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PrintTicket provider failed to convert DEVMODE to PrintTicket. Win32error: -2147221164

I get this error regardless of whether i print to my printer or print to file. I am able to use my printer for all other sources that I know of without any issues.

I am getting this error. Just subscribed and downloaded the program.

Check to make sure that all of your stuff is up to date (go to mfg website for driver updates etc).
If you are still having a problem, uninstall and reinstall the program. You get 5 installs a month so unless you have 5 comps you are putting this on, you should be fine.

All that failing...download bullzip pdf printer, print to it and save it as a pdf and see if that works...its an extra step but it also gives you the ability to let people look at your char without the program so its a bonus as well.

SeanHerring wrote:

Check to make sure that all of your stuff is up to date (go to mfg website for driver updates etc).
If you are still having a problem, uninstall and reinstall the program. You get 5 installs a month so unless you have 5 comps you are putting this on, you should be fine.

All that failing...download bullzip pdf printer, print to it and save it as a pdf and see if that works...its an extra step but it also gives you the ability to let people look at your char without the program so its a bonus as well.

Did all that. Plus uninstalled the .NET 3.5 SP1 and made sure it was up to date. Tried several of the pdf programs. CutePdf, primopdf, and Image printer and the bullzip pdf printer it didn't work. Still got same error message. Yet these same printers work with everything else.

I'm getting the exact same error when I try to print:

PrintTicket provider failed to convert DEVMODE to PrintTicket. Win32error: -2147221164

Unfortunately that doesn't really help you, but you're not the only one with this issue.

Sounds like your running windows on a PC....come over to the light...mac runs windows better than a PC does....I use boot camp and have not troubles...

Bizelplyx wrote:

Did all that. Plus uninstalled the .NET 3.5 SP1 and made sure it was up to date. Tried several of the pdf programs. CutePdf, primopdf, and Image printer and the bullzip pdf printer it didn't work. Still got same error message. Yet these same printers work with everything else.

Well, I emailed customer support, and the first thing they suggested was to reinstall Windows.

Snooze wrote:

Well, I emailed customer support, and the first thing they suggested was to reinstall Windows.

Yeah isn't that the solution to everything. Reinstall window and 50 plus other programs you own. along with the gigabytes of back up documents that you may have backed up.

Dialog of Tech support.

Caller: I have a problem
Tech: Reinstall windows.
Caller: But..I
Tech: Reinstall windows
Caller: Look I am trying to tell you.
Tech: Reinstall window.
Caller: I have reinstalled windows that is my problem. It still doesn't work.
Tech: One moment please.
Caller: *On hold* pleasant music though.
Tech: Try to reinstall windows again.

If they just add a pdf export function all would be solved instead of relying on Microsoft Net 3.5 to print the sheet. Seems odd that my printing works with everything else just not the printing function of the DDI character builder. And when I do get the error it wants to send the report to DDI wizards of the coast not Microsoft.

For what it's worth, I'm still able to print fine from other .NET applications, such as as Paint.NET. I also tried launching the character viewer by itself and printing, but it still crashes. In that case, however, it does try to send a ticket to Microsoft.

Snooze wrote:

For what it's worth, I'm still able to print fine from other .NET applications, such as as Paint.NET. I also tried launching the character viewer by itself and printing, but it still crashes. In that case, however, it does try to send a ticket to Microsoft.

Worth a lot. I was just now looking for another .net program to download and try. Tells me it is the DDI Character builder and not .net.

I am not going to reinstall windows for just one program. I rather just discontinue my DDI subscription and Roll them dice and use notebook paper. That hasn't failed me for years.

Just FYI, I have had the character builder since it launched, and have been able to print fine until this month. Also, I have two friends who are on the same network as I am (at work) and they can print fine.

I'm hoping this will be resolved with next month's update.

Ok if you have other people who can print fine on your network using the CB then it is totally your PC that is the problem and not the CB itself...
So I beleive you said you reinstalled the CB...but did you first uninstall it and make sure you remove all associated files (i'd make a copy of all of your chars in another location)...reboot the whole computer..maybe a couple of times knowing winblows...then download the latest downloader to reinstall...
If all of those are still not helping you to print a char...bring that file over to a friends comp and see if their CB has problems...there is a chance that it might be a matter the character got bugged (yeah which means no one thing can specificially be connected to that as many things on winblows can corrupt data).

Bizelplyx wrote:

If they just add a pdf export function all would be solved instead of relying on Microsoft Net 3.5 to print the sheet.

That's my thoughts exactly. I have printing issue since June update (no borders and part of text cropped). It would be much easier to be able to save the character viewer directly as a PDF, if you want to print it from the job but don't want to install CB at your job office. I know CutePDF or other can do it too but it's just not right you have to install a third party software in order to enjoy CB possibilities.


BTW, once I discovered CB, I was totally overjoyed. This is just so fast to create character, keep track of bonus/levels and creating random character for DM. The software is well done, good graphic, easy to use. Just too bad printing issue still seem to appear. After all, what is the point of using CB if you can't have a hard copy to bring along at your next game?

Are you sure you are checking your print settings when you tell it to print? You might want to check your ratio for printing...borders...and other size related options. They may have toggled off a default "print template" that chose certain options automatically that you have come to rely on without even knowing it.

