Label and Custom Paper Printing with Kappris

The Kappris printer driver has a large selection of common paper sizes built in. It knows about A4, Letter and many more besides.

When you format a document to be A4 and print it via Kappris, the internal EMF is A4-sized, and when Kappris prints the EMF to the target printer it correctly chooses A4.

Clearly, the list of paper sizes built in to the Kappris printer driver cannot contain every possible paper size. For instance, the DYMO LabelWriter 450 can print on labels which are 3.57 × 8.85 cm, but this paper size is not one of the built-in sizes known to the Kappris printer driver.

So if Kappris doesn't know about the label, how is it possible to print via Kappris so that the printout is correct on such a label?

Fortunately, Microsoft anticipated this problem and they came up with the idea of Forms, which is their custom paper sizes solution. You can define a Form of the required size, and the Kappris printer driver will list this new paper size along with all its built-in sizes.

From the 'Printers and Faxes' folder, select File | Server Properties and a dialog opens, looking like these:

The first snap shows a user-defined Form named 'Dymo Label (Kappris)'. You can tell it's user-defined (which means it can be edited or even deleted) because the [Delete] button and the 'Form description' group box are both enabled. By contrast, the second snap shows the built-in Form named '10x11'. It cannot be deleted or modified because its [Delete] button is disabled (greyed out), and so is its 'Form description' group box.

If you define a Form the same size as the required label, say 3.57 × 8.85 cm (with zero-sized Printer area margins) and then start Word, it's possible to format a document that uses the new Form. Then when you print, the generated EMF will be 3.57 × 8.85 cm, and if the target printer driver supports this paper size then it will select the correct paper size and the printout will be correct.

Kappris makes it easy to define and use forms. Although the list of instructions below contains several steps, you only have to run these steps once, and then you can use the form as much as you like.

Steps to define a Kappris form

1. Start the Kappris Control Panel app, kpmgr and create a new 'Paper Type', named 'Address Label' (for instance).
2. Click to the 'Form Dimensions' tab, tick the 'Requires Form' checkbox and enter the dimensions of the form. Dismiss the dialog with [OK].
3. If necessary, Add the label printer to the Printer Profiles list.
4. On the label printer's 'Paper' tab, mark the new 'Address Label' as 'Automatically Select'. Dismiss the dialog with [OK].
5. Create a new Print Mode named 'Label' that uses the new Paper Type. On the 'Printing' tab, the 'Matching Printer profile' list at the bottom of the dialog should change to indicate that the target printer for this print mode is the label printer.
6. Publish the changes.
7. Run the FormSync.exe tool from the C:\Program Files\Kutana\Kappris\Extras folder. This takes form definitions marked as 'Requires Form' (see step 2 above) and currently known only to Kappris, and inserts them into the Windows Form list on the current machine.
8. (Optional Step) Open the 'Print Server Properties' dialog and confirm that there is a new Form named 'Address Label (Kappris)' with the correct dimensions.

Steps to use the form

1. Start your printing app, say WinWord, and create a new document formatted using the new 'Address Label' paper size.
2. Print from the app, specifying the 'Label' print mode.
3. The document will be printed on the label printer.

Once a Form has been defined or modified within kpmgr, your sysadmin needs to arrange for FormSync to run on each machine to pull the new Form definition down to the local machine. You won't be able to use the new/updated form within a printing app unless the local Windows Form list has been updated.

Microsoft Word^® Notes

Suppose you're trying to print a Compliments Slip from Word. Compliments Slip is usually used in landscape orientation; it has the same width as A4 but only a third of the height. Firstly you'll need to follow the steps above to create a Windows Form named 'Compliments Slip (Kappris)' with the correct dimensions. Note here that although you have to define the paper in its Portrait orientation (tall and thin) rather than Landscape (wide and squat):

Then you can use this new Form inside Word. The left-hand snap here shows Word's Page Setup dialog. Note that the Width and Height in the Page Setup dialog agree with the ones in the Print Server Properties | Forms tab.

If you gradually change the Width or Height using the up/down arrows, Word's choice of 'Paper size' will be the Windows Form whose dimensions match most closely. The right-hand snap shows that if you gradually reduce the Width, when it reaches 9.4 cm Word will choose 'Custom Size' instead:

Be warned that if you actually print to Kappris when the page is set to 'Custom size' then the printout will default to A4 size and the printout won't be the size you requested.

This is why you must ensure that there is a named Form with the correct dimensions. If you just dial in the required Width and Height in the Word dialog, but no matching Form exists, then the printout will go to A4 paper instead.

Also, we'd suggest you add the paper from kpmgr, and then you can tell Kappris that the Form is available from the manual feeder:

Manual Feeder

You also need to configure the manual feeder on your target printer, telling the printer the dimensions of the paper you've loaded. Many printers support hot-key paper definitions; at the printer front panel you define a paper type, giving it a name, dimensions and media weight, and then when you actually load Compliments Slip paper into the manual feeder you can just click the hot key to set up the printer correctly. If you don't do this, the printer will use unexpected or default values when it loads from the manual feeder, and the printout may be clipped, incorrectly shifted on the page, or may not print at all. 

Applies to Kappris v1.5.2.2892 and later.