Crystal Reports XI Release 2 SP6 on Windows 7 Not ...

I was wondering if anyone might be able to give me some insights in troubleshooting why Crystal Reports is not using the MICR E-13B fonts that have been tested to work from MS Word in an installation of the Universal PCL 5 Troy driver for an HP 8000 MICR printer on a Windows 7 computer.

Technical information:

Windows 7 32bit O/S

Troy 8000 MICR (HP) printer on LPT1

Crystal Reports 11.5.12.1838

PeopleSoft AP system (version unknown at this time but I can gather that info if needed)

E-13B font & 12 pt is present and selected in Word and Crystal Reports

SAP Managed Tags:
SAP Crystal Reports

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Get a copy of the font that is True Type then it should work.

Don

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Hi Don,

Thanks for the response. To be noted these are True Type fonts designed specifically for the banking industry. I have confirmed with Troy, the manufacturer of the MICR Secure printer, that the installation of recommended fonts and supportive applications have been installed correctly and tested to work in the Window 7 O/S.

This same printer has worked very well for several years now using older versions of Windows, Crystal Reports, and Troy supported applications (ie. The currently running computer that needs to be updated is running Windows XP Pro SP3, Crystal Reports XI Release 2 v11.5.7.636, and the Troy MICR fonts and supportive application.) Our AP department is still using the older computer today because I cannot get the new Windows 7 and Crystal Reports to print their checks using the Troy E-13B MICR font.

The company payable checks, generated by our PeopleSoft application, has the field in them with the bank account information and it is formatted to use the E-13B font as indicated in Crystal Reports. But for whatever reason the reports with the checks in them won't print out the MICR font in that field. I can make a blank report for testing purposes and insert a text field in it inputting the E-13B font characters and it will print them OK. This worked in the Windows XP environment but not Windows 7 environment and I cannot figure out why.

I have troubleshot everything possible with the Troy tech support and all is working from the standpoint that they have control over. It appears to be that Crystal Reports is not playing well because testing in Word or other documents works. And it is the local printer that is suppose to be controlling the fonts, not the application. I am not an expert with Crystal Reports so I don't know what is going on behind the scenes and could use the help of CR experts.

Thanks,

David

Hi David,

If you browse the fonts in CR Designer do you see them? Open up one of the reports and select your field and then format, Font table and drop down...

If not then it's something in Windows not allowing Cr to access them.

Unfortunately R2 is end of life so no way to fix this if it is a CR issue.

Don

Don,

To answer your question, yes the font E-13B shows up in the drop down box and it is selected in the report for that field. Troy wanted me to make sure that the field was big enough also because they noted that if the field was too small it would cause a different font to be chosen. I have tested that also by over exaggerating that field and CR still chooses a different font to print.

I wish I knew how CR is making it's font choices in the programming language. That would most likely give me a clue as to why the E-13B font is not being used. I have searched the Internet exhaustively with no luck of finding anything helpful. I have even tied to run the CRW32.exe in a XP SP3 compatibility mode and made sure the logged on user account had full local admin permissions. All with no luck. Frustrating.

Thanks,

David

Hi David,

I went to this page and got the fonts: http://www.barcodesoft.com/micr_e13b_font.aspx

I copied them to my c:\windows\Fonts folder and now I see them in CR Designer. I'm testing on CR 2008, I no longer have R2 installed.

Ask Troy if they have the Font licensed, I don't recall the exact name but there are flags in the fonts that do not allow users to embed their fonts into various documents. Could be one reason.

Do you have a link I can use to download the font you are using? Assuming there is a demo version available...

Don

Don,

Thank you for all the responses and help so far, I certainly appreciate it. The Troy manufacturer is the producer of printing solutions of all types. I have worked with their products at other places of employment throughout my years of IT experiences. Their systems are built inclusively you might say.

The system we have is an older HP LaserJet 8000 printer modified by them to use a secure printing module that interprets their Troy MICR fonts and toner cartridges. That way it is to be more secure in a bank check printing system because any missing component will result in illegitimate check printing not acceptable by the banks.

So, in short, you install the supplied HP printer driver from their site (http://www.troygroup.com/support/drivers.aspx) (or HP's site), and then unpack the zipped files, copy the appropriate folder of fonts to the root of C: (not in the Windows directory), and then configure the Windows printer to use the specified fonts. I have the detailed installation PDF from Troy. Then basically you can choose the Troy fonts from the applications drop down options when formatting the font.

And as stated earlier this all worked up to the Windows 7 environment. I hope this is somewhat clear. If not I could share more detailed information with you (ie. PDFs, etc) via email if that is possible?

Thanks,

David

Don,

Oops... I forgot to tell you one needs to download the MICR Support Files as well as the driver. My apologizes for that oversight.

Thanks,

David

Hi David,

Not sure why then.... If you can see them in CR Designer then when printing it should work also. But because they are not in the usual \windows\font folder it could be the PrintSpooler is not able to access them when CR is generating the output.

Could even be your AV or Firewall software blocking access to the root folder.

Try running ProcessMonitor, from Microsoft, and possibly the logs will show you why or at least where the fonts are being loaded from.

Kind of scarry but try sharing the root c:\, could be the printer is denied access to them somewhere along the process. The logs files should show an Access Denied or Error when the Driver tries to load them.

Does any other program work when printing?

Don

Hi Don,

Sorry for the delay... I am back to working on this issue again. The AP Dept. has a working XP Pro computer that they are using to print the checks so it is not a major issue. But that computer is dated and needs to be replaced so that is why I am working on this to try and get the new Windows 7 computer to work with the system.

In the HP driver used in Windows 7, which is a Universal PCL 5 drivers, there is no DIMMs confuguration to add the Troy MICR fonts like there was in the XP HP driver (PCL 5e). So in the HP Universal driver you have to add the MICR fonts in the Device Settings tab under Font Substitution Table > External Fonts.

I am wondering how CR embeds or calls it's fonts when it gets sent to the printer? Because the printer is supposed to be controlling or substituting the font. It works in Word and other MS Office applications but CR doesn't seem to play nice.

The Troy MICR supportive fonts folder, which Troy recommends to be located on the root of C:, is configured to give authenticated users Modify permissions. I have even tested it using a domain admin account that has Full permissions to the O/S. So I am thinking it is not a permissions issue.

I am still leaning toward the process of CR and how it uses or sends the Troy MICR E-13B font embedded in the check report to the printer. That process I don't understand.

Thanks,

David

Hi Guys,

I went through your above messages and observed that I am facing exactly the same issue; I have tried all workaround but no luck.

Were you able to find the solution to fix the MICR line issue through Crystal report? If yes, I would appreciate if you could share the way around to rectify it.

Environment detail is as below.

OS: Window server 2012.

Crystal Report: CR 2010.

Printer: MICR printer troy group

There is no version "2010" for Crystal. Are you using Crystal 10 or 2011?

-Dell

Hi Dell,

It's Crystal 10. Thanks.

Normally I would tell you to post a new discussion because this is not the same version of Crystal as the original post.

Crystal 10 has been out of support for around 10 years. It was never designed to work with the newer operating systems, such as Windows Server 2012 and it will not ever be updated for it. So, odds are, there is no way fix your issue short of upgrading your version of Crystal and the runtime that you're using in your application.

-Dell

Thank you for your response. I will post a new discussion.

I have tried with Crystal Report for VS 2010. It does not stand resolved for this version as well.

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