I do have one problem with printing that always irritates me...no matter how many times I tell it to print in B/W and as a Fast Print option it still prints it slowly in color...so I just "print" it as a pdf with bullzip and then print from adobe...I then also have a pdf of my char if I need to send it to somebody or the program crashes while the file is open corrupting it, which has happened (GOD why did they use windows as the OS for the CB?Really? Worst option ever...Java would have been better :P )

FYI, my character builder is still crashing when I try to print with the new update.

Snooze wrote:

FYI, my character builder is still crashing when I try to print with the new update.

Same here. Like I said I am not reinstalling windows for one program that doesn't print. To me it is the program not my computer as printing works on everything else.

I can print the compendium stuff. Print from the monster builder. I just can't print the Character builder sheets because it crashes.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled 3.5 net. Uninstalled and reinstalled the Character builder.

So the problem lies within the program itself. A cut and paste feature, copy to the clipboard. Save as PDF. Save as a JPEG. would be a nice addition if they can't fix the printing issue. But failure to address the issue or even comment on the fact that we are aware of the problem. Is rather disconcerting.

Well but the real problem here isn't the program...it is your computer otherwise everyone would have problems printing. Just because other programs on YOUR computer can print doesn't mean its not YOUR computer that is the problem. Lets face it, you are using Winblows...there can be any number of reasons why the OS or other programs on the comp are the issue and not the CB.

I know that doesn't help, but its the down side of them creating the CB to be an installed program on a Winblows machine isntead of a net based java program or that only worked on say the Mac OS...Winblows has no real quality control when it comes to things working together (had a printer that couldn't be installed on my computer that my scanner was installed on, but I could install both on a buddies with no problems).

SeanHerring wrote:

Well but the real problem here isn't the program...it is your computer otherwise everyone would have problems printing. Just because other programs on YOUR computer can print doesn't mean its not YOUR computer that is the problem. Lets face it, you are using Winblows...there can be any number of reasons why the OS or other programs on the comp are the issue and not the CB.

This could very well be. A glitch in windows. But I look at it this way. This isn't a program I have paid 9.95 for. One that I bought as is. This is an ongoing subscription program. Where I pay my 6 or 7 dollars a month to have updated and to use.

The should at the very least consider giving their subscribers some of the features the would like. Such as an export to PDF.

Oh it would seem that it is more than me that is having this issue, for what ever reason. To say it works for half our subscribers and not doing anything about it, is a slap in the face of the other half who would like to benefit from the money they are spending on this as well as other products that are going to be introduced in D&DI.

They already slapped us when they didn't come through with the Game Table and dungeon designer.

Supercaouette wrote:

That's my thoughts exactly. I have printing issue since June update (no borders and part of text cropped). It would be much easier to be able to save the character viewer directly as a PDF, if you want to print it from the job but don't want to install CB at your job office. I know CutePDF or other can do it too but it's just not right you have to install a third party software in order to enjoy CB possibilities.

Print to PDF should be provided. However, since they chose Windows as their sole platform they'll have to provide themselves or direct people to 3rd party apps.

Of course you can print to PDF natively from OS X. Maybe one day MS will get with the program.

Bizelplyx wrote:

This could very well be. A glitch in windows. But I look at it this way. This isn't a program I have paid 9.95 for. One that I bought as is. This is an ongoing subscription program. Where I pay my 6 or 7 dollars a month to have updated and to use.

The should at the very least consider giving their subscribers some of the features the would like. Such as an export to PDF.

Oh it would seem that it is more than me that is having this issue, for what ever reason. To say it works for half our subscribers and not doing anything about it, is a slap in the face of the other half who would like to benefit from the money they are spending on this as well as other products that are going to be introduced in D&DI.

They already slapped us when they didn't come through with the Game Table and dungeon designer.

You know...not trying to rankle you here but...just because you are paying a monthly subscription doesn't somehow make it their programing that is bad...if like you said half the people have printing issues that are unresolved yes it would totally be in their court...but the fact is it is such a small percentage that for them to even begin to address the problem would be monumental (just adding a pdf export may or may not alleiviate the problem depending on if they are still using a print function to do it [the easiest legal way without infringing on Adobe CR], likely you would still have a problem) since it is such a small percentage of the people who use the program. With winblows there are so many variables that can go wrong that for one program to fix the bug would require some significant direct communication between each affected user and the R&D team to track down the specific cause of the error. The only way for that to really be doable would be for you to let them tunnel into your comp while you are on it and directly observe the running processes during the crash.

Have you actually directly emailed their customer service? Or have you just posted here? Just posting here may not get you a sufficient response.

Have you wiped all of your printers form your computer...I mean a full wipe...drivers and all...gone to the MFG website and checked for latest updates and installed those...or even better is after doing that and still problem have you installed the oldest workable driver you can for that printer? As silly as it sounds sometimes the printer drivers become "too advanced" and cause problems...(had a Canon do that on me). Also was it designed for your version of windows (ie made for xp and you use vista or vice versa), just because they made a "compatability driver and software" doesn't mean it truely is.

