I previously posted a question "Printer problem with MICR fonts" a few months ago which did not get resolved and unfortunately it has disappeared from the forum. The project went on the back burner because the issue was not resolved. I now have some more information but I need help with the solution.
The issue:
We are printing checks which have a MICR line at the bottom. The HP printer we use has an embedded MICR Font card which can be accessed by either using the font supplied by the vendor or sending escape characters in PCL to the printer. We have this report currently running with a compiled application consisting of CR XI and VB6 with no problem. The report also runs successfully from CR 2008 using the visual interface. I have now updated to VB.NET 2010 with CR for 2010 .NET and the report causes an error on the printer.
I sent the program to our printer supplier who then tried the application with other printers and the same error occurred. They suggested that the escape sequence was not being sent or was corrupted when it arrived at the printer.
I have read on the forums that CR sends an image of the printed page to the printer so sending escape codes will not work. Is that still the case? If escape codes do not work my only option is to use the font supplied by the MICR card vendor.
There was a similar issue "Generic / Text Only Driver does not work through CRVS2010 Runtime? " on 10 Feb 2011.
A workaround suggested by Don Williams was to use the PrintOutputController command instead of PrintToPrinter. Don produced some sample Code in C. Unfortunately my knowledge of C very limited and I have not found any useful code in VB.Net that I can try using the PrintOutputController command.
Could someone translate Don's code into VB so I can try that solution?
Has anyone successfully used printer embedded MICR (or other) fonts in a Crystal report?
Thanks,
Kevin