Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-12 Thread libreoffice-ml . mbourne

Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 3:19 PM, libreoffice-ml.mbou...@spamgourmet.com wrote:

Ken Springer wrote:

Slippage in the rollers is what I was thinking of.

In my case, the error is consistent, so slippage is not problem.

Telling the printer where to actually start the printing appears to be
the issue.  We'll call it the top margin for convenience, but even that
has it's own issues.  Since the driver is TWAIN, the brand of printer
shouldn't make a difference as long as the printer manufacturer doesn't
screw up the driver.

Time to "expand our horizons".  (Sounds like a motivational speaker,
doesn't it?   LOL)

LO's built-in template, displayed on the screen, is correct.  The
paper's top margin is .5" on the screen and in real life.  Positioning
of the text is also correct, as displayed on the screen.

Only printing is in error.

Now...  Suppose you are creating X number of label designs for someone
else.  They don't have LO, how to you get the labels to them?  Today, I
think almost everyone's answer would be PDF.


You may already realise, but in case not... Adobe Reader has an option
to "Shrink oversized pages" when printing.


Every PDF reader I've toyed with has  that option for scaling.  Useful
if you receive something that was created for 11 X 17 paper, and all you
have is 8.5 X11.  In which case, I would expect a bit of error, not to
mention difficulty in reading text that may be on the page.


You might not expect that to
do anything when printing an A4 PDF printing onto A4 paper, but it
actually shrinks the page slightly to allow for the non-printable
margins around the page. To get a 1:1 scale print you have to select
"Actual size". It remembers the last setting you use, so you have to
remember to check what's it's set to each time.


I would submit, that the person who created the PDF, should have
considered non-printable margins.  Which is why I always use margins
that I'm sure all printers can handle, at least to the best of my
knowledge.


I'd agree with that. Pretty much all PDFs I've seen do have a margin 
between the content and the edge of the page, and can be printed at 
actual size without problem. It's useful, as you say, if you need to 
print an 11x17 document on 8.5x11 paper (or in my case usually A3 on 
A4), but rather annoying when it's then set by default next time and 
shrinks an 8.5x11 (or A4) document slightly. I think it's the default on 
a fresh install of Adobe Reader so some people might not even notice it.



Fair enough, but that doesn't work either.  If you create the PDF with
the default template settings, which are correct, the resulting PDF file
is also in error.  I tried it.  Same vertical offset issue.


Is the vertical offset incorrect on screen as well as when printed? When
I first read that, I thought you meant it was wrong on-screen as well,
but from your discussion below it sounds like the PDF is displayed with
the correct margin, but prints with the wrong margin?


If the onscreen display of the margins for 8167 labels is correct, the
printed output is incorrect, from both LO and PDF.  If the onscreen
margins are incorrect (to the needed amount of course), the printed
output is correct, from both LO and PDF.


So you change the top margin, create the PDF, and yep, labels print
correctly.

What's wrong with this?

In the above scenario, the recipient of the PDF may/can/will look at the
labels before printing them, to see if they are correct.  (If they
don't, they aren't doing their job.)  Guess what?  They'll see the top
margin error, more easily spotted if you have a vertical ruler option.
If you send a PDF based on the correct template (the one supplied by
LO), the printing will be off.  If you send a PDF based on a modified
template, the visual display on the screen will be off.


So if you have a PDF which displays on screen with the correct margin,
but when printed it has the wrong margin?


Yep.   


To get it to print with the
correct margin, you have to produce a PDF which displays with an
incorrect margin?


Yep.

< Assuming you're printing the PDF at actual size, that

would suggest the printer or its driver is in error (unless your PDF
reader has the same issue as LibreOffice). Once LibreOffice has created
a PDF, it has nothing to do with any difference between how the PDF
reader displays and prints it.


Unless the error is embedded in the PDF.   :-)


I'm not sure that there's anything in the PDF format to specify 
different margins for display and printing, but I may be wrong. It's 
intended as a page layout format, specifying the position of each item 
so that it's displayed and printed consistently between systems. As I 
understand it, PDF doesn't even have a concept of paragraphs - they're 
just separate lines which happen to be positioned one below another.



I hadn't considered the printer driver to be the problem, since the
other size label does not exhibit this issue.  A .5" margin is a .5"
margin.   :-)


That is odd... Do both templ

[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-11 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/10/16 9:32 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 10/02/16 10:53 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 4:27 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 10/02/16 12:01 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 8:28 AM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:







PDF is a great way to exchange documents but it has an interesting print
option (usually) of shrinking to fit the printer margins. If you send a
PDF label set, you need to remind the recipient to print them full size.
I've run into this problem several times where my carefully crafted PDFs
aren't printed the way I designed them.


In this case, IMO, the creator of the PDF should be aware of the
potential margin issue and set them accordingly.  So far, I've never
been burned that I know of by using .5" margins except with the top
margin of the 8167 labels.

So there should be no need for shrink to fit unless we are talking a
totally different page size.

But it's awful hard to break people's mindset and get them to switch
to PDF.  "Oh, if we are going to share and work with the same thing,
we both have to have MS Word."  Or WordPerfect.  Or Lotus' word
processor in the old days, I can't remember the name. At one time,
this was absolutely true.  But it's no longer a mandatory thing with
PDF on the scene.

There will be situations where where Word, or Excel, or  will
be required.  But it's because that software is already in use across
the enterprise.  It's not because it's the only software that will do
the job.


That's not the issue. Sometimes you want something to occupy the full
page for professional printing but people use their home printers instead.


Agreed, you need the bleed area.  But in this case of labels off the 
shelf, using a software's built in template that is correct when 
measured with a ruler, telling the software to shrink to fit shouldn't 
have any effect.


I just did a business card design that needed a bleed area.  Actually 
came out with the right colors!   LOL



As for using the same software, that doesn't solve problems if the
person doesn't have the same fonts installed that you do. The PDF format
removes the requirement to stick to common fonts.

Similarly the ISO standard Open Document formats that LibreOffice uses
allow documents to used by other programs, including the M$ ones. They
may not look the same, but will at least be exchangeable and editable.










There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label
properties.
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly
what you
need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


In the end, I'll probably do this.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the
last two may be different if there is space between the labels)
and do
the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and
columns.

If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file
a bug
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's
better to
light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


In this case, the label spec is correct.  Font design will have to
have a factor in this someway too, I suspect.