And no this isn't some "fanboy" attempt at "defending wotc" or anything, its just realistic looks at the situation based off the fairly low murmur of printing issues combined with the sick facts of using winblows or microshaft anything. And I know you don't want to reinstall windows...but seriously it could be as simple as that...how long has it been since you had windows installed on your computer? With all the patches and updates things that you need to do to keep your windows up to date, there likely could be a conflict that comes from that..if you reinstall windows it actually fix any number of problems...and the silly thing is when you update you will be doing alot of "combined" updates instead of the piecemeal you did before..and they actually install better that way for some silly reason (likely there was a bug they never admitted to).

When I emailed customer support, they were less than helpful.

My current guess is that both Bizelplyx and I have installed another app that includes a "newer" version of a dll that the Character Builder shares, but is somehow not compatible with. I can't for the life of me figure out what app (or what dll) that is though.

Like I have said. It boils down to this. Reinstall windows. Lose all the freebie programs I have and use, that are not replaceable, for just one program that is not working correctly? I think not.

Like I said before. Paper, Pencil, and Dice have never failed me. I will most likely use that method of generating characters. Or like most just subscribe one month every quarter to get an updated version of the program.

Unless they blow me out of the water with the up coming adventure tools, that is most likely what I would do.

When the needs of the working programs out way the needs of one not working program. Reinstalling windows is not a viable solution.

And yes we get you are a mac guy. Must you continually use the words Windblows and Microshaft in your post over and over? It kinda gets annoying and I will skip your advice in the future. When it comes to windows there are more games to play with that operating system than a Mac.

The only reason I subscribed to D&DI was the promise of the Table Top Gaming that I saw on YouTube. Now if there were anywhere on there website that they discontinued this product. I would not have subscribed. Now I am disappointed with the printing options of the Character builder.

Yes I have found a way around it. Such as Print Screen Function and then cut and paste into a JPEG. then Print to PDF. It takes a little extra time. But the fact remains I shouldn't have to do it.

Not reinstalling windows for just one program! Not when everything works fine for all, and I repeat all my other programs. And it would matter not if it is a windows problem, or the Character builder problem.

Me personally I don't like Windows. But Mac doesn't offer many games to chose from, which is why is use a computer. If I had a wish I wish Amiga, and the Amiga operating system were the preference of the Day. It blew Mac away. And still does.

hell yeah the Amiga was AWESOME!! it's taken the PC 25 years to get near it's level of stability, 20 years to get multitasking etc!!

anyone who played Eye of the Beholder on PC AND on the Amiga can recall the difference...Amiga version even had a proper bloody ending!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtU9ZWTm5bA

Bizelplyx wrote:

Yes I have found a way around it. Such as Print Screen Function and then cut and paste into a JPEG. then Print to PDF. It takes a little extra time. But the fact remains I shouldn't have to do it.

This is how I work around the problem:

[LIST=1]

Print to PDF with Primo (Bullzip would probably work, too)

Print the PDF to another PDF with a smaller custom page size (I use 8"x10")

Then print the "shrunk" PDF to regular sized real paper with scaling turned off.


I have also printed the custom size PDF to yet another regular sized PDF.

YMMV, but the output quality is pretty good. I have filed a bug report on this, but I have not heard back.

Bargle0 wrote:

This is how I work around the problem:

[LIST=1]

Print to PDF with Primo (Bullzip would probably work, too)

Print the PDF to another PDF with a smaller custom page size (I use 8"x10")

Then print the "shrunk" PDF to regular sized real paper with scaling turned off.


I have also printed the custom size PDF to yet another regular sized PDF.

YMMV, but the output quality is pretty good. I have filed a bug report on this, but I have not heard back.

See that is the problem. I can't get it to print to any type printer. Not even the PDF printers. I have downloaded and installed about six of those. It crashes whenever I click on the print button. So I have to use the method I described if I want a hard copy of my character sheet.

Bizelplyx wrote:

See that is the problem. I can't get it to print to any type printer. Not even the PDF printers. I have downloaded and installed about six of those. It crashes whenever I click on the print button. So I have to use the method I described if I want a hard copy of my character sheet.

That is teh suck. I don't know what to tell you

I had similar problems for quite a while. The solution I found was running the character generator as administrator. The user I was logged in as was a member of the administrators group, but still wouldnt work. So either log in as administrator or run the application as administrator.

Adding my 2cp to the long list of printing issues. This was not always the case, but since my printer or pc has not changed, I assume it was a CB update that did this. I have not printed out a character sheet in months.

Printing directly to printer produces a sheet that is very tight to the left side, and has about a 1/2 inch margin on the right. The only problem is, that 1/2 in margin is cuttong off maybe a cm of the sheet. The top of my sheet reads "Character She"

Doesn't matter what printer I print two, I have a Lexmark and an HP at home, nor if I take it to work and print to our BizHub.

Phobos wrote:

Adding my 2cp to the long list of printing issues. This was not always the case, but since my printer or pc has not changed, I assume it was a CB update that did this. I have not printed out a character sheet in months.

Printing directly to printer produces a sheet that is very tight to the left side, and has about a 1/2 inch margin on the right. The only problem is, that 1/2 in margin is cuttong off maybe a cm of the sheet. The top of my sheet reads "Character She"

Doesn't matter what printer I print two, I have a Lexmark and an HP at home, nor if I take it to work and print to our BizHub.

