RDLC report on Zebra printer - orientation being ignored

borealis

Client is running 2017 build 17972, printer is a Zebra GK420D.

I have a fairly vanilla item label that should be printing on a 10.5w x 7.5h cm label. I've entered the correct page size into the report settings and I have margins that should be sufficient and the report body size is slightly less than page size less margins (cangrow set to false for all fields). The problem is that even though the report should be printing in landscape, it is trying to print in portrait (prints across 2 labels, clearly in the wrong orientation). Just for kicks, I redid an alternate version of the report that is printed in portrait with the text box properties for "WritingMode" set to Vertical so that text is rotated 90 ° and the darn thing prints incorrectly in exactly the same wrong way as it is in the landscape version of the report, which makes no sense to me. Both versions of the report preview correctly in print layout mode and appear to be correct if printed to a non-Zebra printer.

I've experimented with different settings both in the printer settings and with the zebra configuration utility and there does not appear to be any combination of settings that results in the correct label being printed. This particular client would be willing to have me redo the report for portrait (non-rotated text) but I have another client with the same problem for whom that is not a feasible solution.

Does anybody have any idea what the issue might be?

borealis

Thanks for the suggestion Duikmeester, but I'm unsure what the underlying issue is. They did not have any printer selections set up in this particular case.

I did solve it by breaking it, essentially by telling it to print in portrait. If you preview it, or print it to a printer other than the Zebra it prints out exactly the way you would expect it to with the right side getting cut off and it printing on two pages. On the Zebra though, it prints just fine.

julkifli33

Hi Borealis,
how do you set to become potrait ? as default

Duikmeester

Probably the known issue fixed in CU14: 252014 Report orientation is lost when you print directly, and the printer selection has a record with a non-existing printer.

borealis

Thanks for the suggestion Duikmeester, but I'm unsure what the underlying issue is. They did not have any printer selections set up in this particular case.

I did solve it by breaking it, essentially by telling it to print in portrait. If you preview it, or print it to a printer other than the Zebra it prints out exactly the way you would expect it to with the right side getting cut off and it printing on two pages. On the Zebra though, it prints just fine.

julkifli33

Hi Borealis,
how do you set to become potrait ? as default

julkifli33

Hi all

I have settled this issue.
change the printer setting from 108 x 28 become 28 x 108

borealis

Julkifli33:

Sorry for the delayed response. I was setting it to portrait in the report properties (layout in visual studio, right click on gray area outside of active window and choose properties).

We've noticed that the GDPR update specifically, and likely recent cumulative updates, seems to fix the issue removing the need to set an incorrect orientation. As an aside, the older versions seem to have an issue with the printer adding an arbitrary margin to either top or left, which throws the whole label off. I have literally set margins to zero on the left and seen my label start 3 cm over from the edge. And it seems to vary depending on the day/time/computer, likely as it tries to pull something from other print drivers. Again the GDPR update fixes this as well.

It also didn't seem to be limited to just Zebra printers, we had the exact same issues for a client that had a brother printer.

Juhl

I personally like to use ZPL codes instead of windows print when possible.
Super stabil, super fast, and no messing around with paper size and margins.
Just my 2 cent 😄