It shouldn't unless LO calculates the position of the next label
relative to the end of the previous text. It would seem more natural
(and simpler) to calculate in absolute terms.


Upon retrospect, I agree.  But it is something you have to be
cognizant of when designing the label, as it can affect the apparent
vertical centering of text on the label.  Which can effect what you
think may be happening with label output.  In my case, the label
includes a graphic, which is unaffected by text positioning. Makes it
easy to figure out where the problem is likely to be.

Another overall negative effect of this problem is, you have to ask
yourself, if this is broken, what else in the suite is broken?
Especially if you are using LO to make a living.  Is there another
feature I use in Writer that doesn't work correctly?  What if one or
two functions in the spreadsheet calculate incorrectly?  What if Base
occasionally mangles your data?

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all! 



I've yet to find software that is perfect (except of course for what I
develop  ;)  ).  Big suites like LO will have the occasional bug but
I've never found one that was more than an annoyance.


It's an annoyance if you can find a workaround.  It's a problem if
there's no workaround, and it's something you n

Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-11 Thread libreoffice-ml . mbourne
Perhaps the BASIC code was only displaying the number to a few decimal 
places. In C, printf defaults to 6 decimal places, which isn't enough to 
show the actual result as any different from the ideal result.


It's also possible that the spreadsheet was doing something more 
complicated internally than just 28*(1/7). Playing around with an 
example in C, I can see the error in representing (1/7), but multiplying 
that by 28 gives exactly 4:

Decimal   In-memory
(1/7) = 0.14285714924335479736328125  0x3e124925
 28*(1/7) = 4.00  0x4080

On the other hand, storing 1/490 in a float, then storing the result of 
multiplying that by 70 (should be the same as 1/7), then storing the 
result of multiplying that by 28, gives 3.9976...:

Decimal   In-memory
  (1/490) = 0.00204081623815572204589844  0x3b05bf37
   70*(1/490) = 0.14285713434219360351562500  0x3e124924
28*70*(1/490) = 3.997615814208984375  0x407f

I'm not suggesting that's exactly what the spreadsheet was doing, but it 
shows that slight changes to the detail of the calculation (which 
wouldn't affect the result with unlimited precision) can have an effect 
on whether the result is equal to or slightly more or less than the 
expected result.


Mark.


Virgil Arrington wrote:

Thanks for the explanation. Oddly enough, it makes some sense, even to
my non-techy brain. What I found interesting was that, in the
spreadsheet, I got the "wrong" 3., but I wrote a simple BASIC
program on my beloved Tandy Model 100 and got the "correct" answer of 4.
I was excited to see that my little first generation laptop gave better
results than my state of the art (for the time) PC.

Virgil


On 02/10/2016 06:01 PM, libreoffice-ml.mbou...@spamgourmet.com wrote:

Virgil Arrington wrote:

Ken Springer wrote

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all! 



About 25 years ago, I was the treasurer of my children's preschool. I
created a spreadsheet to calculate paychecks, and I found that the
paycheck was consistently off by .01 (a penny). It drove me nuts. As it
turned out, one part of the calculation required the division of 28 by
7, which every third grader knows is 4. Well, my spreadsheet gave an
answer of 3.99_. By itself, it wasn't a big problem, but later
in the chain of operations, the 3.9_ produced a result that rounded
*down* to the nearest penny instead of *up*, which it would have done if
the 28/7 had resulted in 4 instead of 3.. I complained to a computer
friend of mine who tried to explain that the computer's answer was more
"precise" than my mental math of 28/7=4. I didn't buy it.


I wouldn't say 3.999... is more precise, but it sounds like your
problem is related to the precision of floating-point numbers. 1/7,
when represented in binary, is a recurring fraction 0.001001001...
(like how 1/3 is 0.... in decimal), so cannot be represented
precisely in binary with a finite number of bits (just as you can add
as many '3's as you like to 0., but it still doesn't exactly
represent 1/3).

I don't think there should be a problem with calculating 28/7 = 4 as a
single floating point operation, but if the calculation was done
(either in the way your formula was expressed or the way the
application processed it) as (1/7)*28, that may well give a slightly
inaccurate result due to rounding of the (1/7). A bit like calculating
1/3 to 0.333, then multiplying that by 12 to get 3.996 instead of 4.
If using a round-down function, and the result was slightly less than
4, it would round down to 3. I guess the solution was to round to the
nearest integer.


I learned a valuable lesson in blindly accepting a computer's
calculation simply because it was made by a computer.


Indeed. They do exactly what they're told by a combination of
hardware, software and user input - but for various reasons that might
not amount to what you thought you were telling it to do.

Mark.








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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-11 Thread Steve Edmonds



On 12/02/16 1:21 AM, James Knott wrote:

On 02/11/2016 03:33 AM, Steve Edmonds wrote:

And there is the distinction between precision and accuracy. You can
be very precisely inaccurate.

I guess you've never studied Calculus, where the answer often
approaches, but never actually reaches some value.  You can get closer
and closer, but never actually get that value.  ;-)



Sounds like life.
A bit off topic One of the things I did like about calculus is that it 
models so much of what changes about us. A real eye opener, when I first 
started applying it to real life situations it was a bit like seeing all 
that code in the matrix (some years before the matrix, cell phones and PCs).


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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-11 Thread Bob Holtzman
On Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 07:21:31AM -0500, James Knott wrote:
> On 02/11/2016 03:33 AM, Steve Edmonds wrote:
> > And there is the distinction between precision and accuracy. You can
> > be very precisely inaccurate.
> 
> I guess you've never studied Calculus, where the answer often
> approaches, but never actually reaches some value.  You can get closer
> and closer, but never actually get that value.  ;-)

Recall the old joke about a man and woman approaching each other
asymptotically. The mathematician says they never meet. The engineer says
that they get close enough for all practical purposes.

-- 
Bob Holtzman
A man is a man who will fight with a sword or
conquer Mt. Everest in snow. But the bravest of all
owns a '34 Ford and tries for six thousand in low.

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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-11 Thread James Knott
On 02/11/2016 03:33 AM, Steve Edmonds wrote:
> And there is the distinction between precision and accuracy. You can
> be very precisely inaccurate.

I guess you've never studied Calculus, where the answer often
approaches, but never actually reaches some value.  You can get closer
and closer, but never actually get that value.  ;-)


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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-11 Thread Steve Edmonds
And there is the distinction between precision and accuracy. You can be 
very precisely inaccurate.

