Choosing a Printer
To choose a printer type for each printer class available to your login:
- Select File | Select Printer and choose Standard Printer, Label Printer, Browser Printer, Form Printer, or Receipt Printer.
Logins with No Assigned Printers
If a login has not been assigned any printers, the system displays the following message when the login attempts to print or set the current printer:
No printers are available.
For information on how to assign printers to an Innovative login, see the discussion of Printer Selection in Login Administration.
- Choose OK to save your selection. The Sierra system remembers these printer assignments and uses them whenever you choose to print.
The following sections discuss the various printer types:
- Choosing a Local Printer
- Choosing a Browser Printer
- Choosing an Email Printer
- Printing to the Email to Patron Printer
- FTS File Save Printing
- Types of Printers
Choosing a Local Printer
Local printers are those that are attached to the Sierra workstation, either through a direct connection (e.g., a parallel or USB printer port) or over a local-area network. Many more user-configurable options are available for local printers than for any other printer type. The options that you can choose are based on the capabilities of the printer. For example, if the printer cannot print in color, the Color button in the Color Appearance menu will be unavailable.
Operating System Support for Local Printers
Support for local printers and access to their capabilities is based on the workstation operating system's support for the particular printer(s) available to your workstation. This means that manufacturer-specific printer drivers must be installed on the workstation before Sierra can access the printers.
When you select a local printer for the first time, Sierra presents a dialog box with four tabs; General, Page Setup, Appearance, and Format.
General Tab
This tab enables you to select any of the local printers available to your workstation, the range of pages to print, and the number of copies to print.
Page Setup Tab
This tab enables you to specify the paper size, layout, direction of printing, and page margins. You can choose only those options that are supported by the printer.
Appearance Tab
This tab enables you to configure special printer features, such as color printing and non-standard paper-handling, if the printer supports them.
Format Tab
This tab enables you to select the printing format in the Format pane. Options include:
- Graphic - Formats the content as an image.
- Text - Formats the content using a fixed-width font.
- Text (narrow) - Formats the content using a fixed-width font and limits each line to 40 characters. Used for receipt printers.
After selecting a format, you can set layout options relevant to the format you selected.
Text Printing
If you selected Text or Text (narrow), you can set the following options in the Text Printing pane:
- Characters per line - The maximum number is 256.
- Lines per page - The maximum number is 256.
- Lines to eject - The maximum number is 10. Only available with the Text (narrow) printing format.
The Print form feed checkbox is enabled only if the Text (narrow) option is selected in the Format pane.
If the Receipt Auto Cut feature is enabled, a Send auto-cut checkbox appears in the Text Printing pane.
Graphic Printing
If you selected Graphic, you can set the following options in the Graphic Printing pane:
- Font size - Allowable font sizes are from 6 through 24.
- Font style - Options include Plain, Bold, and Italic.
- Character margin - Allowable values are from 0 through 10.
Setting the Font style to Plain can improve the legibility of some non-Roman character sets.
Choosing a 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.
When you choose the Browser Printer option, Sierra Web offers various options on the Format tab. This tab enables you to choose one of the following printing formats:
- Html Table - formats the content in HTML tables. Similar to graphic printing for Local Printers.
- Plain Text - formats the content using a fixed-width font.
- Plain Text (narrow) - formats the content using a fixed-width font, and limits each line to 40 characters. Used for receipt printers.
Depending on the printing format you choose, you can also set the following:
- Text Printing
- Characters per line - The maximum value is 256.
- Lines per page - The maximum value is 256.
- Lines to eject - The maximum value is 10. Only available with the Plain Text (narrow) printing format.
- Html Table Printing
- Font size - This option accepts values from 6 through 24.
Choosing an Email Printer
If you choose an Email Printer, Sierra prompts you for an email address. Sierra does not verify the validity of the email address you enter, but it must be less than 80 characters long.
If the Email Note Database Maintenance option is set to "YES", Sierra prompts you to add a note to the resulting email message. This note precedes the print data and can be up to 200 characters, including all linebreak characters.
- See also:
- Troubleshooting Guide for Printing