I would check the % size of the page you are printing. With some printers in the lower right section of the printing window there is an option that you can reduce it and this will often solve problems where it prints off.

As of today's update, I am now able to print!

Glad to hear your's is working again.

I don't have the problem my self but this has worked for other programs with that error.

Go to Control Panel -> Add / Remove Programs and look for MSXML and remove them.

Then download and install it.

• The easiest way is just using Window Update, and choosing Custom. Select all the XML updates, and probably the .NET one's while your at it. Don't forget to look under Optional Software.
  
  
• Or you can go for the manual download:
  MSXML 6.0 (XP): Download. You'll most likely want the msxml6_x86.msi version.
  

Please help. I have a D&D session tomorrow, and for some reason, when I try and print my Character Sheet, I get an error that shuts down CB. This has never happened before. Any ideas why?

Hello Sean,

Make sure your .NET is updated to 3.5 SP1.  To download the latest version of Microsoft .NET, head to this page.

ORC_Chaos

when i print it is cutting off the right side of the page...its only a few centimeters but it is still cutting off rolls and words

SO I took your advice ORC_CHAOS, and I am getting a similar error message which closes the installation. Any tips?

I had the crash problem also.
I followed these instructions and everything works now!! Thank you!

quote from two previous posts

Step 1: Go to Control Panel -> Add / Remove Programs and look for MSXML and remove them.

Step 2: Then download new version and install it.

    * the manual download:
      MSXML 6.0 (XP): Download. You'll most likely want the msxml6_x86.msi version.
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...


Step 3: Make sure your .NET is updated to 3.5 SP1.  To download the latest version of Microsoft .NET, head to this page. www.microsoft.com/net/Download.aspx

Hi.

I've just spent an hour and twenty sheets of paper trying to print out my character without the margins getting cut off.

Life's too short for this ****. My subscription runs out tomorrow - check my account, CS, if you want - and I'm not going to renew it. A pity, really, as the Character Builder works beautifully.

(Regarding many of the suggested fixes: Messing with my OS, reinstalling it or installing additional software  is NOT acceptable.)

a frustrated, soon-to-be-ex-customer

P.

I agree with all of those voicing frustration over margin cut-offs.  This should not be a problem, get off your wallet WOTC and fix this!

I eventually found a fix because my printer (A lexmark 4500) has the option to print borderless for pictures, and this was a solution.  No other utility that allows me to print something has done this before, and it is random depending on what printer I use (my HP 5500 at work does not cut off margins, with the same computer).

Don't give me the drivers run around either, they are all updated.

I made a fix to the margin cut off problem.  Print your character sheet to PDF.  Then upload it here and save the output.  It adds a 10% margin around the page.

files.sagotsky.com/pymargins/index.py

I'm printing to CutePDF and I got the margins problem as well. 

My solution was simply to scale the PDF output to 95%.

1. In CB select "print"
2. select the CutePDF printer
3. Click on "Preferences"
4. Click on "Advanced"
5. Click on "Scaling" and change to 95% (97% is actually a little better)
6. Click "OK" twice and print.

This is my printing experience:

I have a HP inkjet printer and my OS is Win7. I tried printing from CB, I tried converting to PDF via
many programs, I tried converting to some other formats but my sheets always ended up cut off.
Sometimes it was right side, sometimes left and some times, even, both.

I noticed that installing HP drivers also install some other programs (HP solution center and similar quick start programs that run in background) non of those programs is actually needed for printer to work so I turned them off and what do u know my sheets are now centered and scaled as they should.

SOLUTION:

SO my advice - turn off any background programs that have anything to do with your printer and try printing then.

An odd issue I'm running into with the new online character builder when I print a character sheet: it seems as if it's almost printing a slight, lighter-colored ghost image beneath the character sheet proper, about a millimeter disjointed. As a result, the text is blurry, the pictures are slightly off and the whole thing is actually difficult to look at without getting a headache. Difficult problem to describe properly, but does this sound familiar to anyone else? I did not have this issue with the character builder application in its previous form.

I have an issue I hope someone can assist me with and if it has been asked before on here I apologize.  I have major issues with the new CB when it comes to converting them to pdfs so I can print them out at my job instead of wasting my ink.   I use Cutepdf to convert the character sheets to pdf but it seems to be a shot in the dark on whether or not it will work with the new CB.  More than 60% of the time it does save a pdf but all it saves is blank pages with no information.  I have used Cutepdf for a good while now and I have not had any problems with any other documents or programs I use it on, including other character builders  like Hero Lab for example, or even the Character Builder Classic.  Does anyone have any idea why this is going on and how/if I can correct it?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Peace,
Fallstorm

WOTC - I'd greatly enjoy to have the option to print out the original 4e character sheet from the builder (the one used on the old builder and available for download on the site) instead of the essentials sheet?

Also if a blank sheet could be available for print for those of us who like to write in all our powers and such? I find it easier to level and just enjoy to do things pencil/paper.

Feb 4, 2010 -- 5:15AM, JamesManhattan wrote:

I had the crash problem also.
I followed these instructions and everything works now!! Thank you!

quote from two previous posts

Step 1: Go to Control Panel -> Add / Remove Programs and look for MSXML and remove them.