Steve

On 2016-02-11 12:14, Virgil Arrington wrote:
Thanks for the explanation. Oddly enough, it makes some sense, even to 
my non-techy brain. What I found interesting was that, in the 
spreadsheet, I got the "wrong" 3., but I wrote a simple BASIC 
program on my beloved Tandy Model 100 and got the "correct" answer of 
4. I was excited to see that my little first generation laptop gave 
better results than my state of the art (for the time) PC.


Virgil


On 02/10/2016 06:01 PM, libreoffice-ml.mbou...@spamgourmet.com wrote:

Virgil Arrington wrote:

Ken Springer wrote

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all! 



About 25 years ago, I was the treasurer of my children's preschool. I
created a spreadsheet to calculate paychecks, and I found that the
paycheck was consistently off by .01 (a penny). It drove me nuts. As it
turned out, one part of the calculation required the division of 28 by
7, which every third grader knows is 4. Well, my spreadsheet gave an
answer of 3.99_. By itself, it wasn't a big problem, but later
in the chain of operations, the 3.9_ produced a result that rounded
*down* to the nearest penny instead of *up*, which it would have 
done if
the 28/7 had resulted in 4 instead of 3.. I complained to a 
computer

friend of mine who tried to explain that the computer's answer was more
"precise" than my mental math of 28/7=4. I didn't buy it.


I wouldn't say 3.999... is more precise, but it sounds like your 
problem is related to the precision of floating-point numbers. 1/7, 
when represented in binary, is a recurring fraction 0.001001001... 
(like how 1/3 is 0.... in decimal), so cannot be represented 
precisely in binary with a finite number of bits (just as you can add 
as many '3's as you like to 0., but it still doesn't exactly 
represent 1/3).


I don't think there should be a problem with calculating 28/7 = 4 as 
a single floating point operation, but if the calculation was done 
(either in the way your formula was expressed or the way the 
application processed it) as (1/7)*28, that may well give a slightly 
inaccurate result due to rounding of the (1/7). A bit like 
calculating 1/3 to 0.333, then multiplying that by 12 to get 3.996 
instead of 4. If using a round-down function, and the result was 
slightly less than 4, it would round down to 3. I guess the solution 
was to round to the nearest integer.



I learned a valuable lesson in blindly accepting a computer's
calculation simply because it was made by a computer.


Indeed. They do exactly what they're told by a combination of 
hardware, software and user input - but for various reasons that 
might not amount to what you thought you were telling it to do.


Mark.








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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Gary Dale

On 10/02/16 10:53 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 4:27 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 10/02/16 12:01 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 8:28 AM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:







PDF is a great way to exchange documents but it has an interesting print
option (usually) of shrinking to fit the printer margins. If you send a
PDF label set, you need to remind the recipient to print them full size.
I've run into this problem several times where my carefully crafted PDFs
aren't printed the way I designed them.


In this case, IMO, the creator of the PDF should be aware of the 
potential margin issue and set them accordingly.  So far, I've never 
been burned that I know of by using .5" margins except with the top 
margin of the 8167 labels.


So there should be no need for shrink to fit unless we are talking a 
totally different page size.


But it's awful hard to break people's mindset and get them to switch 
to PDF.  "Oh, if we are going to share and work with the same thing, 
we both have to have MS Word."  Or WordPerfect.  Or Lotus' word 
processor in the old days, I can't remember the name. At one time, 
this was absolutely true.  But it's no longer a mandatory thing with 
PDF on the scene.


There will be situations where where Word, or Excel, or  will 
be required.  But it's because that software is already in use across 
the enterprise.  It's not because it's the only software that will do 
the job.


That's not the issue. Sometimes you want something to occupy the full 
page for professional printing but people use their home printers instead.


As for using the same software, that doesn't solve problems if the 
person doesn't have the same fonts installed that you do. The PDF format 
removes the requirement to stick to common fonts.


Similarly the ISO standard Open Document formats that LibreOffice uses 
allow documents to used by other programs, including the M$ ones. They 
may not look the same, but will at least be exchangeable and editable.











There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label
properties.
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly
what you
need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


In the end, I'll probably do this.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the
last two may be different if there is space between the labels) 
and do

the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and
columns.

If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file 
a bug
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's 
better to

light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


In this case, the label spec is correct.  Font design will have to
have a factor in this someway too, I suspect.


It shouldn't unless LO calculates the position of the next label
relative to the end of the previous text. It would seem more natural
(and simpler) to calculate in absolute terms.


Upon retrospect, I agree.  But it is something you have to be
cognizant of when designing the label, as it can affect the apparent
vertical centering of text on the label.  Which can effect what you
think may be happening with label output.  In my case, the label
includes a graphic, which is unaffected by text positioning. Makes it
easy to figure out where the problem is likely to be.

Another overall negative effect of this problem is, you have to ask
yourself, if this is broken, what else in the suite is broken?
Especially if you are using LO to make a living.  Is there another
feature I use in Writer that doesn't work correctly?  What if one or
two functions in the spreadsheet calculate incorrectly?  What if Base
occasionally mangles your data?

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all! 



I've yet to find software that is perfect (except of course for what I
develop  ;)  ).  Big suites like LO will have the occasional bug but
I've never found one that was more than an annoyance.


It's an annoyance if you can find a workaround.  It's a problem if 
there's no workaround, and it's something you need to get your job done.


And, if it was something I produced, I won't be happy until it's 
fixed.  "Close enough" just doesn't work for me in a lot of cases.


You did find a workaround though. As for perfection, the universe 
wouldn't exist if there was such a thing.


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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/10/16 4:27 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 10/02/16 12:01 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 8:28 AM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:







PDF is a great way to exchange documents but it has an interesting print
option (usually) of shrinking to fit the printer margins. If you send a
PDF label set, you need to remind the recipient to print them full size.
I've run into this problem several times where my carefully crafted PDFs
aren't printed the way I designed them.


In this case, IMO, the creator of the PDF should be aware of the 
potential margin issue and set them accordingly.  So far, I've never 
been burned that I know of by using .5" margins except with the top 
margin of the 8167 labels.


So there should be no need for shrink to fit unless we are talking a 
totally different page size.


But it's awful hard to break people's mindset and get them to switch to 
PDF.  "Oh, if we are going to share and work with the same thing, we 
both have to have MS Word."  Or WordPerfect.  Or Lotus' word processor 
in the old days, I can't remember the name.  At one time, this was 
absolutely true.  But it's no longer a mandatory thing with PDF on the 
scene.


