> Works
- Printing PS to file and viewing it using GhostView --> Does not work
- Printing PS to file and viewing it using Acrobat (first it gets distilled) --> Does not work

Thanks,

Mikael

Message Edited by Mikael Setterberg on 08-28-2006 10:49 AM

[Matt M.]

Mikael,

I'm still not sure why this problem would be occurring. It may seem elementary, but do you have the latest and correct PostScript drivers? You can check them out here to find out.

If you think it is a PostScript error, you can Troubleshooting PostScript Errors.

Have you tried creating and/or loading another PostScript file with a graph. Depending on whether that fails or succeeds, we may be able to identify the exact problem.

Matt Mueller
National Instruments

[mazz]

Is there any solution to this problem? I have the same problem on various printers and various drivers. I use a HP LaserJet 5si PCL driver and an HP Photosmart 1315 with no problem, but the same printout on a HP Color LaserJet 4500 PCL driver gives me half a black box and and the bottom half of the text. If I use the PS driver a get a complete black box. Same thing happens on a Xerox 6350DP printer with both the PCL and PS driver. I am having this problem with the Measurement Studio of VB6 graph control. It is the latest control from the NI developer Suite.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Mikael Setterberg]

I still have not been able to resolve this issue. Tried different printers, drivers, font sizes.. you name it. Text still comes out as a black square.

[mazz]

Thanks it seems like its a problem with the ControlImage fucntion because this has been happening from within earlier versions of Measurement Studio too. It even occurs if I select the Adobe PDF printer. The only way I have been able to get around it is to generate the Image on a hidden form save it to a temp file as a jpg and then reload the image back to where I want to print it from. It doesn't really make sense to have to do all that just to print an image.

[Matt M.]

Hi,

Mazz and Mikael, I think your problem may be that your printer, for some reason, is not interpreting the font that you are using. In some cases, printers actually have a set of fonts they can use and have to be configured to interpret other fonts. I would assume that the printer is having a tough time recognizing the font on the Y-axis label (even if it is nothing special) and replacing it with the black boxes. This would explain why it prints correctly on some printers and not on others.

For your HP printers, HP produces a configuration utility, HPRCFG03.exe that is usually in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Try running this and reconfiguring your printer to see what happens.

Also, I have looked at this document to see if it can help: How to use Adobe Postscript language files correctly. It talks about some errors that printers can encounter when trying to print with postscript drivers - it seems like it could be spot on.


Matt Mueller
National Instruments