Step 2: Then download new version and install it.

    * the manual download:
      MSXML 6.0 (XP): Download. You'll most likely want the msxml6_x86.msi version.
www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...


Step 3: Make sure your .NET is updated to 3.5 SP1.  To download the latest version of Microsoft .NET, head to this page. www.microsoft.com/net/Download.aspx

I just did all of that and have no success.  Silverlight keeps crashing without any printing of any kind.  Pretty pissed off that I'm paying 10 bucks a month for no real benefit.

I have the margin cutting problem and still can't figure out a solution. I'm on a mac, I've tried several printers and drivers and tried to print as PDF with no success. I am amazed that this issue, which has been around for more than one year hasn't been fixed yet.

I have the same problem on my Mac in any browser, whether I save to PDF or not, and whether I scale to fit page or any of the other hoops I apparantly have to go through. It's super annoying that WotC hasn't sorted any of this out yet. The only reason I subscribe is for the chracter builder software.

my appologies if this has been already covered somewhere, but I can't get the cb to not print in color. when I go to print and bring up the printer it won't let me open the "print options menu". Currently I am making a pdf and printing in black and white from there, but if there is a fix that I can implement it would make my life easier it would be appreciated

thanks

Hi there,

I've not encountered any margin problem or crashes (only have read the last few pages, so don't what other issues there have been in the past) with the printing with the new CB. However, since about three weeks ago (roughly), I have not been able to print at all. No matter which character I choose or which character sheet I pick, it just makes the printer cycle the pages through with nothing on them.

Anyone else have this problem lately? Any thoughts on what it might be and how to resolve it?

May 17, 2011 -- 11:07AM, Aldarras_Silversnow wrote:

Hi there,

I've not encountered any margin problem or crashes (only have read the last few pages, so don't what other issues there have been in the past) with the printing with the new CB. However, since about three weeks ago (roughly), I have not been able to print at all. No matter which character I choose or which character sheet I pick, it just makes the printer cycle the pages through with nothing on them.

Anyone else have this problem lately? Any thoughts on what it might be and how to resolve it?

Having the same issue, was able to print sheets earlier, just came back to it and now i only get blank pages out of my printer.

Printers working fine, can't find any answers in the FAQ or other sources.

Plain weird.

$(

add me to the list for having the bottom of the page cut off on my macbook.

I cannot print any chars, either i gt a few pages or none at all. first happened May 20th, I could print chars ladst week, but no longer.

-jjm

For the 1st time ever I could print stuff last night. Now I can't print squat.

I can print, but add me to the list of people that have the bottom of the char sheet cut off (OS X 10.6.7 using FF4.0).  The strange thing is it looks like the image is pushed to the left as far as it can go and the bottom of the sheet has been overwritten by the page number footer.  I've seen something very similar when using java server side PDF document generation where the page renders in a default A4 size before it's sent to the printer (so that it doesn't matter at that point if you try and print letter size - it's already screwed up because it renders it in A4 size by default first, then tries to scale it to letter size, which doesn't work well).

Didn't see anything in here about this already, but if I try to print the Ritual Book it simply spits out blank pages.  I can't seem to highlight or otherwise copy the ritual text to the clipboard either, so I am going to have to type out all of my rituals by hand and print those for now.

Last time i tried to print a character out of the builder, I had alot of trouble getting it to print.  I had to keep closing and completely relanching my browser (firefox and IE both).  Like 10 ish times to finally print out the one character, a half orc slayer of level 4.  I think part of the trouble was that I was trying to print different page ranges, like the first 3 pages on regular paper, then the last 2 pages of powers on card stock and it didn't seem to like that separation.  The main issue I kept having was that I would keep sending the request to the printer and the builder wouldn't respond and the printer would show no jobs in qeueue.  Howwever all of them tried to print after I relaunched the browser and the Cb several times.  This was attempting to print straight from the CB to the printer, not to a PDF like I normally do. Thanks. 

Same here. I can't print off of silverlight. Doing so will cause it to crash. When I try to print it from a pdf save file it either crashes or it cuts off the left margin by a good half inch.

The OS X issue is related to the way the PDFs are being generated. It seems that the Character Builder will only generate a full file if you start at page 1 and won't allow any generating of different pages beyond 1. The issue seems to be the screen renderer and the way it outputs its printfile to whichever printer is selected. Every page gets truncated no matter for me no matter what. Each page is output as an image, rather than lots of individual pieces, and those images get truncated. The borders are off, with the top border being about 3x the size of the bottom border.  The document seems to be starting image generation far too low on the page, and that's why the bottom part gets cut of.  This should be a simple fix of changing the initial render position of the image so that it's higher and all of the images should render correctly.

I'm not sure how it's being coded, but this is a hellaciosly annoying bug that almost makes the Character Builder partially useless because important information is being deleted. It's almost driving me to buy a third-party product like HeroLabs so that I can get ALL of the character information in the sheet correctly. I'm going to be running a D&D 4E adventure at Origins next week for my kids and for some other kids and parents and I really dislike the fact that some of the information on their char sheets is going to be cut off.