There will be situations where where Word, or Excel, or   will 
be required.  But it's because that software is already in use across 
the enterprise.  It's not because it's the only software that will do 
the job.









There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label
properties.
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly
what you
need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


In the end, I'll probably do this.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the
last two may be different if there is space between the labels) and do
the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and
columns.

If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file a bug
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's better to
light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


In this case, the label spec is correct.  Font design will have to
have a factor in this someway too, I suspect.


It shouldn't unless LO calculates the position of the next label
relative to the end of the previous text. It would seem more natural
(and simpler) to calculate in absolute terms.


Upon retrospect, I agree.  But it is something you have to be
cognizant of when designing the label, as it can affect the apparent
vertical centering of text on the label.  Which can effect what you
think may be happening with label output.  In my case, the label
includes a graphic, which is unaffected by text positioning.  Makes it
easy to figure out where the problem is likely to be.

Another overall negative effect of this problem is, you have to ask
yourself, if this is broken, what else in the suite is broken?
Especially if you are using LO to make a living.  Is there another
feature I use in Writer that doesn't work correctly?  What if one or
two functions in the spreadsheet calculate incorrectly?  What if Base
occasionally mangles your data?

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all!  



I've yet to find software that is perfect (except of course for what I
develop  ;)  ).  Big suites like LO will have the occasional bug but
I've never found one that was more than an annoyance.


It's an annoyance if you can find a workaround.  It's a problem if 
there's no workaround, and it's something you need to get your job done.


And, if it was something I produced, I won't be happy until it's fixed. 
 "Close enough" just doesn't work for me in a lot of cases.




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
 and it's gone!"


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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/10/16 3:19 PM, libreoffice-ml.mbou...@spamgourmet.com wrote:

Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 8:28 AM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:

I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of
setting my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with the
template specs didn't do the job.




I've occasionally found problems with the labels but they are minor.
For
small labels, like return-address labels, the print V. Pitch may be a
little off so the labels creep up or down a little as you go down the
page.


I think this could also occur due to printer's paper feed abilities.
In this case, the error is consistent.

Are you referring to the page slipping on the rollers? That would likely
produce inconsistent results. If the labels are simply off consistently,
that would be the top margin. If they vary consistently down that page,
that would be vertical pitch.


Slippage in the rollers is what I was thinking of.

In my case, the error is consistent, so slippage is not problem.

Telling the printer where to actually start the printing appears to be
the issue.  We'll call it the top margin for convenience, but even that
has it's own issues.  Since the driver is TWAIN, the brand of printer
shouldn't make a difference as long as the printer manufacturer doesn't
screw up the driver.

Time to "expand our horizons".  (Sounds like a motivational speaker,
doesn't it?   LOL)

LO's built-in template, displayed on the screen, is correct.  The
paper's top margin is .5" on the screen and in real life.  Positioning
of the text is also correct, as displayed on the screen.

Only printing is in error.

Now...  Suppose you are creating X number of label designs for someone
else.  They don't have LO, how to you get the labels to them?  Today, I
think almost everyone's answer would be PDF.


You may already realise, but in case not... Adobe Reader has an option
to "Shrink oversized pages" when printing.


Every PDF reader I've toyed with has  that option for scaling.  Useful 
if you receive something that was created for 11 X 17 paper, and all you 
have is 8.5 X11.  In which case, I would expect a bit of error, not to 
mention difficulty in reading text that may be on the page.



You might not expect that to
do anything when printing an A4 PDF printing onto A4 paper, but it
actually shrinks the page slightly to allow for the non-printable
margins around the page. To get a 1:1 scale print you have to select
"Actual size". It remembers the last setting you use, so you have to
remember to check what's it's set to each time.


I would submit, that the person who created the PDF, should have 
considered non-printable margins.  Which is why I always use margins 
that I'm sure all printers can handle, at least to the best of my knowledge.



Fair enough, but that doesn't work either.  If you create the PDF with
the default template settings, which are correct, the resulting PDF file
is also in error.  I tried it.  Same vertical offset issue.


Is the vertical offset incorrect on screen as well as when printed? When
I first read that, I thought you meant it was wrong on-screen as well,
but from your discussion below it sounds like the PDF is displayed with
the correct margin, but prints with the wrong margin?


If the onscreen display of the margins for 8167 labels is correct, the 
printed output is incorrect, from both LO and PDF.  If the onscreen 
margins are incorrect (to the needed amount of course), the printed 
output is correct, from both LO and PDF.



So you change the top margin, create the PDF, and yep, labels print
correctly.

What's wrong with this?

In the above scenario, the recipient of the PDF may/can/will look at the
labels before printing them, to see if they are correct.  (If they
don't, they aren't doing their job.)  Guess what?  They'll see the top
margin error, more easily spotted if you have a vertical ruler option.
If you send a PDF based on the correct template (the one supplied by
LO), the printing will be off.  If you send a PDF based on a modified
template, the visual display on the screen will be off.


So if you have a PDF which displays on screen with the correct margin,
but when printed it has the wrong margin?


Yep.   


To get it to print with the
correct margin, you have to produce a PDF which displays with an
incorrect margin?


Yep.

< Assuming you're printing the PDF at actual size, that

would suggest the printer or its driver is in error (unless your PDF
reader has the same issue as LibreOffice). Once LibreOffice has created
a PDF, it has nothing to do with any difference between how the PDF
reader displays and prints it.


Unless the error is embedded in the PDF.   :-)

I hadn't considered the printer driver to be the problem, since t

[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/10/16 1:18 PM, Virgil Arrington wrote:

Ken Springer wrote

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all!  



About 25 years ago, I was the treasurer of my children's preschool. I
created a spreadsheet to calculate paychecks, and I found that the
paycheck was consistently off by .01 (a penny). It drove me nuts. As it
turned out, one part of the calculation required the division of 28 by
7, which every third grader knows is 4. Well, my spreadsheet gave an
answer of 3.99_. By itself, it wasn't a big problem, but later
in the chain of operations, the 3.9_ produced a result that rounded
*down* to the nearest penny instead of *up*, which it would have done if
the 28/7 had resulted in 4 instead of 3.. I complained to a computer
friend of mine who tried to explain that the computer's answer was more
"precise" than my mental math of 28/7=4. I didn't buy it.


I wouldn't buy it either.  I don't care how someone tries to explain it, 
the result is wrong.  Pure and simple.  Just try pulling that response 
on a grade school teacher, and you're going home with an "F".


