A4 (or other sized) Paper - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

A4 (or other sized) Paper

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
saitir
Nov 11, 2008 8:13:13 First of all, I think the Character Builder is excellent (the x64 problems aside).

The ability to re-arrange the character sheet with such ease is of particular merit.

However, pretty much no-one outside of the US uses Letter sized paper, A4 being the the norm. As of yet, I've not found any option for changing the papersize in the Character Sheet designer.

Sure, I've no doubt the vast majority of users will be in the US, but us little folk make our financial contributions too and as a paying customer I don't think 'well we support the majority' really works as an argument.

And lets face it, allowing the use of paper sizes your printer supports is going to excite some folk who have access to tabloid (or whatever double letter size is)/A3 printers!

Given the excellent work already done on the designer, I don't think altering the papersize is too much of a task for you wonderful people!
#2
aloecius
Nov 11, 2008 14:41:17
However, pretty much no-one outside of the US uses Letter sized paper, A4 being the the norm. As of yet, I've not found any option for changing the papersize in the Character Sheet designer.

And lets face it, allowing the use of paper sizes your printer supports is going to excite some folk who have access to tabloid (or whatever double letter size is)/A3 printers!

If I may ask, what happens right now if you attempt to print on A3/A4/A5 paper? The way we have the printing routines setup, they should scale to fit for European paper sizes, but your feedback would be very helpful in getting things fixed. =)
#3
gmtroll
Nov 11, 2008 17:08:58 For me printing to A4 works just fine. Everything is nice and crisp and no cropping.

I set the printer to output to A5 and scale the page down. I was not expecting good results but this actually scaled nicely too. The text is small but still nice and crisp and readable.
#4
saitir
Nov 12, 2008 6:22:20 GMTroll is right, it works.

However, its not an issue of scaling. If I select, say, a large sheet of paper, I don't necessarily do this jsut so I can have bigger print. I might want to add more panels to the main page, or in the case of an A3/tablod printout I can have pretty much the entire sheet on one side of paper.

So, if the layout application doesn't let me pick a page size, I can't optimise for that size.

A4 vs Letter is perhaps a minor diffierence in most cases (8.3 x 11.7 vs 8.5 x 11) but there are cases already where certain panel re-arrangements mean the bottom few lines get truncated (not unreasonably so, but they do anyway). The extra two thrids of an inch or so is enough to allow a few extra lines of feats, powers, skills or whatever to be visible. Heck, I'm sure there are more than one or two people out there in the US who can/do print on legal sized paper, which is an extra 3 inches long.

It might not be relevant so much with levels 1 - 3, but a 21st level partial mutli-class character with a few racial powers can end up with some pretty long lists of things.

So really I'm just saying that while the print routine might be pretty clever all in all, its no reason not to allow for an additional element to an already awesome layout tool.
#5
saitir
Nov 12, 2008 6:28:45
If I may ask, what happens right now if you attempt to print on A3/A4/A5 paper? The way we have the printing routines setup, they should scale to fit for European paper sizes, but your feedback would be very helpful in getting things fixed. =)

Just to alleviate one myth here, its not a 'European paper size'. Wikipedia's entry says it nicely:

"This standard has been adopted by all countries in the world except the United States and Canada. In Mexico, Colombia, Chile and the Philippines, despite the ISO standard having been officially adopted, the U.S. "letter" format is still in common use."

Just and FYI ;)
#6
gmtroll
Nov 12, 2008 7:51:46
However, its not an issue of scaling. If I select, say, a large sheet of paper, I don't necessarily do this jsut so I can have bigger print. I might want to add more panels to the main page, or in the case of an A3/tablod printout I can have pretty much the entire sheet on one side of paper.

So, if the layout application doesn't let me pick a page size, I can't optimise for that size.

I didn't pick up on this originally. That would give even more flexibility for customising your character sheet.

I have tried to achieve something similar using my printers driver setting of 'page layout printing' which prints multiple pages on a single sheet by scaling the pages.

I set to print 2 pages on a single side of A4 (I can't print A3) and hit print. I was expecting to see both pages of the character sheet side by side. Each page was scaled so that it only took up half a sheet of A4 but they were printed on separate sheets of A4.

Given that duplex printing is not printing on the reverse of a sheet I would put this down to the instruction sent to the printer that forces a new page. Is it simply saying new page, or new 'odd' page (or something similar).

Having observed the printer tray this is because each page is sent to the printer as a separate job. Also explains why duplex printing is not working.
#7
grays
Dec 08, 2008 6:36:22 I agree 100%

Ourside the U.S. the ISO-standard A4 sized paper is the norm, and not including it as an option is alienating a great many potential users/purchasers.

