Is anyone using submicro Boca Printers with Patrons Edge? We are having difficulties loading any logos into the printer following the PE instructions. I would love any help or suggestions from other organizations!

Hi Shannon, We use DataMax printers and when I looked into printing Logos on tickets we found we had to follow the instructions from PE but also had to program our printers individually so that logos can print. The printer language that I encountered was something I couldn't work with and I am still trying to figure it out [6 months later ( thats a whole other story)].Your printers should have come with a disc get your programmer or tech person to have a look! Good luck! RPM

Thank you for your response! I am currently the 'programmer person' :) and we use a Quick Basic program on a Windows 95 laptop hooked to the Bocas to load our images. I was just hoping that someone out there had figured out the PE way to load logos with Boca Printers. Our logos definitely load with the old way - it is just time consuming and we are not able to turn off our printers unless we want to load logos all the time! Thanks again.

We mainly use BOCA printers in the UK. The Tix Printer server programme that is used to manage the printing in PE has the facility to upload images to the BOCA. The 'upload image' option can be found in the 'Settings' part of the Print Server. Images have to be a 1kb pcx file. Let me know if you require more information. Karl Vosper - Blackbaud Europe.

Hello Karl, We were never able to get the Load Image part to work with our Boca Printers. We still had to use an old programme with an extremely old laptop to get our images loaded on the Boca Printer. We are using the old method of loading logos that we used with our old ticketing software, and then the logos are there for PE to access.... BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!

Hi Shannon, Sounds like you have a work around, although I would be curious to know why the Tix Print server method is not working for you. What PE version are you running Shannon? Is it a fairly recent version and if so, have you tried recently??? I know the Tix Print server application does get updated from time to time. Also, what sort of error did you get (if indeed you got an error). Like I say, this is clearly not urgent, but if we could find a definitive answer, that would be helpful to all... Karl.

Hello Karl; Old message, but new user to Blackbaud. We have Boca Micro Plus Thermal Printers. What program are you using to convert your images to pcx and the correct size for uploading to Boca's? What are the actual parameters for sizing the resolution properly for uploading the images. I can upload images using the Blackbaud Print Server, but have not figured out what software to use and how to convert jpg images to the correct pcx size. Thank you for any information. Mike Fickett - Portland, Maine

Hi Mike, We're using Paint Shop Pro 7 to convert our images. I'm guessing that Photo Shop may have some of the same features, but Paint Shop is pretty cheap and serves our needs. In Paint Shop Pro you can decrease the color depth of your images to 2-Color (1 bit) and save them as a pcx file. We try to keep the final images between 15 to 25 KB. There's still a lot of trial and error getting your logos to the correct size for your ticket stock and that can be frustrating and time consuming at first. But once you've done a few, it gets easier. Ray Garcia converts all our logos here and he would be glad to help you out if you go that route. Glad you brought this topic back up. We didn't know about the TixPrint Server option for loading and had been using a Basic program that we wrote over 10 years ago. (Very time consuming!) We just experienced the Eureka moment when we saw how easy it is to use TixPrint Server. Chip Cannon Thomas Nelson Live Events

Thank you Chip for the quick response. The Print Server upload works great. What version of The Patron Edge are you on? I'll see if I can find a Trialware version of Paint Shop Pro to tryout your recommendations. Thank you for your help. Mike [i]--- Edited at 1/17/2008 4:06:01 PM by Mike Fickett[/i]

Paint Shop Pro works very well converting many image formats to the required "The Patron Edge" pcx image format. The settings in Paint Shop Pro will vary; listed are a few standards: 1) Open Image in Paint Shop Pro 2) Go To IMAGE, DECREASE COLOR DEPTH and set to 2 color palette. 3) Go To IMAGE, RESIZE 4) Click on Advanced Settings 5) Uncheck RESIZE ALL LAYERS 6) Check LOCK ASPECT RATIO 7) Resolution should be approximately 70. 8) Use PRINT SIZE and PIXEL DIMENSIONS to size the image per your ticket requirements. 9) FILE SAVE AS image as pcx file to your Image File Folder. 10) Be sure to ALWAYS save the original image and adjust images from original, not the RESIZED image. Re-using the RESIZED image will likely result in distorted images. Upload Image via TIX_PrintServer. Test Images via The Patron Edge Document Design/ Ticket Design and your printer. The Ticket Designer Window is NOT WYSIWYG. Ticket Design requires Trial and Error and Patience. [i]--- Edited at 1/17/2008 4:28:57 PM by Mike Fickett[/i]