printing dot matrix from FileMaker

[Roger Howard]

On Tue, February 13, 2007 9:16 am, Dan Shoop wrote:
> At 11:04 PM -0800 2/12/07, Noam Birnbaum wrote:
>>Hey all,
>>
>>One of our customers needs to print forms in duplicate from a
>>Filemaker database, and they'll have to use custom paper sizes.
>>They used to do it using Filemaker on a PC and are now switching.
>>After searching the ACN archives, I emailed the developers of ESP
>>Print Pro asking for their verification that their software could do
>>this, and requesting a printer recommendation.
>>
>>Their response: "Unless you are printing full sheets of labels, none
>>of the commercially-available dot-matrix/impact printers will do
>>what you need..."
>>
>>I don't know why they thought an ellipsis at the end of their
>>comment would be helpful.
>>
>>So, before I go ahead and believe them -- because it sounds
>>ludicrous -- do you have any other suggestions?
>
> Don't you think they'd know what their software does better than anyone
> else?
>
> Sounds to me like they are saying their sw won't print how you want.

I can't imagine a reason FMP wouldn't support Dot Matrix, or really any
other printer technology with a standard print driver. Custom paper sizes
are no issue for FMP, nor is printing in duplicate.

The more important question, it seems to me, is are there adequate impact
printers on the market with OSX print support? If not, how about running a
print server on the Windows box and interacting with it that way?

All of that said, printing to dot matrix isn't just like any other device,
in the sense that you don't tend to send high-resolution page images to
the device and let it work out how to lay down antialiased dots to form
the printed image - you ideally want it to send a stream of raw characters
to the device. So you may not in fact even use a typical OSX print driver
for that; perhaps a custom serial driver instead (and it is possible to
pump data to a serial port from FMP with a plugin, but you'll have to work
out the print protocol unless that comes with the plugin too).

I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it's gonna be an ugly hack, and it
really has little to do with FMP, at least from what little I can tell
from your description of the problem. The real challenge is how do you
interface the printer with an OSX box, and what format does it expect the
page data in.

It can be done... not sure it's worth it though.