LaBella

[David Higton]

Hi,
Anyone tried using Ray Favre's !LaBella on R 5?
I can get it to load but the icon where you type the address to put on the
label is greyed out & does nothing. I'm using 6.43 which I think is the
latest and is supposedly 32 bitted.

Works for me every Christmas :-)

LaBella 6.43, many different versions of RO5, normally all quite recent
at time of use of LaBella.

David

[David Higton]

Post by David Higton

Hi,
Anyone tried using Ray Favre's !LaBella on R 5?
I can get it to load but the icon where you type the address to put on
the label is greyed out & does nothing. I'm using 6.43 which I think is
the latest and is supposedly 32 bitted.

Works for me every Christmas :-)
LaBella 6.43, many different versions of RO5, normally all quite recent
at time of use of LaBella.

Tanks, Dave. Encouraged me to look again. Found the problem. At the start
it was loading a default label. Now I've set a favourite at startup it's
working.

Yeah, I had to add a definition for the Avery labels we use, since the
definition wasn't in the distribution version.

David

[John Bryan]

Hi,
Anyone tried using Ray Favre's !LaBella on R 5?
I can get it to load but the icon where you type the address to put on
the label is greyed out & does nothing. I'm using 6.43 which I think is
the latest and is supposedly 32 bitted.
Using Aemulor makes no difference.

Runs OK on RISCOS 5.28 version 6.43

As an aside how do you set the label shape to square and keep it there?

I have tried modifying one of the square supplied labels but changing the
label name to something more useful but Labella reverts to a rounded label
when reloaded.

Looking in the label data directory at files LR-001 and LS-001 I cannot
see the tag that sets the shape.
A small point as I am printing to A4 card and then cutting.

[J Peachey]

Post by John Bryan

Hi,
Anyone tried using Ray Favre's !LaBella on R 5?
I can get it to load but the icon where you type the address to put on
the label is greyed out & does nothing. I'm using 6.43 which I think is
the latest and is supposedly 32 bitted.
Using Aemulor makes no difference.

Runs OK on RISCOS 5.28 version 6.43
As an aside how do you set the label shape to square and keep it there?
I have tried modifying one of the square supplied labels but changing the
label name to something more useful but Labella reverts to a rounded label
when reloaded.
Looking in the label data directory at files LR-001 and LS-001 I cannot
see the tag that sets the shape.
A small point as I am printing to A4 card and then cutting.

From the manual

"The automatic association of one of these basic shapes to a label
definition file is effected via specific character sequences in the
user-chosen label name, as follows:

If a label definition has the case-sensitive character sequence ”Square•
somewhere in its label name then the label shape will be a square-cornered
rectangle."

So in Labeldata.Ls001 I assume the title is "Avery J8414 (2×5)
Square-corners"

John

[Bob Latham]

Hi,
Anyone tried using Ray Favre's !LaBella on R 5?
I can get it to load but the icon where you type the address to put
on the label is greyed out & does nothing. I'm using 6.43 which I
think is the latest and is supposedly 32 bitted.
Using Aemulor makes no difference.

Version 6.43 seems to be working here with OS 5.29 03-Nov-20.

For decades I've used Impression to print christmas card labels and
thought I'd give this a try in the hope it might provide a way around
a printing problem.

I understand that the printer cannot print right to the top or bottom
edge but I can't work out how I'm supposed to deal with that. I hoped
that something designed for labels would have some work around but
not that I've found yet.

How do people get around this? Don't use the top and or bottom
labels?

Within LaBella the labels I'm using are 105 x 37mm and 16 on a sheet
and crucially there is no empty space between labels.

I have the row pitch set to 37mm and I can move the whole printed
page up and down using the label top inset. If set to 1.1 it equally
chops a little from the top label and bottom label. I tried changing
the label height but that seems to make no difference.

I would have thought that there was a mechanism for dealing with
print margins but so far I've not discovered it?

Any advice appreciated.

Bob.

