vDos, Q&A 3.0, powermenu 3.13, adjust Font size
Run DOS applications in Windows.
Brought to you by:
emendelson,
josschaars
Hello.
I'm not too computer savvy, so please bear with me.
I successfully installed vDos on a Windows 10 64 bit. I do have a minor issue which I can address at a later date . That said, all is good except when I print to my HP LaserJet. The font type is not the same as when I would print on my previous computer (Windows 7) which did not have vDos.
I guess my main question is what ultimately determines the font size/type when I print to an HP LaserJet printer and how to fix this.
I do not know the font type that Q&A used on the Windows 7 computer, but whatever it is, I would like that to be the same in vDos.
Do I make the adjustments in Q&A or do I make them somewhere is vDos ?
I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but I saw this in another Q&A thread:
**You could try: LPT1 = SEL:"printer name" RAW****
I saw this and wanted to blindly try it, but I don't know to implement it...
any help appreciated
Thank you
Fred Tompkins
Did you read the Printing.pdf document that comes with vDos?
The font type probably won’t be set by Q&A. If you use the RAW option, the ASCII data is sent to the printer as-is. The printer renders the ASCII characters to pixels to be printed and will default to the Courier font.
Without the RAW option, vDos and the printer driver will do the rendering, and send the graphical image of the page to the printer. Here the font type will default to the vDos screen font. You would eventually select another (Courier) font and set margins (HORZ:/VERT:).
The second method is more flexible since it will allow you to also print to a not-DOS enabled or virtual (PDF) printer.
Jos
Yes, I've read the printing.pdf and the FAQs a few times each and much of it is above my head.
I've read all of the threads here regarding Q&A font size.
I tried the RAW way and vDos doesn't see the printer in this mode.
I did not try the HORZ:/VERT: way as I was unsure how to do that.
I've done some more testing and I have changed the font in the config.txt to Courier which was uploaded here about a year and a half ago. The good news is that it is exactly the font I want as I view it on the screen. The bad news is that I'm missing lines on the forms in Q&A with this new font but the text is what I want. Bad news #2 is that when I print, it prints the same way as it always has... that is, changing the font in config.txt had no effect on the print out.
I do appreciate any help and also, I don't want to be a pain.
So, I'll keep trying on my end for the next fews days and update then
Thanks
Fred Tompkins
Could you submit a copy of your config.txt file and a screenshot of an incorrect form.
Jos
I hope I do thos correctly... attached in the confi.txt file and a single jpeg showing 3 printouts
1 above is before vDos and that's my goal. 2. is how vDos prints with no changes. If I change the font in config.txt, it still prints to paper the same as above. 3 is the .asc file with what appears to be the correct font but other adjustments need to made obviously. I changed the font in config.txt to get this result. Hopefully with some adjustments I will be able to print directly to an HPLaserjet as shown in 1 above
Thanks again for any help any sorry for the delay on my end
Oh, I did see a post from a few yaers back where someone set up a dropbox folder that was all inclusive and specific for Q&A but I don't have the url handy at the moment but the link is dead now
Fred Tompkins
The config.txt file seems to be the original one, only one empty line was added.
If you want the original printout as before – the HP LaserJet rendering the ASCII text - add this line to config.txt:
LPT1 = SEL:"HPLaserjet" RAW
Or vDos and the printer driver could do the rendering by:
LPT1 = SEL:"HPLaserjet" FONT:"Courier New" HORZ:6,6,80
Assuming "HPLaserjet" is the name of the printer as shown by Windows. The second method would allow you to use another printer, or produce PDF documents (change or delete SEL: "HPLaserjet").
Jos
Jos, Thank you so much for your help.
The empty line in that config.txt file was from me messing around with different commands trying to get the result I wanted. I guess I just left an extra blank line in there.
Even though I don't think I'll have any need for the extra versatilty of the second choice above, I thought I'd try anyway and it seemed like it would take a while for me to get the horizontal lined up correctly plus I would also need a vertical adjustmment as the second page of a printout would start near the middle of the paper printout., So I stopped there and went to first option with the RAW command.
Previously, I had no luck with the RAW command as the printer wouldn't "initialize". I now know what I did wrong as I am using a printer physically connected to another computer and I needed to provide the network location of the printer . So, I simply changed the "HPLaserjet" from above to the network location and printer name and it worked.
At this point, when I view the screen, the font is the vDos default font but when I print, it has the font I want (which I'm very happy with).
So, went back to the congig.txt and added font=cour(not courier new") and now the screen and paper printouts are all the same.....
Sorry for the long response as I simply could have said I got everything working and my Q&A program is working exactly as with Windows 7 32-bit.
Thank you agian
Fred Tompkins
Hope this works but here is the thread I referred to
https://sourceforge.net/p/vdos/discussion/general/thread/98b18428/?limit=25#2d88
we can avoid that link above which I posted as i resolved my issues and everything is working great.
Fred Tompkins