Printing checks - last little hitch.

[Doug Laidlaw]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 03:36:37 pm Ron Morse wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-08-03 at 14:41 +1000, Doug Laidlaw wrote:
> > I found where the field positions are set in Gnucash 2+ and have a
> > standard Aussie check working.  The last problem is placing them
> > vertically.  Using A4 paper, both the U.S. and A4 checks are O.K. in
> > print preview, but print about 28 mm (1.1 inch) too high.  This is
> > neither the difference between A4 and 11 inch paper (A4 is 17.6 mm
> > longer) nor the bottom tear-off margin (17 mm) nor the sum of the two.
> >
> > In earlier versions, check positions were calculated from the bottom,
> > following Postscript.  Now they are calculated from the top, so it would
> > seem that there is an adjustment for page height somewhere.  I can't find
> > it in the config files, and the "Translation" field in checks/gnomeprint
> > seems to do nothing. (I used points when changing that.)
>
> Look in usr/local/share/gnucash/checks
>
> This is where the default check formats are defined. For my purposes the
> Quicken/quickbooks format was very close, so I just copied the original
> layout for that selection to a backup then twiddled the bits until
> things lined up correctly. Things are done here in plain text and there
> is no mystery.  When I select the Quicken/Quickbooks format for printing
> checks my modified layout gets sent to the printer.
>
> I have no idea what units of measure are used but the settings appear to
> have some granularity...i.e., changing the value by one or two doesn't
> seem to do much, but a change of 5 units is immediately apparent.
>
> Ron Morse

Thanks Ron.  The units previously used were points (1 point = 1/72 inch)  Here 
we are metric, and 1 mm = 2.83 points.  I used these units when setting up.  
The problem is switching measuring, originally from the bottom (set by 
Adobe's Postscript format spec) to be from the top of the check (which 
everybody wanted) plus the tear-off strip along the bottom in my case.

Somewhere I should need to add 17.6+17 mm to the 3*check height to get a full 
A4 sheet, but that isn't the discrepancy I am getting.

I suppose that for business use, electronic banking has largely taken the 
place of paper checks.  As a last resort, I can go back to 2.0.5.

Doug.
-- 
Orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is your doxy.
   - Wm Warburton, 18th c. Bishop of Gloucester.