How something can be more "precise" than the correct answer is beyond me.

I can see the future now...  "Captain Kirk, sorry, we missed the planet 
by 10 million miles.  Our computer divided 28 by 7 and says the answer 
is 3.9..."LOL


Wrong is wrong, I don't care how somebody wishes to justify it.


I learned a valuable lesson in blindly accepting a computer's
calculation simply because it was made by a computer.

Virgil




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
 and it's gone!"


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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Gary Dale

On 10/02/16 12:01 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 8:28 AM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:

I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of
setting my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with 
the

template specs didn't do the job.




I've occasionally found problems with the labels but they are 
minor. For

small labels, like return-address labels, the print V. Pitch may be a
little off so the labels creep up or down a little as you go down the
page.


I think this could also occur due to printer's paper feed abilities.
In this case, the error is consistent.

Are you referring to the page slipping on the rollers? That would likely
produce inconsistent results. If the labels are simply off consistently,
that would be the top margin. If they vary consistently down that page,
that would be vertical pitch.


Slippage in the rollers is what I was thinking of.

In my case, the error is consistent, so slippage is not problem.

Telling the printer where to actually start the printing appears to be 
the issue.  We'll call it the top margin for convenience, but even 
that has it's own issues.  Since the driver is TWAIN, the brand of 
printer shouldn't make a difference as long as the printer 
manufacturer doesn't screw up the driver.


Time to "expand our horizons".  (Sounds like a motivational speaker, 
doesn't it?   LOL)


LO's built-in template, displayed on the screen, is correct.  The 
paper's top margin is .5" on the screen and in real life. Positioning 
of the text is also correct, as displayed on the screen.


Only printing is in error.

Now...  Suppose you are creating X number of label designs for someone 
else.  They don't have LO, how to you get the labels to them?  Today, 
I think almost everyone's answer would be PDF.


Fair enough, but that doesn't work either.  If you create the PDF with 
the default template settings, which are correct, the resulting PDF 
file is also in error.  I tried it.  Same vertical offset issue.


So you change the top margin, create the PDF, and yep, labels print 
correctly.


What's wrong with this?

In the above scenario, the recipient of the PDF may/can/will look at 
the labels before printing them, to see if they are correct. (If they 
don't, they aren't doing their job.)  Guess what? They'll see the top 
margin error, more easily spotted if you have a vertical ruler option. 
If you send a PDF based on the correct template (the one supplied by 
LO), the printing will be off.  If you send a PDF based on a modified 
template, the visual display on the screen will be off.


In this situation, LO falls on its face in providing WYSIWYG... What 
You See Is What You Get.  One of the principals in modern computers. 
What is displayed on the screen is what is supposed to come out of the 
printer or other device.


This is no different than if you had the font set for 12 points, but 
the output to either screen or printer was 16 points.  Not a good 
thing in the long run.



PDF is a great way to exchange documents but it has an interesting print 
option (usually) of shrinking to fit the printer margins. If you send a 
PDF label set, you need to remind the recipient to print them full size. 
I've run into this problem several times where my carefully crafted PDFs 
aren't printed the way I designed them.








There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label 
properties.
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly 
what you

need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


In the end, I'll probably do this.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the
last two may be different if there is space between the labels) and do
the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and
columns.

If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file a bug
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's better to
light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


In this case, the label spec is correct.  Font design will have to
have a factor in this someway too, I suspect.


It shouldn't unless LO calculates the position of the next label
relative to the end of the previous text. It would seem more natural
(and simpler) to calculate in absolute terms.


Upon retrospect, I agree.  But it is something you have to be 
cognizant of when designing the label, as it can affect the apparent 
vertical centering of text on the label.  Which can effect what you 
think may be happe

Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Virgil Arrington
Thanks for the explanation. Oddly enough, it makes some sense, even to 
my non-techy brain. What I found interesting was that, in the 
spreadsheet, I got the "wrong" 3., but I wrote a simple BASIC 
program on my beloved Tandy Model 100 and got the "correct" answer of 4. 
I was excited to see that my little first generation laptop gave better 
results than my state of the art (for the time) PC.


Virgil


On 02/10/2016 06:01 PM, libreoffice-ml.mbou...@spamgourmet.com wrote:

Virgil Arrington wrote:

Ken Springer wrote

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all! 



About 25 years ago, I was the treasurer of my children's preschool. I
created a spreadsheet to calculate paychecks, and I found that the
paycheck was consistently off by .01 (a penny). It drove me nuts. As it
turned out, one part of the calculation required the division of 28 by
7, which every third grader knows is 4. Well, my spreadsheet gave an
answer of 3.99_. By itself, it wasn't a big problem, but later
in the chain of operations, the 3.9_ produced a result that rounded
*down* to the nearest penny instead of *up*, which it would have done if
the 28/7 had resulted in 4 instead of 3.. I complained to a computer
friend of mine who tried to explain that the computer's answer was more
"precise" than my mental math of 28/7=4. I didn't buy it.


I wouldn't say 3.999... is more precise, but it sounds like your 
problem is related to the precision of floating-point numbers. 1/7, 
when represented in binary, is a recurring fraction 0.001001001... 
(like how 1/3 is 0.... in decimal), so cannot be represented 
precisely in binary with a finite number of bits (just as you can add 
as many '3's as you like to 0., but it still doesn't exactly 
represent 1/3).


I don't think there should be a problem with calculating 28/7 = 4 as a 
single floating point operation, but if the calculation was done 
(either in the way your formula was expressed or the way the 
application processed it) as (1/7)*28, that may well give a slightly 
inaccurate result due to rounding of the (1/7). A bit like calculating 
1/3 to 0.333, then multiplying that by 12 to get 3.996 instead of 4. 
If using a round-down function, and the result was slightly less than 
4, it would round down to 3. I guess the solution was to round to the 
nearest integer.



I learned a valuable lesson in blindly accepting a computer's
calculation simply because it was made by a computer.


Indeed. They do exactly what they're told by a combination of 
hardware, software and user input - but for various reasons that might 
not amount to what you thought you were telling it to do.


Mark.





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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread libreoffice-ml . mbourne

Virgil Arrington wrote:

Ken Springer wrote

I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all!  