Printing from IE8 (windows) to a network connected HP CP3505n. The result is one page printed with the following error.

PCL XL error
subsystem: KERNEL
error: IlligalOperatorSequence
operator: SetCursor
position: 27


Printing to a PDF (or one note for that matter) circumvents the problem and prints fine, indicating that silverlight or the character builder is at fault.

It's really annoying that the problem of printing off a Mac has NOT been fixed!!! WTF is my subscription paying for??? Tech support has been anything but helpful with the same BS of, "we're working on it.' Could it be that it's the Microsoft Silverlight that's the problem in and of itself??? You shouldn't be advertising that the Character Builder works on a Mac, that's false and misleading advertising because it DOES NOT work on a Mac, which is obvious with everyone else who has a Mac that is having this problem! Fix this problem already!!! 

meatbag21, I completely agree.  Printing is a joke with this product.   I'm not sure what I am paying for when I have to end up writing in the  bottom of the cards and sheets everytime I level up and want to print  new ones. 

Also does anyone else have an issue with height and weight not showing up in the "Character Sheet Style: Character Builder"?

I called customer support about the cutting off of the bottoms of the pages. their response was that it's because of Microsoft Silverlight. They then informed me that Silverlight isn't supported by Microsoft anymore. My reply was why are you guys still using it then. They of course had no answer to that. 

Aug 9, 2011 -- 11:04PM, meatbag21 wrote:

I called customer support about the cutting off of the bottoms of the pages. their response was that it's because of Microsoft Silverlight. They then informed me that Silverlight isn't supported by Microsoft anymore. My reply was why are you guys still using it then. They of course had no answer to that. 

If indeed you're not just another MS hater making up stories, whoever told you that is wrong.  Silverlight is supported by MS so you really should check your facts before spreading FUD.

Why do people keep saying it isn't supported when it is and will continue to be for at least 12 months after MS announces that they are going to discontinue support?  And when Silverlight 5 is in beta right now and going to be released this fall?

Maybe your printing issues have something to do with SL, maybe not, but SL is fully supported and will continue to be for quite some time yet.  Sorry you're having problems, though.

(BTW, I just remembered one guy in my group prints from a MacBook Air on both his own printer and the one at my house and has no problems whatsoever.  I don't know his specific config though.)

I'm not a MS hater, that's EXACTLY what the guy I had spoken with in their tech department to try and figure out why the character sheet doesn't print out correctly. I'm just repeating what the WOTC technical service rep told me. No need to be a MS hater when the sucky products of MS speak for themselves.

I'll add in an issue with the printing cutting off the bottom of the pages as well. I did have more issue with an HP printer than with my currrent canon, but the issue is still there. Looks exactly like pyronox captured. I'm printing from a mac, generally. Macbook running Snow Leopard and a MacBook Pro running Lion. Same behavior.

Strange... I've never had any of the printing issues (except the Letter vs A4 bug a while back) people are reporting here, but now I'm suddenly incapable of printing even a single page, no matter if I go via a 150 dpi PDF or not. It's like something was changed in a recent patch that messed up the entire printing process for me. 

Hmmmm....

same for me. Just created a new character and now I can't print it out. Was working splendidly before.
 I did recently delete my browser cache, would this have anything to do with it?


It is just spitting out blank pages.     

Windows 7
Internet Explorer 8
Silverlight 4
HP Inkjet printer (networked through router)

The first attempt at printing a character sheet does not meet with success. At times the second and even third attempt [to print] fail. This has happened on multiple occasions and different character builds.

Other Microsoft applications print properly.

If you need any more let me know.

Well major failure wizards programers, as of right now the only way i can get any output from cb is by printing to a primo pdf in IE. so cant actually print directly and forced into useing an unsafe and **** browser. Tried several computers and configurations of hardware and software to figure this out and i do tech work for a living.

Congrats on makeing the list of persons i would personnaly kill with a dull spoon in public.

I to am having problems, everything is up to date i hit the print icon on the char builder on the char sheet section and the printing icon in the toolbar on my desk top appears breefly then vanishes and nothing happens, im only trying to print off my ritual book, in the past i have printed off char sheets on the same printer hp officejet 4500

I've noticed a printing issue on Mac OS X.  The bottoms of the power cards are cut off; actually it looks like the printed page is shifted down about 1/4 inc or so.  When I print to PDF, the PDF has the same problem.

When I print the exact same character from Windows, the pages are not cut off.  Anyone else notice this problem? 

If you get more than 4 Boni through items/feats/etc for a power that is written below the power card, the font size switches from readable with 4 bonni to unreadable with 5. the font size seems to switch to like 1-2 point size.

i had to unequip one item (f.e. gauntlets of blood) to make it readable again and add the bonus below the power by writing it down by hand. if the font size problem cant be solved, i would like to be able to select which bonus i dont want to be displayed so i dont get any issues.
f.e. prime shot

another font size problem with conditional bonus under defenses, the font size is too big and the text goes down into Hit Points. Could be seen with Thiefling race.

Though this things are not a printing issue in general i felt it was ok posting this issue here aswell.

As with others, can't print at all from CB at the mo - although had no prbs few mnths ago when I last used it.