[Martin]

Post by Bob Latham
I understand that the printer cannot print right to the top or
bottom edge but I can't work out how I'm supposed to deal with
that. I hoped that something designed for labels would have some
work around but not that I've found yet.
How do people get around this? Don't use the top and or bottom
labels?

That depends on lyour printer, not Labella. Somewhere in your printer
spec there should be the limits of where it can print on a page. If
that shows that it cannot print on the whole of all labels, then you
will not be able to print on all of them.

Make sure your RISC OS printer settings are correct for paper sizes
AND Graphics margins. This ensures they can be displayed by Labella,
and the printer can be used to its fullest extent.

Post by Bob Latham
Within LaBella the labels I'm using are 105 x 37mm and 16 on a
sheet and crucially there is no empty space between labels.

There is often not a space between labels.

First, ensure the label measurements and layout in Labella is exactly
what the physical labels are. Interactive help is available on most
settings. This includes individual label height, width, rows, cols,
row & col pitch, and top left inset. That is fixed (and hopefully
saved) for each label type, and is independent of what you want to
print in each label.

Then, load a CSV file with the text you want in each label, and set up
how you want the fields to be printed - font, size, indentation,
spacing, colours etc.

Post by Bob Latham
I have the row pitch set to 37mm and I can move the whole printed
page up and down using the label top inset. If set to 1.1 it equally
chops a little from the top label and bottom label.

Maybe the !Printer settings are not the same as your actual printer?

Post by Bob Latham
I tried changing the label height but that seems to make no
difference.

No - that must be the size of one label.

Post by Bob Latham
I would have thought that there was a mechanism for dealing with
print margins but so far I've not discovered it?

There are several references to margin in the Help.

Labella is *very* flexible, but it does take some getting used to
where to tweak what.

Note that you do not have to start printing at the first label on the
page, so used ones can be skipped.

Always best to experiment on blank sheets of paper and compare
positions with the real thing!

Martin

[Bob Latham]

Post by Martin
There are several references to margin in the Help.
Labella is *very* flexible, but it does take some getting used to
where to tweak what.
Note that you do not have to start printing at the first label on
the page, so used ones can be skipped.

I haven't yet worked out how to skip labels during printing.

Post by Martin
Always best to experiment on blank sheets of paper and compare
positions with the real thing!

Yes, indeed that's what I've been doing.

I thought it possible that LaBella might detect that the text
couldn't be fully printed in a certain box and therefore skip the row
and print the row on the next page. It's unlike me to be optimistic.
:-)

I have now reached a sort of solution. Most of the labels have 6
lines of text but some only 5. By shifting the print to fully print
the top of the page and only using 5 line addresses at the page
bottoms it seems to print OK. Very nicely actually.

Thanks for your help.

Bob.

[Alan Griffin]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Martin
Note that you do not have to start printing at the first label on
the page, so used ones can be skipped.

I haven't yet worked out how to skip labels during printing.

If you want to skip the first five labels on the sheet, just put five
blank lines before your first label.

Alan

[Martin]

Post by Alan Griffin

Post by Bob Latham
I haven't yet worked out how to skip labels during printing.

If you want to skip the first five labels on the sheet, just put
five blank lines before your first label.

Better and easier to change 'Start at Label' in the Printing Setup
window!

[Bob Latham]

Post by Martin

Post by Alan Griffin

Post by Bob Latham
I haven't yet worked out how to skip labels during printing.

If you want to skip the first five labels on the sheet, just put
five blank lines before your first label.

Better and easier to change 'Start at Label' in the Printing Setup
window!

Doesn't that only work on the first page? That would mean I would
have to print each page on its own wouldn't it?

Bob.

[Martin]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Martin

Post by Alan Griffin

Post by Bob Latham
I haven't yet worked out how to skip labels during printing.

If you want to skip the first five labels on the sheet, just put
five blank lines before your first label.

Better and easier to change 'Start at Label' in the Printing
Setup window!

Doesn't that only work on the first page? That would mean I would
have to print each page on its own wouldn't it?

