DECLARE PRINTER

Note:

This command may be discontinued in a future release. We highly recommend that you no longer use this command. To take advantage of newer Production Reporting functionality, use DECLARE‑LAYOUT and DECLARE‑PRINTER.

Function

Specifies the printer type and sets printer characteristics.

Syntax

DECLARE PRINTER
[TYPE=printer_type_lit]
[ORIENTATION=orientation_lit]
[LEFT-MARGIN=left_margin_num_lit]
[TOP-MARGIN=top_margin_num_lit]
[LINE-SIZE=line_size_num_lit]
[CHAR-SIZE=char_size_num_lit]
[LINES-INCH=lines_inch_int_lit]
[CHARS-INCH=chars_inch_num_lit]
[POINT-SIZE=point_size_num_lit]
[FONT-TYPE=font_type_txt_lit]
[SYMBOL-SET=symbol_set_id_lit]
[STARTUP-FILE=file_name_txt_lit]
[FONT=font_int_lit]
[BEFORE-BOLD=before_bold_string_txt_lit]
[AFTER-BOLD=after_bold_string_txt_lit]

Arguments

Table 108 describes the arguments for the DECLARE PRINTER command.

Table 108. DECLARE PRINTER Command Arguments

Argument	Choice or Measure	Default Value	Description
TYPE	LINEPRINTER, POSTSCRIPT, HPLASERJET	LINEPRINTER	Production Reporting creates output specific to each printer. LINEPRINTER files generally consist of ASCII characters and can be viewed by a text editor. POSTSCRIPT files consist of ASCII characters, but you need to know PostScript to understand what will be shown on the printer. HP Laserjet files are binary files and cannot be edited or viewed.
ORIENTATION	PORTRAIT, LANDSCAPE	PORTRAIT	Portrait pages are printed vertically. Landscape pages are printed horizontally. Printing in landscape on HP Laserjet printers requires landscape fonts.
LEFT-MARGIN	inches	0.5	This argument does not apply to LINEPRINTER printers. This is the amount of blank space to leave at the left side of the page.
TOP-MARGIN	inches	0.5	This argument does not apply to LINEPRINTER printers. This is the amount of blank space to leave at the top of the page.
LINE-SIZE	points	12	This argument does not apply to LINEPRINTER printers. This is the size of each Production Reporting line on the page. There are 72 points per inch. If LINE‑SIZE is not specified, it follows the value for POINT-SIZE, if specified. The default value of 12 points yields 6 lines per inch.
CHAR-SIZE	points	7.2	This argument does not apply to LINEPRINTER printers. This is the size of each Production Reporting horizontal character column on the page (for example, the distance between the locations (1,12) and (1,13)). If CHAR‑SIZE is not specified and the POINT‑SIZE is less than 8.6, CHAR‑SIZE is set to 4.32, which yields 16.6 characters per inch. The default value of 7.2 yields 10 characters per inch.
LINES-INCH	lines	6	This argument does not apply to Lineprinter printers. This is an alternate way of indicating the line size, in lines per inch, rather than in points for the LINE-SIZE.
CHARS-INCH	characters	10	This argument does not apply to LINEPRINTER printers. This is an alternate way of indicating the width of each Production Reporting character column, in characters per inch, rather than points for CHAR-SIZE.
POINT-SIZE	points	12	This argument does not apply to Lineprinter printers. This is the beginning size of the selected font.
FONT-TYPE	PROPORTIONAL, FIXED	Depends on the font	This argument applies only to HP Laserjet printers and needs to be specified only for font types not defined in Table 33, Fonts Available for HP LaserJet Printers in Production Reporting.
SYMBOL-SET	HP defined sets	0U	This argument applies only to HP Laserjet printers. The default value of "0U" is for the ASCII symbol set. For a complete list of the symbol sets, see the HP Laserjet Technical Reference Manual.
STARTUP-FILE	filename	POSTSCRI.STR	This argument applies only to PostScript printers. This is used to specify an alternate startup file. Unless otherwise specified, the default startup file is located in the directory specified by the environment variable SQRDIR.
FONT	font_number	3	This is the font number of the typeface to use. For HP Laserjet printers, this is the typeface value as defined by Hewlett-Packard. For a complete list of the typeface numbers, see the HP Laserjet Technical Reference Manual. For PostScript printers, Production Reporting supplies a list of fonts and arbitrary font number assignments in the file POSTSCRI.STR. The font numbers are the same as those for HP Laserjet printers, wherever possible, so that you can use the same font number for reports to be printed on both types of printers. You can modify the font list in POSTSCRI.STR to add or delete fonts. Read the POSTSCRI.STR file for instructions. Table 33, Fonts Available for HP LaserJet Printers in Production Reporting lists the fonts available in Production Reporting internally. Table 34, Fonts Available for PostScript Printers lists the fonts available in the Production Reporting POSTSCRI.STR file.
BEFORE-BOLD	any string	(none)	The BEFORE-BOLD and AFTER-BOLD arguments are for Lineprinter printers only. They specify the character string to turn bolding on and off. If the string contains blank characters, enclose it in single quote marks ('). To specify non-printable characters, such as ESC, enclose the decimal value inside angle brackets as follows: BEFORE-BOLD=<27>[r ! Turn on bold AFTER-BOLD=<27>[u ! Turn it off These arguments work in conjunction with the BOLD argument of the PRINT command.
AFTER-BOLD	any string	(none)	See BEFORE-BOLD.

The font you choose—in orientation, typeface, and point size—must be an internal font, available in a font cartridge, or downloaded to the printer.

For fonts not listed in Table 33, Fonts Available for HP LaserJet Printers in Production Reporting, you must indicate the font style using the FONT‑TYPE argument, or the correct typeface cannot be selected by the printer.

Description

DECLARE PRINTER can be used in either the SETUP section or in the body of the report. Generally, you should use it in the SETUP section. However, if you do not know what type of printer you will be using until the report is run, or if you need to change some of the arguments depending on user selection, you could put several DECLARE PRINTER commands in the body of the report and execute the one you need.

The following arguments take effect only once, upon execution of the first PRINT command, and thereafter have no effect even if changed:

LINE-SIZE
CHAR-SIZE
LINES-INCH
CHARS-INCH
ORIENTATION

Production Reporting maps its line and column positions on the page by using a grid determined by the LINE‑SIZE and CHAR-SIZE (or LINES-INCH and CHARS-INCH) arguments. Each printed piece of text is placed on the page using this grid. Because the characters in proportional fonts vary in width, it is possible that a word or string is wider than the horizontal space you have allotted, especially in words containing uppercase letters. To account for this behavior, you can either move the column position in the PRINT statement or indicate a larger CHAR-SIZE in the DECLARE PRINTER command.