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Printer Settings Ignored and Overwritten when Printing with SENTINEL or the Browser Interface of TEKLYNX CENTRAL – SENTINEL Problem

Summary

This article explains the problem of lost and overwritten printer settings that are set either at the printer or in the printer driver when printing a label from SENTINEL or with the browser interface (BBUI) and what to do about it.

Symptoms

Printing a label design from CODESOFT looks good after printer and/or printer driver settings are fine tuned.  However, after running a print job with the same label through SENTINEL or through the TEKLYNX CENTRAL browser interface (BBUI) causes the label to look different.  Common changes include:

  • Darkness of print increases or decreases
  • Margin (top, bottom, left side, right side or combination) changes
  • Rotation of label changes (typically 180 degrees)

Usually these setting changes stay with the print driver or printer until they are manually changed again or a print job with another label is again sent through using SENTINEL or the TEKLYNX CENTRAL browser interface.

Explanation

Printer settings stored in print driver and/or on the printer can ignored and overwritten after running a print job through SENTINEL or through the browser based interface (BBUI) of TEKLYNX CENTRAL.

Using the print driver settings on the server to overwrite the printer settings stored on the printer is a typical occurrence and often the preferred way of setting up a printing system.  This helps reduce the variability that may be caused by other print jobs changing the settings on the printer.

However, SENTINEL has the ability to override both the printer settings and driver settings by extracting the settings from the label design.  This is not generally recommended.  For TEKLYNX CENTRAL installations, this can be particularly problematic since changing the settings in the label may require a version change in the label design.  This often kicks off a long process of approvals and label retesting.

Solution

As a best practice, we recommend disabling the overwrite feature in SENTINEL (called “Load the printer settings saved in the label”).  In general, we also recommend disabling (i.e. unchecking) the “Load the printer saved in the label” feature as well unless it is specifically needed.

SENTINEL Manager – SENTINEL Properties – Process Tab – CODESOFT Plug – Settings – Options tab

Additional Comments

Related Article:  KBA-01502-W8F5P7 – Disabling the Use of Default Printer Settings in SENTINEL

Author

Dave Klement

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