Probably it assumes that subsequernt pages are complete sets of
labels, only the first page may be part used.

But this is not how to avoid printing on the first line of labels on
*each* page - that I covered earlier. Your printer, the labella
definitions, and the physical labels must all agree.

[Bob Latham]

Post by Martin
But this is not how to avoid printing on the first line of labels on
*each* page - that I covered earlier. Your printer, the labella
definitions, and the physical labels must all agree.

I thought they did but I was surprised to find..

A4 paper 297mm long.
Paper size in driver set to 297mm.

A4 paper 210mm wide.
Paper size in driver set to 210mm.


A4 labels 298.5 long.
A4 labels 210.5mm wide

The labels claim to be 105mmx37mm but are to my eyes a fraction of a
mm larger. I'm not sure I could measure that tiny amount. but 210.5/8
gives 37.3mm which is probably correct-ish.

I didn't really want to set up another page size for the printer to
be honest and I've cheated my way out of trouble by placing 5 line
addresses at the end of each page.


Bob.

[Bob Latham]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Martin
But this is not how to avoid printing on the first line of labels
on *each* page - that I covered earlier. Your printer, the
labella definitions, and the physical labels must all agree.

I thought they did but I was surprised to find..
A4 paper 297mm long.
Paper size in driver set to 297mm.
A4 paper 210mm wide.
Paper size in driver set to 210mm.
A4 labels 298.5 long.
A4 labels 210.5mm wide
The labels claim to be 105mmx37mm but are to my eyes a fraction of
a mm larger. I'm not sure I could measure that tiny amount. but
210.5/8 gives 37.3mm which is probably correct-ish.
I didn't really want to set up another page size for the printer
to be honest and I've cheated my way out of trouble by placing 5
line addresses at the end of each page.

Did you check the printable margins all agree?

The printer requires 5mm on all 4 sides. The driver is set to 5mm all
round. I don't know of any other margin settings.

Bob.

[Martin]

[Snip]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Bob Latham
The labels claim to be 105mmx37mm but are to my eyes a fraction
of a mm larger. I'm not sure I could measure that tiny amount.
but 210.5/8 gives 37.3mm which is probably correct-ish.

The printer requires 5mm on all 4 sides. The driver is set to 5mm
all round. I don't know of any other margin settings.

That all looks fine ... but I had not realised that your labels cover
all the sheet - all the ones I have used have had a non-label bit
along all 4 sides.

You should be able to print 5mm down from the top of the top row of
labels, and 5mm up from the bottom of the bottom row of labels. As
long as that is ok on all labels, you should be able to use all of
them, if you avoid printing on the top & bottom 5mm.

Label settings I would try...
Height = Col Pitch = 37.3
Width = Col Pitch = 105
Top Inset = Left Inset = 0
Line Spacing Top Inset = 5 (or even 6)

[Bob Latham]

Post by Martin
You should be able to print 5mm down from the top of the top row of
labels,

I agree with that, makes sense.

Post by Martin
and 5mm up from the bottom of the bottom row of labels.

Not so sure about that because as it stands the printer driver is
unaware that the page is longer than A4 by 1.5mm.

Post by Martin
As long as that is ok on all labels, you should be able to use all
of them, if you avoid printing on the top & bottom 5mm.

The top yes, the bottom .???...

Post by Martin
Label settings I would try...
Height = Col Pitch = 37.3
Width = Col Pitch = 105
Top Inset = Left Inset = 0
Line Spacing Top Inset = 5 (or even 6)

Interesting, I need to get my head around that, thanks.

Bob.

[Chris Evans (CJE/4D)]

Rather hijacking this thread.

Where can you get LaBella from?
Google didn't help me.

Does it support printing to modern label printers?

If not anyone found a way on RISC OS to use modern label printers?

Chris Evans

[Chris Hughes]

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Rather hijacking this thread.
Where can you get LaBella from?

http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Google didn't help me.

searched for labella + RISC OS

found the above

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Does it support printing to modern label printers?

