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Topic: 1.51a/HP500C Print Problem (Read 9023 times) previous topic - next topic

1.51a/HP500C Print Problem

When I downloaded 1.51a, my print-outs went lousy. I can run an old version (1.31d), and the print works fine.

Specifically, wherever there is a note, all staff lines disappear for the width of the note. The same is true for any character that prints on the staff, Clefs included. I am missing about half of any chord notes, and the upper "4" of a 4/4 time signature is simply blank (no staff lines, no nothing!).

I'd rather not revert to the old version. There must be a reason this is happening.

Please help.

Thanks

Re: 1.51a/HP500C Print Problem

Reply #1 –
I don't know if this will help, but I have found that if you keep the printer at it's default setup, it will print fine. Any other settings tends to cause memory errors, and you end up with the results you mentioned. I printed a 72 page score today, got to the 3rd page and ran out of memory. After restoring the default setting for the printer, it printed all 72 pages beautifully. Hope this helps... oh, that's someone elses line :-)
Adam

Re: 1.51a/HP500C Print Problem

Reply #2 –
The behavioour that you describe is symptomatic of a buggy print driver. The printer should NOT be clearing out the background area of the true-type fonts used by NWC. If it is, then you probably need an updated print driver ( I assume HP would have fixed this situation in a new driver version). It is very unlikely that an earlier version of NWC will fix the problem (unless you go way back to version 1.1, where we used bitmap graphics for all notation). All versions since 1.2 use true-type fonts for rendering the notation, so the behaviour is likely to show up in every instance where this technology is used.

Re: 1.51a/HP500C Print Problem

Reply #3 –
This is a follow up to additional information posted into a new thread at https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=566.

As Olivier points out, it is important to run your tests on the same machine, booting from the same operating system (some users have a dual boot setup). It is also important to use the same binary edition of NWC. If the 16-bit edition of an older NWC version worked, but the 32-bit edition of the latest version does not, then try using the 16-bit edition of the latest version of NWC.

You have not indicated what version of Windows is on your new system, but I am guessing that it is Windows 95. I went and looked on the HP site for the latest driver for your HP500C. HP does not seem to offer a Win 95 version, but the latest Win 3.1 version is 6.2, dated May-08-1995. You can find it by starting at:

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/prodhome/dj500c.html

As a matter of background, users have reported this kind of problem with printing on numerous occasions over the years (with several printers, usually from HP). In all cases that I know about, an updated print driver fixed the problem. There is nothing we can change in NWC to make your printer and its driver behave properly when it comes to rendering true-type symbols on a printed page. Per spec, the printer should render the true-type symbol transparently onto the page, because NWC tells it to do so.

Re: 1.51a/HP500C Print Problem

Reply #4 –
One more thing: I left out an important detail about the driver issue. I do not completely understand this, but a substantial number of users were able to fix this problem by changing their display driver, rather than their print driver. It would seem that there is an interaction between the system's display driver and the print driver which can trigger this problem. You can give this a try, using the follwing display driver procedure:

Display Driver Problems:
If your problem is caused by a bug in the display device driver of your system, this can usually be corrected by acquiring an updated device driver from the manufacturer. You could also switch to a stock Windows display driver. These are generally well behaved drivers that do not have this bug.

You can test this by selecting a generic display driver in Windows and verifying NWC works okay there.

- Click on your desktop
- Select Properties, then
Settings
Change Display Type
Change Adapter Type to Standard Display Type - Super VGA

If this solves the problem, you should make sure you had the correct device driver selected for your system. If it is correct, then the device is causing the problem, see the manufacturer for an updated driver.

Re: 1.51a/HP500C Print Problem

Reply #5 –
I had this problem quite some time ago and it was caused by a bug in the Matrox Mystique Display driver. It was necessary to turn off the "Use PowerGDU acceleration" in the "Settings/Powerdesk" of Display Properties.