About 25 years ago, I was the treasurer of my children's preschool. I
created a spreadsheet to calculate paychecks, and I found that the
paycheck was consistently off by .01 (a penny). It drove me nuts. As it
turned out, one part of the calculation required the division of 28 by
7, which every third grader knows is 4. Well, my spreadsheet gave an
answer of 3.99_. By itself, it wasn't a big problem, but later
in the chain of operations, the 3.9_ produced a result that rounded
*down* to the nearest penny instead of *up*, which it would have done if
the 28/7 had resulted in 4 instead of 3.. I complained to a computer
friend of mine who tried to explain that the computer's answer was more
"precise" than my mental math of 28/7=4. I didn't buy it.


I wouldn't say 3.999... is more precise, but it sounds like your 
problem is related to the precision of floating-point numbers. 1/7, when 
represented in binary, is a recurring fraction 0.001001001... (like how 
1/3 is 0.... in decimal), so cannot be represented precisely in 
binary with a finite number of bits (just as you can add as many '3's as 
you like to 0., but it still doesn't exactly represent 1/3).


I don't think there should be a problem with calculating 28/7 = 4 as a 
single floating point operation, but if the calculation was done (either 
in the way your formula was expressed or the way the application 
processed it) as (1/7)*28, that may well give a slightly inaccurate 
result due to rounding of the (1/7). A bit like calculating 1/3 to 
0.333, then multiplying that by 12 to get 3.996 instead of 4. If using a 
round-down function, and the result was slightly less than 4, it would 
round down to 3. I guess the solution was to round to the nearest integer.



I learned a valuable lesson in blindly accepting a computer's
calculation simply because it was made by a computer.


Indeed. They do exactly what they're told by a combination of hardware, 
software and user input - but for various reasons that might not amount 
to what you thought you were telling it to do.


Mark.


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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread libreoffice-ml . mbourne

Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/10/16 8:28 AM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:

I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of
setting my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with the
template specs didn't do the job.




I've occasionally found problems with the labels but they are minor.
For
small labels, like return-address labels, the print V. Pitch may be a
little off so the labels creep up or down a little as you go down the
page.


I think this could also occur due to printer's paper feed abilities.
In this case, the error is consistent.

Are you referring to the page slipping on the rollers? That would likely
produce inconsistent results. If the labels are simply off consistently,
that would be the top margin. If they vary consistently down that page,
that would be vertical pitch.


Slippage in the rollers is what I was thinking of.

In my case, the error is consistent, so slippage is not problem.

Telling the printer where to actually start the printing appears to be
the issue.  We'll call it the top margin for convenience, but even that
has it's own issues.  Since the driver is TWAIN, the brand of printer
shouldn't make a difference as long as the printer manufacturer doesn't
screw up the driver.

Time to "expand our horizons".  (Sounds like a motivational speaker,
doesn't it?   LOL)

LO's built-in template, displayed on the screen, is correct.  The
paper's top margin is .5" on the screen and in real life.  Positioning
of the text is also correct, as displayed on the screen.

Only printing is in error.

Now...  Suppose you are creating X number of label designs for someone
else.  They don't have LO, how to you get the labels to them?  Today, I
think almost everyone's answer would be PDF.


You may already realise, but in case not... Adobe Reader has an option 
to "Shrink oversized pages" when printing. You might not expect that to 
do anything when printing an A4 PDF printing onto A4 paper, but it 
actually shrinks the page slightly to allow for the non-printable 
margins around the page. To get a 1:1 scale print you have to select 
"Actual size". It remembers the last setting you use, so you have to 
remember to check what's it's set to each time.



Fair enough, but that doesn't work either.  If you create the PDF with
the default template settings, which are correct, the resulting PDF file
is also in error.  I tried it.  Same vertical offset issue.


Is the vertical offset incorrect on screen as well as when printed? When 
I first read that, I thought you meant it was wrong on-screen as well, 
but from your discussion below it sounds like the PDF is displayed with 
the correct margin, but prints with the wrong margin?



So you change the top margin, create the PDF, and yep, labels print
correctly.

What's wrong with this?

In the above scenario, the recipient of the PDF may/can/will look at the
labels before printing them, to see if they are correct.  (If they
don't, they aren't doing their job.)  Guess what?  They'll see the top
margin error, more easily spotted if you have a vertical ruler option.
If you send a PDF based on the correct template (the one supplied by
LO), the printing will be off.  If you send a PDF based on a modified
template, the visual display on the screen will be off.


So if you have a PDF which displays on screen with the correct margin, 
but when printed it has the wrong margin? To get it to print with the 
correct margin, you have to produce a PDF which displays with an 
incorrect margin? Assuming you're printing the PDF at actual size, that 
would suggest the printer or its driver is in error (unless your PDF 
reader has the same issue as LibreOffice). Once LibreOffice has created 
a PDF, it has nothing to do with any difference between how the PDF 
reader displays and prints it.


If you open a PDF created from a completely different application, does 
that also print with different margins than when displayed on-screen?


Can you try printing your LibreOffice document and/or PDF on a different 
printer? Rather than wasting labels, you could of course print on plain 
paper and hold it up against the labels ;o)



I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they finally
admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to the rare
occurrence, it did not go over well at all!  


How many Pentium designers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
1.99904274017, but that's close enough for non-technical people.
;o)

Mark.


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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Virgil Arrington

Ken Springer wrote
I remember years ago when Intel turned out a chip that had an error in 
it's math calculations.  It was a rare happening, but when they 
finally admitted it publicly, trying to say it wasn't important do to 
the rare occurrence, it did not go over well at all!  




About 25 years ago, I was the treasurer of my children's preschool. I 
created a spreadsheet to calculate paychecks, and I found that the 
paycheck was consistently off by .01 (a penny). It drove me nuts. As it 
turned out, one part of the calculation required the division of 28 by 
7, which every third grader knows is 4. Well, my spreadsheet gave an 
answer of 3.99_. By itself, it wasn't a big problem, but later 
in the chain of operations, the 3.9_ produced a result that rounded 
*down* to the nearest penny instead of *up*, which it would have done if 
the 28/7 had resulted in 4 instead of 3.. I complained to a computer 
friend of mine who tried to explain that the computer's answer was more 
"precise" than my mental math of 28/7=4. I didn't buy it.


I learned a valuable lesson in blindly accepting a computer's 
calculation simply because it was made by a computer.


Virgil

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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/10/16 8:28 AM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:

I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of
setting my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with the
template specs didn't do the job.




I've occasionally found problems with the labels but they are minor. For
small labels, like return-address labels, the print V. Pitch may be a
little off so the labels creep up or down a little as you go down the
page.