I have used it to print to a laser printer as well as an inkjet

[Chris Newman]

Post by Chris Hughes

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Rather hijacking this thread.
Where can you get LaBella from?

http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Google didn't help me.

searched for labella + RISC OS
found the above

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Does it support printing to modern label printers?

I have used it to print to a laser printer as well as an inkjet

Agreed. Latest version 6.43 has been 32 bitted and works on my Pi4 with
R5.28

[Adrian Crafer]

Post by Chris Newman

Post by Chris Hughes

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Rather hijacking this thread.
Where can you get LaBella from?

http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Google didn't help me.

searched for labella + RISC OS
found the above

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Does it support printing to modern label printers?

I have used it to print to a laser printer as well as an inkjet

Agreed. Latest version 6.43 has been 32 bitted and works on my Pi4 with
R5.28

It is also available from PlingStore

[Chris Newman]

Post by Chris Newman

Post by Chris Hughes

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Rather hijacking this thread.
Where can you get LaBella from?

http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Google didn't help me.

searched for labella + RISC OS
found the above

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Does it support printing to modern label printers?

I have used it to print to a laser printer as well as an inkjet

Agreed. Latest version 6.43 has been 32 bitted and works on my Pi4 with
R5.28

I may have to eat my words. Just tried printing a label. The graphic
printed OK but none of the text.

Labella 6.43 RISC OS 5.28 Pi4 . LaserJet6 printer driver. Samsung
CLP620 nd laser printer USB wired to the Pi.

Can't figure it out.

[Chris Newman]

In article <***@waitrose.com>, Chris Newman
<***@waitrose.com> wrote:

<snip>

Post by Chris Newman

Post by Chris Newman

Post by Chris Hughes
I have used it to print to a laser printer as well as an inkjet

Agreed. Latest version 6.43 has been 32 bitted and works on my Pi4
with R5.28

I may have to eat my words. Just tried printing a label. The graphic
printed OK but none of the text.
Labella 6.43 RISC OS 5.28 Pi4 . LaserJet6 printer driver. Samsung
CLP620 nd laser printer USB wired to the Pi.

More info. I've discovered that if I unselect "Print graphic?" on the
Printing set-up & preview window the text prints OK. It obviously can't
cope with multi-tasking. Bit like me some days.

[Alan Griffin]

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Rather hijacking this thread.
Where can you get LaBella from?
Google didn't help me.

http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html

Alan

[M Harding]

Post by Chris Hughes

Post by Chris Evans (CJE/4D)
Rather hijacking this thread.
Where can you get LaBella from?
Google didn't help me.

http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/dwapps.html

Thanks for that
If not anyone found a way on RISC OS to use modern label printers?
Chris H said

Post by Chris Hughes
I have used it to print to a laser printer as well as an inkjet

It's a 'modern label printers' like Dymo LabelWriter, Brother
QL-600B that have labels on a roll and you can print one at a time
I'm looking for.

Like the tractor-feed labels of old, perhaps? If that idea were
coupled with the marvellous !Organizer, might that lead to a solution?
Are tractor-feed printers still around?

Yes I'm out of my depth but trying to think laterally, because way,
way back I recall a unit (was it in ROM for the BBC Master, perhaps?)
someone had created a system allowing me to print individual address
labels or several together. Ah! the good old days when WD40
rejuvenated the ink for those printers.

I got some technical info from Dymo years ago. Its language is
proprietary.
I'm hoping some one makes one which uses PCL3, 5 or 6

Michael Harding
Rev. Preb. M.D. Harding ***@mdharding.org.uk

[Harriet Bazley]

On 8 Dec 2021 as I do recall,
[snip]

Post by M Harding

It's a 'modern label printers' like Dymo LabelWriter, Brother
QL-600B that have labels on a roll and you can print one at a time
I'm looking for.

Like the tractor-feed labels of old, perhaps? If that idea were
coupled with the marvellous !Organizer, might that lead to a solution?
Are tractor-feed printers still around?