Same problem here as most.  When I am attempting to print from the character builder it is cutting off the botom of each page.  So for the power cards, it is essentially cutting off the "used" checkbox on the bottom row of cards.

I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.8

I also cannot print -- just spits out blank pages.

Win XP
CANON mx300 printer

Has there been any official word on this? Looks like its a common issue.

Wow, lots of posts with no hope, eh?  New subscriber here and the main reason I finally made the switch from the "other" builder is so I could use my Mac and not have to reboot into Windows to use Character Builder.  Well, I still have to reboot into Windows to be able to print my character sheets without having the bottom cut off, so I guess the joke's on me.

Since I see posts about this going all the way back to the beginning of 2011, I'm guessing most of you long time DDI users have just made peace with not being able to print proper sheets? 

Yes, it's beyond ridiculous that the character builder cuts off the bottoms of most sheets on macs and it's still not addressed. Best thing to do is submit a bug report directly referencing this thread.

A year and a half into the project and it still lacks functionality of the old Character Builder.  I seriously need the thing to allow me to select which cards to print and which cards to skip.  I *HATE* having to spend the ink printing 8 old magic items just so I can have a card for the new one.  Also, tons of utility powers don't change as you level, but if you have one attack power on that page, you have to print 8 useless cards to get the one you want.  I'm sick of Wizards tellng me to throw my ink in the trash.  Do Wizards people even use this product at home, or do they just not care because the only time they ever print is at work?

For the people that have trouble with the printer spitting out blank pages, I have found a solution. 

1: Save the file by using the export feature.
2: Open the file with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
3: Print.  Its going to run a setup each time like you are installing new software.

If you use the fax format it has no colour and comes out grainy, but still easily legible.
This might work to fix some of the other problems as well.

I printed from a TIF file on Windows xp home edition with a canon i550 if that is making any diffrence.

Oct 14, 2011 -- 1:05PM, pogminky wrote:

As with others, can't print at all from CB at the mo - although had no prbs few mnths ago when I last used it.

Another here with the same issue.
IE 8, I am running Norton 360

I am NOT HAPPY about this, will have to consider cancelling my DDI if this is not addressed. CANNOT BELIEVE this has been an issue for others and remains unaddressed.

Dec 31, 2011 -- 10:38AM, jpprichard wrote:

Yes, it's beyond ridiculous that the character builder cuts off the bottoms of most sheets on macs and it's still not addressed. Best thing to do is submit a bug report directly referencing this thread.

Gosh, I wish I'd read this thread before I threw $10 into the DDI garbage! Lair Assault's going to be a ****ing blast with half a character sheet.

If you wish to print with the Character Builder your best bet is to download PDFCrator or CutePDF or something similar and print your character sheet to pdf and then print that pdf.  I recommend setting the dots per inch to about 144 or 150 to keep file sizes small.

When I chose to print to PDF, I got a pdf that looked exactly like the printout--the bottom portion of each page cut off.

Jan 23, 2012 -- 11:52AM, Unknown_Agent wrote:

When I chose to print to PDF, I got a pdf that looked exactly like the printout--the bottom portion of each page cut off.

Do you mean with PDFCreator or CutePDF?  Check to see if you have it set for Letter and not L4 or whatever its called in Europe

Jan 7, 2012 -- 8:14PM, Richardine wrote:

For the people that have trouble with the printer spitting out blank pages, I have found a solution. 

1: Save the file by using the export feature.
2: Open the file with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
3: Print.  Its going to run a setup each time like you are installing new software.

If you use the fax format it has no colour and comes out grainy, but still easily legible.
This might work to fix some of the other problems as well.

I printed from a TIF file on Windows xp home edition with a canon i550 if that is making any diffrence.

I've also had problems with getting blank pages printed. (I use Windows XP.) For a while I could avoid it by rebooting the computer and immediately going straight to CB and printing the character sheet I wanted, but this no longer works.  I also JUST tried printing to a PDF (installed CutePDF just for that purpose), but the pdf it produced was also blank. 

I just shot an inquiry to Customer Service. 

I also tried doing what is suggested above.  I saved the character using the Export feature and opened it using the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.   Unfortunately, it came up with a blank page that said No Preview Available, and the Print button was inactive. So no luck there.

Oddly, I have discovered that if I use my computer at work, and print immediately after rebooting, I do get one character sheet to print before they start coming out blank.  Problem is I don't have a color printer at work.  Actually, that's not quite true.  There is a community color printer, and when I printed a nine-page character sheet to the color printer, the first six pages came out blank, and the last three printed fine.  This is a repeatable phenomenon.  Unfortunately, I don't know the details of what differences exist between my home computers and my office computer.

Suggestions?

Rex Joyner

Jan 24, 2012 -- 6:21PM, Mithreinmaethor wrote:

Jan 23, 2012 -- 11:52AM, Unknown_Agent wrote:

When I chose to print to PDF, I got a pdf that looked exactly like the printout--the bottom portion of each page cut off.

Do you mean with PDFCreator or CutePDF?  Check to see if you have it set for Letter and not L4 or whatever its called in Europe

It's a mac thing.  The OS automatically generates a PDF without an outside program.  There's apparently just still the same bug that screws up the generation of the file.

