Troubleshooting Spine Label Printing Issues for Leap

The library is transitioning from using the Staff Client to primarily using Leap. With more cataloging features being added with each new release the library is attempting to conduct some Technical Services functions within Leap, including printing Spine Labels. However, when printing in Leap the margins of the spine labels are coming out very different compared to printing the same label through the Staff Client. 

Here is an example of labels printed using a laser printer. The left side page was printed from Leap with margins adjusted to fit what was needed for Leap. The right side is what the Staff Client prints when trying to use the same label with the same margin settings. Prior to adjusting the label margins for the label to print correctly using Leap, printing from the Staff Client would appear to be correct, while Leap would print things too far to the left. 

Leap and the Windows staff client are using different printing methods with different consideration for margins. The staff client does not give any consideration to existing printer margins and simply adds whatever margins are defined in your label definitions to the label to be printed. For example, if your printer has a built in 0.25” margin and your label is defined in Polaris with a 0.25” margin, you will end up with a 0.50” margin on the printed label. 

Leap is using PDF printing to generate the labels, which comes with a built-in consideration for printer margins. This means Leap will not add extra padding to your labels unless the margins you defined are greater than your printer margins. For example, if your printer has a built in 0.25” margin and your label is defined in Polaris with a 0.25” margin, you will end up with a 0.25” margin on the printed label because your definition matches your printer’s configuration. 

Not all printers have built-in margins, which is why some libraries can use the same configuration for Leap and the staff client, while others must adjust the configurations or maintain multiple configurations (2 sets of labels one for use in Leap and the other when printing from the Staff Client). 

To correct the margins so labels print correctly in Leap, there are a few steps needed to accomplish this: 

1 - Check on the margin settings for the printer that will be used.

2 - Evaluate how the labels are printing and what needs to be corrected. 

3 - Using the Staff Client, adjust the margin settings for the labels the library uses. 

4 - Test printing a label in Leap.

5 - Make further adjustments as needed.

 NOTE: You may need two sets of labels, one for printing from Leap and the other when printing from the Staff Client.

 If your library will have some staff printing from Leap while other staff continue to use the Staff Client, then you may need to have duplicate labels. One set of labels would have the margins needed to print properly from the Staff Client, while the second set would have appropriate margins when printing from Leap. It is possible to create new custom labels through Label Manager as a means to copy any existing labels currently used. The only exception to this (in Polaris 7.6 and lower) would be with the SLB labels (SLB Continious feed rolls and SLB Sheets), as these are coded into the software and connot be copied. However, starting in Polaris 7.7 there is a secondary set of SLB label types in case a library encounters a situation where they need different margin settings for Leap and Staff Client. 

Screen shot of the labels in Polaris 7.7: 

Step 1 - Check on the margin settings for the printer that will be used.

The first thing to check is if the printer being used has it's own margins established. This can be done by either looking at the printer settings manually, or by creating and running a powershell script using the suggestion below. 

The following PowerShell script can be used to retrieve any hard X and Y coordinate margins for your printer. Simply update the printerName value:

$printerName = ‘HPC7B01C (HP OfficeJet 5200 series)'

$namespace = @{
    psf = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2003/08/printing/printschemaframework" 
    psk = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2003/08/printing/printschemakeywords"
}

$content = (Get-PrintConfiguration -PrinterName $printerName).PrintCapabilitiesXML

$printCapabilities = (Select-Xml `
    -Content $content `
    -Namespace $namespace `
    -XPath 'psf:PrintCapabilities')

$pageImageableSize = (Select-Xml `
    -Namespace $namespace `
    -Xml $printCapabilities.Node `
    -XPath 'psf:Property[@name="psk:PageImageableSize"]')

$imageableArea = (Select-Xml `
    -Namespace $namespace `
    -Xml $pageImageableSize.Node `
    -XPath 'psf:Property[@name="psk:ImageableArea"]')

$originWidthInMicrometers = [int](Select-Xml `
    -Namespace $namespace `
    -Xml $imageableArea.Node `
    -XPath 'psf:Property[@name="psk:OriginWidth"]').Node.InnerText

$originHeightInMicrometers = [int](Select-Xml `
    -Namespace $namespace `
    -Xml $imageableArea.Node `
    -XPath 'psf:Property[@name="psk:OriginHeight"]').Node.InnerText

$hardMarginX = $originWidthInMicrometers / 25400;
$hardMarginY = $originHeightInMicrometers / 25400;

Write-Output "HardMarginX: $hardMarginX inches"
Write-Output "HardMarginY: $hardMarginY inches"

The output returned by this script will indicate your printer’s left/horizontal (X) and top/vertical margins (Y). For example, if the above returns 0 and 0, your printer has no hard margins and will honor whatever is configured for the labels in Polaris. If the above returns 0.25 and 0.25, your printer has quarter inch margins. If Polaris is also configured with quarter inch margins, this would result in the 0.50” margin in the staff client and the 0.25” margin in Leap described above. 

Here is an example with 0 margins:

And here is an example with some margins:

Step 2 - Evaluate how the labels are printing and what needs to be corrected. 

Editing labels does take a bit of trail and error. This step may require printing some "bad" labels to see where or what part of the label needs to be adjusted. 

In some situations, certain printers do not need further adjustment. From internal testing, we found that continuous feed printers like Zebra label printers tended to not have built-in margins. These printers easily supported toggling between the staff client and Leap. We also conducted testing with laser printers. These tended to have margins, which required adjusting configurations for the staff client vs Leap. 

Here is an example of two labels printed from the staff client and Leap on a Zebra printer (no changes to label configuration required):

Step 3 - Using the Staff Client, adjust the margin settings for the labels the library uses. 

After evaluating how labels are currently being printed and what needs to change, it is time to change the label settings. The configuration for labels in Polaris is stored in System Administration under Profiles > Staff Client > Label Options. This configuration can be defined at the System, Library, Branch or Workstation level. Polaris will honor the lowest configuration level available, which means that generally staff will be seeing label configurations based on their workstation. (These options are also accessible from the windows staff client label manager tools, but are not yet exposed in Leap). 

 TIP: If your library needs to have one set of labels for the Staff Client and another for Leap, this would be the point in time where a new custom label should be created to mimic an existing label. Within label Manager press Tools > Design Custom Label to be brought to the new label dialog.  

When you access the Label Options dialog, you can right-click on any of the page size or label context boxes and select “Open” to update the configuration:

Please note the measurements are in .Net units (1 unit = 1/100 inch).

For further information on editing and adjusting labels within the Staff Client Label Manager, please review the document called "Setting Up Labels" within the Staff Client Documentation help files. The following will link to the Polaris 7.6 documentation: Setting Up Labels

4 - Test printing a label in Leap.

Similar to step 2, try printing some labels using Leap after the necessary adjustments have been made. Evaluate if more adjustments need to be made. 

5 - Make further adjustments as needed.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed. Make any further adjustments to the label configuration in order for the label to print correctly within Leap.