Parameters for BJC-610

The following article from the GeoInfo Database references the
HP DeskJet, but the same principles apply to all inkjets, and to
many dot matrix printers when using sheet feeders. The situation is
due to the fact that all early inkjets and sheet feeders required
minimum leading and trailing margins of at least a half inch for
the paper handling mechanism, so the drivers in Geos expect that
minimum (even if your newer model printer doesn't have the same
limitation, the driver assumes it does).

Printer: HP DeskJet and margins

GEOS 2.0

The DeskJet has minimum margins larger than .25 inch.

Therefore, if you're using 8.5 x 11 page size, and if GEOS thinks
there's anything within the top or bottom half inch of the page, then
GEOS believes it needs to tile the page over two pieces of paper, or
else "scale to fit."

There are several ways to approach this.

1. Accept the scale to fit message. This is ideal if you share documents
electronically back and forth with other folks who have dot matrix or
laser printers that don't have the forced half inch minimum margins of
the inkjets.

2. As long as you don't really have anything in the top and bottom half
inch of your page, you can tell it to print normally (i.e. "don't scale
to fit") at the dialog box. This will usually result in a blank page
feeding between every page of your document. It's a hassle, but you can
separate the blank paper and use it again for something else. If your
document does really have something within a half inch of the top and
bottom, then that something might end up being printed on those "second"
pages.

3. You can increase your paper size in the Print options dialog to
8.5x11.5. This works pretty much the same as choice #2 above, except you
probably won't ever see the "scale to fit" dialog. Instead, GEOS will
print as if you had chosen "print normally" without ever asking if you
want to "scale to fit."

4. You can reduce your page size in Page Setup to 8.5 x10.5 (leave paper
size at 8.5x11). The shorter page will match what GEOS expects for an
inkjet printer. GEOS thinks there's only 10 inches of printable space
when using an inkjet printer. By telling GEOS that the page is 10.5
inches tall, GEOS subtracts the normal forced quarter inch margins that
all documents and printers expect, and the result is 10 inches of
document, which GEOS knows it can fit on the page of an inkjet. Then you
could save this as your default document.

5. Another alternative is to avoid using the header and footer in
GeoWrite. Instead of accessing Header/Footer, go to Master Page and
create a graphic text box (the "A" tool). Position the graphic text box
over the header or footer region and put your header or footer items in
it. If you use the normal Header/Footer regions, even if their contents
are outside the minimum half inch forced margins, GEOS thinks the whole
header and footer space is being used and it gives you the scale-to-fit
option. However, if you use a graphic text object as just described,
then GeoWrite will not give you the scale-to-fit option. However, if
anything in the graphic text object is within a half inch of the top or
bottom of the page, it might be cropped at print time.

PRINTING FROM AOL WITH HP PRINTERS

Printing directly from AOL, the DeskJet series printers' printing will
be chopped off. The 1/2 inch margin means that data (thought to be sent
to the printer) gets chopped. If you are using GEOS 2.0 and Text File
Editor, copy and paste the data to TFE and print it from there or use
the logging feature of AOL and print the log from the Text File Editor.

GEOPLANNER PRINTING

When printing from GeoPlanner in landscape mode, the print out is moved
far to the left and has lots of room on the right margin. Page Setup
does not allow you to play with the margins, only the orientation and
page size. Also, it cuts off the header.

The DeskJet enforces margins that are wider than the 1/4" that the
GeoPlanner in GEOS 1.2 assumes. This means that 'Planner will write to
areas of the page that the printer is incapable of printing to, hence
the problem. This could also happen in GeoWrite, since headers can
extend up to within a 1/4" of the edge of the page. Try reducing the
page size in order to print the entire calendar.

In GEOS 2.0, this is addressed in several ways:

1) Applications now query the Spooler to find the default printer, and
its margins. This helps with applications like GeoWrite and GeoDraw, and
essentially solves any problems if the user has only one printer

2) For applications like GeoPlanner and GeoDex, which are not terribly
WYSIWYG, this query should prevent all problems from occurring.

3) For the worst case, where the user uses more than one printer, each
enforcing different margins, GEOS will detect the allowable page size at
print-time, and allow the user to cancel the print job, compress the
document to fit on the page, or bravely try to print anyway.

GEOS 1.x

Many people who own a DeskJet printer have the problem of "losing" the
top and bottom of some documents. Due to the paper handling mechanism of
the DeskJet, it cannot print in the half inch at the edges of the page,
whereas most printers can print to within a quarter inch of the edges.

The only work-around in Ensemble 1.2 or Geoworks Pro or Quick Start is
to set margins of at least a half inch in GeoWrite, and to position
graphics in geoDraw so that they are at least a half inch from the edges
of the page. GEOS 2.0 provides the "Scale to Fit" option when printing
which takes care of the problem quite elegantly.

To print an existing document in its entirety in Ensemble 1.2 or
Geoworks Pro or Quick Start, you can do this:

1. Select 50% or 25% from the "view" menu, whichever it takes to see the
whole page at once on your monitor.

2. Use the select tool to drag a box around the entire page, so that all
the objects on the page are selected. (In the Geoworks Pro or Quick
Start version of GeoDraw, just click Select All in the Edit menu.)

3. Select Fuse from the Edit menu.

4. Using the left mouse button, grab the lower right resize handle and
drag it up and to the left, reducing the size of everything on the page
slightly. (You want to reduce the size of the page at least one half
inch in both the horizontal and vertical directions.) In Geoworks Pro or
Quick Start, you can copy and paste the object into the Scrapbook and
use Copy at View % to reduce it proportionally, then paste it back into
GeoDraw.

5. Using the right mouse button, grab the object (the whole page is one
object now) and reposition it to center it on the page, so there is now
a half-inch margin all the way around it, instead of the original
quarter-inch margin.

6. Print. That should do it. Takes a lot longer to describe the process
than to actually perform it.

Article#0690
Updated 05/29/96

Steve