I think this could also occur due to printer's paper feed abilities.
In this case, the error is consistent.

Are you referring to the page slipping on the rollers? That would likely
produce inconsistent results. If the labels are simply off consistently,
that would be the top margin. If they vary consistently down that page,
that would be vertical pitch.


Slippage in the rollers is what I was thinking of.

In my case, the error is consistent, so slippage is not problem.

Telling the printer where to actually start the printing appears to be 
the issue.  We'll call it the top margin for convenience, but even that 
has it's own issues.  Since the driver is TWAIN, the brand of printer 
shouldn't make a difference as long as the printer manufacturer doesn't 
screw up the driver.


Time to "expand our horizons".  (Sounds like a motivational speaker, 
doesn't it?   LOL)


LO's built-in template, displayed on the screen, is correct.  The 
paper's top margin is .5" on the screen and in real life.  Positioning 
of the text is also correct, as displayed on the screen.


Only printing is in error.

Now...  Suppose you are creating X number of label designs for someone 
else.  They don't have LO, how to you get the labels to them?  Today, I 
think almost everyone's answer would be PDF.


Fair enough, but that doesn't work either.  If you create the PDF with 
the default template settings, which are correct, the resulting PDF file 
is also in error.  I tried it.  Same vertical offset issue.


So you change the top margin, create the PDF, and yep, labels print 
correctly.


What's wrong with this?

In the above scenario, the recipient of the PDF may/can/will look at the 
labels before printing them, to see if they are correct.  (If they 
don't, they aren't doing their job.)  Guess what?  They'll see the top 
margin error, more easily spotted if you have a vertical ruler option. 
If you send a PDF based on the correct template (the one supplied by 
LO), the printing will be off.  If you send a PDF based on a modified 
template, the visual display on the screen will be off.


In this situation, LO falls on its face in providing WYSIWYG...  What 
You See Is What You Get.  One of the principals in modern computers. 
What is displayed on the screen is what is supposed to come out of the 
printer or other device.


This is no different than if you had the font set for 12 points, but the 
output to either screen or printer was 16 points.  Not a good thing in 
the long run.





There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label properties.
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly what you
need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


In the end, I'll probably do this.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the
last two may be different if there is space between the labels) and do
the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and
columns.

If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file a bug
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's better to
light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


In this case, the label spec is correct.  Font design will have to
have a factor in this someway too, I suspect.


It shouldn't unless LO calculates the position of the next label
relative to the end of the previous text. It would seem more natural
(and simpler) to calculate in absolute terms.


Upon retrospect, I agree.  But it is something you have to be cognizant 
of when designing the label, as it can affect the apparent vertical 
centering of text on the label.  Which can effect what you think may be 
happening with label output.  In my case, the label includes a graphic, 
which is unaffected by text positioning.  Makes it easy to figure out 
where the problem is likely to be.


Another overall negative effect of this problem is, you have to ask 
yourself, if this is broken, what else in the suite is broken? 
Especially if you are using LO to make a living.  Is there another 
feature I 

Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-10 Thread Gary Dale

On 09/02/16 11:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:

I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of
setting my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with the
template specs didn't do the job.




I've occasionally found problems with the labels but they are minor. For
small labels, like return-address labels, the print V. Pitch may be a
little off so the labels creep up or down a little as you go down the 
page.


I think this could also occur due to printer's paper feed abilities.  
In this case, the error is consistent.
Are you referring to the page slipping on the rollers? That would likely 
produce inconsistent results. If the labels are simply off consistently, 
that would be the top margin. If they vary consistently down that page, 
that would be vertical pitch.





There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label properties.
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly what you
need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


In the end, I'll probably do this.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the
last two may be different if there is space between the labels) and do
the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and 
columns.


If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file a bug
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's better to
light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


In this case, the label spec is correct.  Font design will have to 
have a factor in this someway too, I suspect.


It shouldn't unless LO calculates the position of the next label 
relative to the end of the previous text. It would seem more natural 
(and simpler) to calculate in absolute terms.


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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-09 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/9/16 2:23 PM, Gary Dale wrote:

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:

I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of
setting my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with the
template specs didn't do the job.




I've occasionally found problems with the labels but they are minor. For
small labels, like return-address labels, the print V. Pitch may be a
little off so the labels creep up or down a little as you go down the page.


I think this could also occur due to printer's paper feed abilities.  In 
this case, the error is consistent.



There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label properties.
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly what you
need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


In the end, I'll probably do this.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the
last two may be different if there is space between the labels) and do
the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and columns.

If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file a bug
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's better to
light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


In this case, the label spec is correct.  Font design will have to have 
a factor in this someway too, I suspect.




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
 and it's gone!"


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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-09 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/9/16 1:15 PM, Virgil Arrington wrote:

I have found that, at least with 8160 labels, LO works whereas AOO does
not. I realize that's not your issue, but at least *one* of the label
forms seems to work better than with LO than with AOO giving me the
impression that the LO developers have been a little more proactive in
chasing down label issues than the AOO developers.

I've often found that, with labels, I sometimes have to make small
adjustments. For example, I've sometimes inserted a small 8 point blank
paragraph at the top of a cell to move the actual address down a
smidgen. I sometimes do this in the cells themselves or in the "Label
text" dialog box underwhen I'm doing a merge from
a database. I've also been known to insert a space or two before each
line in the address form, just to move it in from the left margin a bit
as so: (I realize the spaces won't show up in an email so I've typed in
"" to represent blank spaces that I insert with the space bar.)


I've done this a couple of times, and in places other than LO labels. 
In these cases, the printed error was so small I attributed it to 
differences in manufacturing of printer and/or label.



¶
<2014.Sheet1.0.First name> <2014.Sheet1.0.Last name>
<2014.Sheet1.0.Street>
<2014.Sheet1.0.City>, <2014.Sheet1.0.State>  <2014.Sheet1.0.Zip>

I realize these solutions are a bit of a cobble, but when you have to
get the job done, you just do what you have to do and worry about bug
reports later. My problem is that I only do this about once a year (for
Christmas cards) and lose interest in the issues once I'm done.


When it comes to work, I want my "tools" to work, and not have to 
fiddle-fart around and waste my time.  I'd rather pay a reasonable price 
for something that works rather than fiddle here, fiddle there, fiddle 
somewhere else to get it to work.


From the aspect of doing the code for this, if this was my work and it 
didn't work, I'd keep after it until it was fixed.  It's a source of 
pride for me.


