Print jobs from the server may print one line, feed a page, then print the next line, and so on. This usually happens when the host application turns transparent printing on at the beginning of each line, then off at the end. TinyTERM versions 4.00 and higher include a workaround to stop this problem.

TinyTERM 4.00-4.12
In TinyTERM’s Printer Setup, check the Manually stop print jobs box. This will make the Stop on key press box available. Check it, too. The next time you print, TinyTERM will hold the print job in memory until you press a key. Then the print job will go to the printer with the correct pagination.

TinyTERM 4.13 and higher
In TinyTERM’s Printer Setup, check the Spool print jobs box. This will make two options available: Print on key press and Print on timeout. Print on key press works the same way Stop on key press does in earlier versions of TinyTERM.

Print on timeout (not available in TinyTERM 4.13) includes a timeout setting, which defaults to five seconds. If you have this option selected, TinyTERM will hold the job until the specified number of seconds go by with no new print data. Then it will release the job all at once. You can adjust the timeout based on how the print job behaves.

CR 21, spool option
CR 145, spool timeout

When TinyTERM is configured to print to DEVICE or “Direct to device,” it can lock the printer port so that other Windows applications can’t use the printer. That’s because TinyTERM directly accesses the printer port in this configuration.

To bypass this, configure TinyTERM to print to PRINTMNGR or “To Windows printer.” This allows Windows to manage the print job and the printer port. Other applications will then be able to print without problem.

Some TinyTERM 3.3 and 4.0 installs had the potential to delete all printers installed in Windows NT. To restore printing functionality in this case, uninstall TinyTERM. Then apply this patch. The patch documentation can be downloaded from this link.

Once the patch is installed, you can reinstall TinyTERM. Do not install the NFS component, as that’s what causes the problem.

When printing the screen or running a transparent print job, the printed output may be too small to be useful. There are three ways to increase the size of the printout, all in TinyTERM’s Printer Setup options:

1) Select the “Direct to device” option. This bypasses the Windows printing system entirely, sending the output straight to an LPT or COM port. You may need to check the “Add Form Feed (FF)” box as well, depending on your printer.

This option will often fail on Windows 2000 or XP, as they handle the printer and serial ports differently. Also, most USB printers require a printer driver, so this option will fail with those as well.

2) Check the “Use Printer Fonts” box in TinyTERM 4.13, or the “Bypass Printer Drivers” box in TinyTERM 4.20 and higher. This still uses the Windows printer system to manage the printout, but doesn’t use the driver itself. This works on all versions of Windows, but still fails with most USB printers due to eliminating the required driver.

3) Click the Setup button for the selected printer. This brings up the Page Setup dialog box. In the upper left are “Lines” and “Columns” boxes, both set to 0. This allows Windows and the printer to configure the print size.

A typical page is 66 lines long and 80 columns wide. Set the Lines and Columns accordingly here, and print a test page. If it’s still too small, decrease the number of columns and lines in Page Setup. If the printout comes out too large, increase one or the other. Experiment with the numbers until you find one that works in your environment.

Any version of TinyTERM or TERM for Windows can use a USB printer, provided the driver is installed in and recognized by Windows. The specifics depend on which version of TinyTERM you have.

TinyTERM 3.x and earlier, also
Any version of TERM for Windows
The USB printer must be the Windows default printer. Set TinyTERM to use PRINTMNGR as its printing device. TinyTERM will then send all printer output to that printer.

TinyTERM 4.00 – 4.12
Select the “To Windows Printer” option in TinyTERM’s Printer Setup dialog. Then click the Setup button to choose the USB printer.

TinyTERM 4.13 and newer
Select the “To Windows Printer” option in TinyTERM’s Printer Setup dialog. Use the drop-down list to select the desired printer. Do not set the “Use printer fonts” or “Bypass printer driver” option.

Unlike parallel printers, there is no hardware port associated with a USB printer. So almost all USB printers require a printer driver to function in Windows. Bypassing the printer driver will usually cause all print jobs to be lost if that option is set.

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