However, I also even more support the view that the pages should be one single print job. I can only print cleanly on A4 by printing to PDF using (in my case) "Cute PDF Writer", and each page is a seperate PDF document! Why cannot the entire sheet be one single document? The current method seems strange and perverse in the extreme....?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 saitir Nov 11, 2008 8:13:13	First of all, I think the Character Builder is excellent (the x64 problems aside). The ability to re-arrange the character sheet with such ease is of particular merit. However, pretty much no-one outside of the US uses Letter sized paper, A4 being the the norm. As of yet, I've not found any option for changing the papersize in the Character Sheet designer. Sure, I've no doubt the vast majority of users will be in the US, but us little folk make our financial contributions too and as a paying customer I don't think 'well we support the majority' really works as an argument. And lets face it, allowing the use of paper sizes your printer supports is going to excite some folk who have access to tabloid (or whatever double letter size is)/A3 printers! Given the excellent work already done on the designer, I don't think altering the papersize is too much of a task for you wonderful people!
#2 aloecius Nov 11, 2008 14:41:17	However, pretty much no-one outside of the US uses Letter sized paper, A4 being the the norm. As of yet, I've not found any option for changing the papersize in the Character Sheet designer. And lets face it, allowing the use of paper sizes your printer supports is going to excite some folk who have access to tabloid (or whatever double letter size is)/A3 printers! If I may ask, what happens right now if you attempt to print on A3/A4/A5 paper? The way we have the printing routines setup, they should scale to fit for European paper sizes, but your feedback would be very helpful in getting things fixed. =)
#3 gmtroll Nov 11, 2008 17:08:58	For me printing to A4 works just fine. Everything is nice and crisp and no cropping. I set the printer to output to A5 and scale the page down. I was not expecting good results but this actually scaled nicely too. The text is small but still nice and crisp and readable.
#4 saitir Nov 12, 2008 6:22:20	GMTroll is right, it works. However, its not an issue of scaling. If I select, say, a large sheet of paper, I don't necessarily do this jsut so I can have bigger print. I might want to add more panels to the main page, or in the case of an A3/tablod printout I can have pretty much the entire sheet on one side of paper. So, if the layout application doesn't let me pick a page size, I can't optimise for that size. A4 vs Letter is perhaps a minor diffierence in most cases (8.3 x 11.7 vs 8.5 x 11) but there are cases already where certain panel re-arrangements mean the bottom few lines get truncated (not unreasonably so, but they do anyway). The extra two thrids of an inch or so is enough to allow a few extra lines of feats, powers, skills or whatever to be visible. Heck, I'm sure there are more than one or two people out there in the US who can/do print on legal sized paper, which is an extra 3 inches long. It might not be relevant so much with levels 1 - 3, but a 21st level partial mutli-class character with a few racial powers can end up with some pretty long lists of things. So really I'm just saying that while the print routine might be pretty clever all in all, its no reason not to allow for an additional element to an already awesome layout tool.
#5 saitir Nov 12, 2008 6:28:45	If I may ask, what happens right now if you attempt to print on A3/A4/A5 paper? The way we have the printing routines setup, they should scale to fit for European paper sizes, but your feedback would be very helpful in getting things fixed. =) Just to alleviate one myth here, its not a 'European paper size'. Wikipedia's entry says it nicely: "This standard has been adopted by all countries in the world except the United States and Canada. In Mexico, Colombia, Chile and the Philippines, despite the ISO standard having been officially adopted, the U.S. "letter" format is still in common use." Just and FYI ;)
#6 gmtroll Nov 12, 2008 7:51:46	However, its not an issue of scaling. If I select, say, a large sheet of paper, I don't necessarily do this jsut so I can have bigger print. I might want to add more panels to the main page, or in the case of an A3/tablod printout I can have pretty much the entire sheet on one side of paper. So, if the layout application doesn't let me pick a page size, I can't optimise for that size. I didn't pick up on this originally. That would give even more flexibility for customising your character sheet. I have tried to achieve something similar using my printers driver setting of 'page layout printing' which prints multiple pages on a single sheet by scaling the pages. I set to print 2 pages on a single side of A4 (I can't print A3) and hit print. I was expecting to see both pages of the character sheet side by side. Each page was scaled so that it only took up half a sheet of A4 but they were printed on separate sheets of A4. Given that duplex printing is not printing on the reverse of a sheet I would put this down to the instruction sent to the printer that forces a new page. Is it simply saying new page, or new 'odd' page (or something similar). Having observed the printer tray this is because each page is sent to the printer as a separate job. Also explains why duplex printing is not working.
#7 grays Dec 08, 2008 6:36:22	I agree 100% Ourside the U.S. the ISO-standard A4 sized paper is the norm, and not including it as an option is alienating a great many potential users/purchasers. However, I also even more support the view that the pages should be one single print job. I can only print cleanly on A4 by printing to PDF using (in my case) "Cute PDF Writer", and each page is a seperate PDF document! Why cannot the entire sheet be one single document? The current method seems strange and perverse in the extreme....?