Tractor-feed printers simply worked by printing a predefined number of
fixed-height lines and then having the program doing the printing issue
a form feed character to advance to the start of the next form - as you
could deduce from the fact that if you got the page length wrong then
the printer would quite happily print over the perforations!

Modern label printers seem to have some kind of detector that will
actually identify the edge of the label as it passes through the
machine.

[charles]

Post by Harriet Bazley
On 8 Dec 2021 as I do recall,
[snip]

Post by M Harding

It's a 'modern label printers' like Dymo LabelWriter, Brother
QL-600B that have labels on a roll and you can print one at a time
I'm looking for.

Like the tractor-feed labels of old, perhaps? If that idea were
coupled with the marvellous !Organizer, might that lead to a solution?
Are tractor-feed printers still around?

Tractor-feed printers simply worked by printing a predefined number of
fixed-height lines and then having the program doing the printing issue
a form feed character to advance to the start of the next form - as you
could deduce from the fact that if you got the page length wrong then
the printer would quite happily print over the perforations!
Modern label printers seem to have some kind of detector that will
actually identify the edge of the label as it passes through the
machine.

The backing paper is marked,

[Bob Latham]

Post by Alan Griffin
If you want to skip the first five labels on the sheet, just put
five blank lines before your first label.

Do you mean blank lines in the CSV file if not, where?

Bob.

[John Williams (News)]

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Alan Griffin
If you want to skip the first five labels on the sheet, just put
five blank lines before your first label.

Do you mean blank lines in the CSV file if not, where?

I would imagine it must be lines with the appropriate commas in the CSV
file, thus printing nothing on the first row of labels (whatever the number
used/needed).

You may need the same at the bottom of the page!

John

[Bob Latham]

Post by John Williams (News)

Post by Bob Latham

Post by Alan Griffin
If you want to skip the first five labels on the sheet, just put
five blank lines before your first label.

Do you mean blank lines in the CSV file if not, where?

I would imagine it must be lines with the appropriate commas in the
CSV file, thus printing nothing on the first row of labels
(whatever the number used/needed).
You may need the same at the bottom of the page!

Ah, yes I see. Thanks.

I'd already found that the first line in the CSV file sets how many
print lines (fields) each label has. So if the first csv line only
has 5 fields then subsequent Labels (CSV lines) with six fields don't
have their last line printed.

Thanks.

Bob.

[M Harding]

Post by Martin

Post by Bob Latham
I understand that the printer cannot print right to the top or
bottom edge but I can't work out how I'm supposed to deal with
that. I hoped that something designed for labels would have some
work around but not that I've found yet.

For many years now I've used !OvationPro to produce labels. There's an
applet for labels formats. Unfortunately it's so long ago that I set
it up to produce an Avery L14 format that I've forgotten how it was
done.

I've found it extremely flexible for our Xmas card list, which I
usually amend throughout the year. Since I keep it in alphabetical
order, it's easy to insert or delete entries which then cause the
others to ripple along the series.

Not as flexible as extracting from a wider database of course, but
simple to use and precise in printing.

[ very big snip ]

Post by Martin
Always best to experiment on blank sheets of paper and compare
positions with the real thing!

I use the first printing on sheets of paper to annotate the list ready
for the next year, having used the previous year's draft to highlight
changes necessary.

Michael Harding
Rev. Preb. M.D. Harding ***@mdharding.org.uk

[Chris Newman]

Post by Bob Latham

Hi,
Anyone tried using Ray Favre's !LaBella on R 5?

Within LaBella the labels I'm using are 105 x 37mm and 16 on a sheet
and crucially there is no empty space between labels.

Just checking these dimensions.

Presumably the width 105 so 2 across an A4 age = 210 so barely any side
margin (A4 is 210 label sheets may have a bit extra).

If it's 2 across and 16 on a sheet that must be 8 down.
37 x 8 = 296 which is the full A4 height so no top or bottom margin.

Label Top Inset can be set to 0.0 or even a negative figure.