Printing in Sierra
Sierra enables you to print a variety of information, including general database information (such as records and tables), labels, receipts, claims, and notices. Sierra defines five categories (or classes) of printers:
- Standard printer
- Used to print browse displays, database records, and other general information.
- Label printer
- Used to print spine labels and serial labels.
- Form printer
- Used to print notices, claims, and purchase orders.
- Receipt printer
- Used to print receipts.
- Print Templates
- Used for printing customized notices, slips, claims, orders, receipts, and labels. See Printing With Print Templates and Print Templates Settings for more information.
The system determines the printer class to use based on the function in which printing is selected. For example, when printing labels, the system uses the Label Printer class.
Types of Printers
For each of the Standard, Label, Form, and Receipt printer classes, printing can be directed to any of the following printer types:
See Printing With Print Templates and Print Templates Settings for information on using the Print Templates feature.
System Printer
System printers are connected to your library's Sierra server machine. Note that multiple system printers can appear in the Select Printer dialog box.
Local Printer
A local printer is attached to the Sierra workstation, either through a direct connection, such as a parallel or USB printer port, or over a local-area network. The system considers a login to have access to a Local Printer if the login has been assigned a local printer in the Printer Selection option in Login Administration. Note that the system cannot actually verify that the login's workstation is able to access any local printers.
The Sierra system can send print data to a local printer in standard graphic format or in text format:
Graphic Printing
The print job is assembled as a graphic image and sent to the printer in its graphic mode. This is the common default for all desktop printing and supports all connection methods, including network, USB, and parallel.
Print Templates and custom hold and transit slips require graphic printing.
Text Printing
Direct text printing is an alternative to graphical printing that sends ASCII text directly to the printer. It cannot be used with all connection methods.
Using Older Model Printers
You might need to use direct text printing if your printer is an older model or one with limited capabilities. For example, 40 column printers often have limited capabilities and thus must be set for direct text printing.
To enable text printing, select (check) the Enable direct text printing box in the login's Printing options.
You cannot use direct text printing if your printer is a "Graphics only" or "Windows only" printer. "Graphics only" or "Windows only" printers cannot be configured for text printing because they are designed to print images of print jobs, not the actual text. For example, do not enable text printing for Hewlett-Packard printers that use "Printing Performance Architecture" (PPA).
You can choose to print in either graphic or text format in the Format tab of the Select Printer dialog box. For more information on printing to a local printer and the options available for local printers see Choosing a Local Printer.
Browser Printer
The Browser Printer options uses the web browser's functionality for printing from Sierra Web. When using this option, Sierra Web sends output to a printer connected to your workstation.The system considers a login to have access to the Browser printer if the login has the Attached printer or Local printer option assigned in the Printer Selection option in Login Administration.
For more information on printing to a browser printer and the options available, see Choosing a Browser Printer.
Email Printer
This printer option sends printouts to a specified email address. For more information on printing to an email printer, see Choosing an Email Printer.
Email to Patron
The system can offer the E-mail to Patron option in the Select Printer dialog. For more information see, Printing to the E-mail to Patron Printer.
FTS File Save
Printing to FTS File Save sends the print job to a file on the server. Sierra prompts you to enter the file's name. You can use any alphabetic or numeric character and the '.' period character. However, the period cannot be the first character in the file name. If you enter a period as the first character, it is ignored. For information on accessing the print job file, see FTS File Save Printing.