I can fiddle with the upper margin and "make it work", a cobble, a 
workaround, but that's not the point.  It's supposed to be a feature, 
therefore, it's reasonable for a user to expect it to work.


And to recreate a page full of labels isn't going to be fun.  Each label 
has a graphic included, and with no way to Ctrl/CMD A to select all and 
then copy and paste all, I'll have to do all the labels again.


Unless someone has an answer to that.

Is there a way to swap label templates in an existing doc?



Virgil






On 02/09/2016 01:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/6/16 1:16 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

Printing is off the mark vertically by about an eighth of an inch
vertically, lower on the page than correct.

Labels print fine on Avery 8160.

No adjustments of any kind to the template was made.

LO 4.4.7.2


FWFW, it doesn't work in the latest version of Open Office, either.  :-(








--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
 and it's gone!"


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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-09 Thread Gary Dale

On 09/02/16 03:23 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:
I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried 
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments 
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of 
setting my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with the 
template specs didn't do the job.





I've occasionally found problems with the labels but they are minor. For 
small labels, like return-address labels, the print V. Pitch may be a 
little off so the labels creep up or down a little as you go down the page.


There used to be a problem with multi-column labels but they seem to 
have redone the label specification to correct that. When creating 
labels, there is "Format" tab that lets you adjust the label properties. 
In its new incarnation, it is easy to use and gives you exactly what you 
need to adjust the properties of incorrectly specified common label 
formats down to 1/100 of an inch.


You can specify the top margin, label height and vertical pitch (the 
last two may be different if there is space between the labels) and do 
the same for the left margin, label width and horizontal pitch. They 
also allow you to specify the page size and the number of rows and columns.


If you think a label isn't defined correctly, fix it. Also, file a bug 
report so that the developers can fix it for everyone. It's better to 
light a candle or two than to curse the darkness.


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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-09 Thread Dave Liesse
I've never had any luck with any of the Avery templates I've tried 
(although my problem has been mostly with left-to-right adjustments 
rather than top-to-bottom).  I finally just got in the habit of setting 
my paragraph position as 1/8" into the label; fooling with the template 
specs didn't do the job.




On 2/9/2016 10:39, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/6/16 1:16 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

Printing is off the mark vertically by about an eighth of an inch
vertically, lower on the page than correct.

Labels print fine on Avery 8160.

No adjustments of any kind to the template was made.

LO 4.4.7.2


FWFW, it doesn't work in the latest version of Open Office, either.  :-(





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Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-09 Thread Virgil Arrington
I have found that, at least with 8160 labels, LO works whereas AOO does 
not. I realize that's not your issue, but at least *one* of the label 
forms seems to work better than with LO than with AOO giving me the 
impression that the LO developers have been a little more proactive in 
chasing down label issues than the AOO developers.


I've often found that, with labels, I sometimes have to make small 
adjustments. For example, I've sometimes inserted a small 8 point blank 
paragraph at the top of a cell to move the actual address down a 
smidgen. I sometimes do this in the cells themselves or in the "Label 
text" dialog box underwhen I'm doing a merge from 
a database. I've also been known to insert a space or two before each 
line in the address form, just to move it in from the left margin a bit 
as so: (I realize the spaces won't show up in an email so I've typed in 
"" to represent blank spaces that I insert with the space bar.)


¶
<2014.Sheet1.0.First name> <2014.Sheet1.0.Last name>
<2014.Sheet1.0.Street>
<2014.Sheet1.0.City>, <2014.Sheet1.0.State>  <2014.Sheet1.0.Zip>

I realize these solutions are a bit of a cobble, but when you have to 
get the job done, you just do what you have to do and worry about bug 
reports later. My problem is that I only do this about once a year (for 
Christmas cards) and lose interest in the issues once I'm done.


Virgil






On 02/09/2016 01:39 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

On 2/6/16 1:16 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

Printing is off the mark vertically by about an eighth of an inch
vertically, lower on the page than correct.

Labels print fine on Avery 8160.

No adjustments of any kind to the template was made.

LO 4.4.7.2


FWFW, it doesn't work in the latest version of Open Office, either.  :-(





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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-09 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/6/16 1:16 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

Printing is off the mark vertically by about an eighth of an inch
vertically, lower on the page than correct.

Labels print fine on Avery 8160.

No adjustments of any kind to the template was made.

LO 4.4.7.2


FWFW, it doesn't work in the latest version of Open Office, either.  :-(


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
 and it's gone!"


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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-08 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/6/16 1:16 PM, Ken Springer wrote:

Printing is off the mark vertically by about an eighth of an inch
vertically, lower on the page than correct.

Labels print fine on Avery 8160.

No adjustments of any kind to the template was made.

LO 4.4.7.2


Downloaded and tried 5.0.4.  Believe it or not, things are even worse.

Three quarters of the text on each label is now bold.  Nothing was bold 
in the document I created in 4.4.7.2.


Now, maybe there's a way to select all the text in all the labels at one 
time to change everything to bold or bold off, but I can't find it.  So 
at the moment, I'm changing the attributes one label at a time.  CMD-A, 
CMD-B, spinning beach ball.  Repeat next label.  Same result.  Each and 
every time.


Exporting as PDF via LO has the same result, labels are off vertically. 
 Saving as a PDF from Apple's print dialogue, same result, labels are 
off vertically.


I started with LO 3.x.x., labels didn't work then either.  I know not 
what the problem is with the coding, but by now all the kinks should 
have been worked out.  The labels certainly haven't changed.


I just tried it in 5.0.4 Windows 7.  Same results.

This is why I no longer recommend LO to anyone, and use it only minimally.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
 and it's gone!"


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[libreoffice-users] Re: Avery 8167 label printing

2016-02-06 Thread Ken Springer

On 2/6/16 3:14 PM, Thomas Taylor wrote:

On Sat, 6 Feb 2016 13:16:08 -0700
Ken Springer  wrote:


Printing is off the mark vertically by about an eighth of an inch
vertically, lower on the page than correct.

Labels print fine on Avery 8160.

No adjustments of any kind to the template was made.

LO 4.4.7.2




Hi Ken,
Need more information:
What kind/model label is printing wrong?


Avery 8167   :-)


What template is being used?


Libre Office built in template for Avery 8167


What kind of printer?


Samsung CLP 315W color laser


Where are printer metrics obtained from?


Please define printer metrics.  :-)




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 44.0
Thunderbird 38.0.1
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
 and it's gone!"


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