Understanding Reports Designed to Print on Line Printers
When designing reports to print on line printers, you must follow certain guidelines to ensure that the report information prints successfully. These guidelines include font family, font size, grid spacing, the width of the fields on the report, paper dimensions, and line parameters, as identified here:
Modify the vertical grid alignment.
Select a fixed-pitch font.
The Courier New font is a fixed-pitch font and provides the best results; however, you can use other fixed-pitch fonts. For example, for reports that contain text in Japanese, you should use the fixed-pitch version of the MS-Gothic font.
Modify the font size.
These font sizes are available on most line printers; most line printers support only these sizes:
Font
Characters per Inch (CPI)
Suggested Font Point Size in RDA
Courier New
10
12.00
Courier New
12
10.00
Courier New
17
7.06
Courier New
20
6.00
Modify the field width.
Because font properties affect the size of the report fields, you might need to adjust field width. You need to override version specifications for a section, specifically the section layout, before you can modify field widths.
Apply the font selections to the entire report.
Align fields.