When transparent printing, if the printer runs out of paper during the print job, it will lose pages. For example, if you are printing a 100-page document and run out of paper on page 30, after loading more paper it will print a few more pages in sequence — maybe up to 34 or so — then skip several pages and resume printing around page 40.

This was corrected in TinyTERM 4.13. There is no patch for earlier versions.

CR 31

If running a transparent print job causes TinyTERM to disconnect the modem, try printing to a file instead. This bypasses the Windows printer manager, which may be interfering.

If that does not help, TinyTERM has gotten corrupted. Uninstall it, then delete the directory. Reboot and reinstall TinyTERM.

If a transparent print job will not print until you close TinyTERM, you need to spool the print jobs. In TinyTERM version 4.13 or higher, open the Printer Setup dialog and check the  Spool Print Jobs box. In TinyTERM versions 4.00-4.12, there are a few additional steps:

1. From TinyTERM’ File menu, select Printer Setup.
2. Select the To Windows printer option.
3. Check the Manually Stop Print Jobs box.
4. Check the Stop on Keypress box.
5. Click OK to close the Printer Setup dialog box.

Earlier versions of TinyTERM do not have this option, nor does any version of TERM.

You may need to get data from your server to your PC for another application. For example, you may need to import a UNIX report into a spreadsheet.

There are three possible ways to do this. The one to choose depends on your particular environment.

1. File transfer
   If the data is in a file on the server, you can use TinyTERM’s file transfer function to download the file to your PC. This requires that you first start the transfer on the server. After that’s done, the steps in TinyTERM are:
   1. On the Tools menu, click Get File.
   2. In the File transfer protocol list, choose the protocol the host system is using.
   3. If you want to save the file to a directory other than the current directory on your machine, enter the destination directory in the Local destination directory box.
   4. Under Transfer type, choose ASCII.
   5. In the Source files to get box, type the name of the file on the host.
   6. Click Receive File to begin receiving.
2. Data capture
   If you’re working with a report from a database, you can display that report to the TinyTERM window and capture the information. To set that up, do the following:
   1. On the Edit menu, click Session Properties.
   2. Click the Data Capture tab.
   3. In the Capture device list, click FILE.
   4. In the Capture file or device name box, type the name of the file you want to create.
   5. Click OK.

   That configures the data capture. Next, in the server database set the report up, but do not start it. Go to TinyTERM’s Tools menu and select Capture File to start the data capture. Start the report on the server. When it finishes, select Tools | Capture File again to stop the data capture. You will probably need to edit the final file with Notepad to clean up information at the beginning and end.

3. Transparent printing
   If the server application allows transparent printing, you can print the data to a file on your PC’s hard drive. To set that up, do the following:
   1. On the File menu, click Printer Setup. The Printer Setup dialog box appears.
   2. Click the File radio button.
   3. In the File Name box, type the name of the file you want to create.
   4. Click OK to close the Printer Setup dialog box.

   Once that’s done, start the print job on the server. Nothing will print at your printer. Instead, the file you need will be created on your PC’s hard drive.

The preceding instructions are for TinyTERM 4.x. Similar capabilities exist in most Century Software, Inc., products. Regardless of which method or product you use, you’ll have a text file on your PC that you can then import into any application.

You may run into a situation where transparent printing works for a few pages of text, then gives a print error. After that the job may fail, or it may print one line per page.This is a flow control issue. Disable flow control on both the PC and the server port. Printing should work properly after that.

Using TERM for Windows 7.2, transparent print jobs have correct line feeds, but no carriage returns. Printer output vanishes off the right edge of the page after about the third line. To fix this, you must add the PN and PS entries to the /etc/termcap entry for your terminal emulation.

Using Tiny Term version 3.3 on Windows 98, the printer might lock up after printing three or four pages of a report. Once it locks up, you’ll have to end task TinyTERM to clear it.

To fix this, go to TinyTERM’s printer settings and check the box marked “Flush output buffer.” This will flush the printer buffer periodically, preventing the printer from locking up.

Using TinyTERM 4.2, transparent printing will skip pages at random. This is due to a bug in SSH communications. To fix it, download this patch. Unzip it into a temporary directory. Three files will be extracted:

regall.bat
cencomssh.dll
cencom.dll

Rename the existing copies of the two DLL files in your TinyTERM install directory as backups. Next, copy in the new versions and the batch file. Once that’s done, run the batch file from the TinyTERM directory. This will register the files and should take care of the printing problem.

CR 244, fixed in TinyTERM Plus 4.21

TinyTERM 4.40 added an Extra Printers option to the File menu. With that capability, if you’re using SCOANSI emulation, you can select between up to six printers. Wyse60 allows up to three printers. No other emulation can take advantage of these for transparent printing.

Printer number 1 is still configured through the Printer Setup option on TinyTERM’s File menu. Printers 2 through 6 are configured through the Extra Printers submenu.

In either emulation, it’s based on the “print on” sequence sent by the host. The default “print on” sequences for each, the one used by TinyTERM’s File | Print Setup settings, are listed below. <Esc> is the escape character, ASCII 27:

SCOANSI: <Esc>[5i
Wyse60: <Esc>d0#

To access the extra printers, add two for each to the SCOANSI “print on” code:

Printer 2: <Esc>[7i
Printer 3: <Esc>[9i
etc.

For Wyse60, only the first two extra printers are available, making three total. For each of those, just add one to the “print on” code:

Printer 2: <Esc>d1#
Printer 3: <Esc>d2#

You can then use <Esc>d# to access the current printer in Wyse60, using the digit again only if you need to change the printer. If you haven’t selected a printer yet using any of the “print on” codes listed above, <Esc>d# will automatically select printer 1 as the default printer.

Regardless of which printer you use, the “print off” sequence is the same, based on the emulation:

SCOANSI: <Esc>[4i
Wyse60: ^T

That’s Ctrl-T, ASCII value 20, for Wyse60.

Each printer can have different settings, of course. So the host can select between multiple printers, or one printer with multiple settings.

CR 210, Wyse60
CR 580, SCOANSI

UNIX and Linux applications that print forms generally control the printer through PCL or another set of printer control codes. Print spooling applications, such as the default Windows printer driver, can interpret these codes as print data instead, causing formatting problems. This can in terminal emulators when using transparent printing.

The solution is to print directly to the printer. In TERM for UNIX, specify the installed printer, rather than any third-party print spooling application. In TinyTERM or TERM for Windows, either print direct to the device or use the Bypass Printer Drivers option where available. This will prevent print spoolers from altering the printer control codes.

TinyTERM Plus 4.30 does not always bypass the drivers. In particular, printing to a printer on LPT1: on Windows XP caused printer control codes to print to the page when Bypass Printer Drivers was set.

CR 4, to Windows printer
CR 28, to file
CR 541, TinyTERM Plus 4.30