Jan 25, 2012 -- 7:26PM, rjoyner6 wrote:

I've also had problems with getting blank pages printed. (I use Windows XP.) For a while I could avoid it by rebooting the computer and immediately going straight to CB and printing the character sheet I wanted, but this no longer works.  I also JUST tried printing to a PDF (installed CutePDF just for that purpose), but the pdf it produced was also blank. 

I just shot an inquiry to Customer Service. 

Oddly, I have discovered that if I use my computer at work, and print immediately after rebooting, I do get one character sheet to print before they start coming out blank.  Problem is I don't have a color printer at work.  Actually, that's not quite true.  There is a community color printer, and when I printed a nine-page character sheet to the color printer, the first six pages came out blank, and the last three printed fine.  This is a repeatable phenomenon.  Unfortunately, I don't know the details of what differences exist between my home computers and my office computer.

Suggestions?

Rex Joyner

Okay, here's an update. 

First off, Customer Service was zero help.  They suggested making sure my printer drivers are updated (they are) or to try a different browser. (How can you get any more basic than Internet Explorer?) Could the problem be that I'm using Windows XP instead of a more recent release?

I managed to figure out a workaround, but it's a pain.  I had our IT people at work install CutePDF on my work computer, the one which will produce a full, correct character sheet if I do it immediately after rebooting. (The problem with it is my office has a B&W-only printer.)  I then email the resulting PDF file to myself at home and print it on my own printer, which means I can use card stock.  Fortunately, both my work computer and my home computer are capable of handling 9+ MB attachments.

By the way, I should mention that CutePDF seems to be safe, but he current version of PDF_Creator seems to be infested with malware.

Has anybody figured out just what the fundamental problem is leading to character sheets printing blank?  Could everyone who is having this problem mention what operating system and browser they're using?  As I said above, I'm on Windows XP and Internet Explorer.

Rex Joyner

Jan 31, 2012 -- 5:12PM, Malraux wrote:

Jan 24, 2012 -- 6:21PM, Mithreinmaethor wrote:

Jan 23, 2012 -- 11:52AM, Unknown_Agent wrote:

When I chose to print to PDF, I got a pdf that looked exactly like the printout--the bottom portion of each page cut off.

Do you mean with PDFCreator or CutePDF?  Check to see if you have it set for Letter and not L4 or whatever its called in Europe

It's a mac thing.  The OS automatically generates a PDF without an outside program.  There's apparently just still the same bug that screws up the generation of the file.

Any ideas how to overcome this?
Any word on when or if it's going to be fixed?

Jan 31, 2012 -- 7:56PM, rjoyner6 wrote:

Jan 25, 2012 -- 7:26PM, rjoyner6 wrote:

I've also had problems with getting blank pages printed. (I use Windows XP.) For a while I could avoid it by rebooting the computer and immediately going straight to CB and printing the character sheet I wanted, but this no longer works.  I also JUST tried printing to a PDF (installed CutePDF just for that purpose), but the pdf it produced was also blank. 

I just shot an inquiry to Customer Service. 

Oddly, I have discovered that if I use my computer at work, and print immediately after rebooting, I do get one character sheet to print before they start coming out blank.  Problem is I don't have a color printer at work.  Actually, that's not quite true.  There is a community color printer, and when I printed a nine-page character sheet to the color printer, the first six pages came out blank, and the last three printed fine.  This is a repeatable phenomenon.  Unfortunately, I don't know the details of what differences exist between my home computers and my office computer.

Suggestions?

Rex Joyner

Okay, here's an update. 

First off, Customer Service was zero help.  They suggested making sure my printer drivers are updated (they are) or to try a different browser. (How can you get any more basic than Internet Explorer?) Could the problem be that I'm using Windows XP instead of a more recent release?

I managed to figure out a workaround, but it's a pain.  I had our IT people at work install CutePDF on my work computer, the one which will produce a full, correct character sheet if I do it immediately after rebooting. (The problem with it is my office has a B&W-only printer.)  I then email the resulting PDF file to myself at home and print it on my own printer, which means I can use card stock.  Fortunately, both my work computer and my home computer are capable of handling 9+ MB attachments.

By the way, I should mention that CutePDF seems to be safe, but he current version of PDF_Creator seems to be infested with malware.

Has anybody figured out just what the fundamental problem is leading to character sheets printing blank?  Could everyone who is having this problem mention what operating system and browser they're using?  As I said above, I'm on Windows XP and Internet Explorer.

Rex Joyner

Here's a further update.  My work computer got upgraded to Windows 7, still using Internet Explorer.  First off, nothing work unless I'm coming off a fresh reboot. When I print to the community color printer, the first six pages come out blank, then pages 7 and higher print fine. This is repeatable, and happens for the character sheets of more than one character.  When I try to print to a PDF file (using CutePDF), the file writes but then self-deletes at the end of the writing process.  I haven't tried printing to my local B&W printer since the upgrade, but that's not a preferred option because I want color in my cards.

Any ideas?  I was SURE that the upgrade to Windows 7 would solve the problem, but no dice. And, CutePDF no longer produces a file I can use.

Rex Joyner

Oct 22, 2011 -- 4:31PM, SlayerConman wrote:

Same problem here as most.  When I am attempting to print from the character builder it is cutting off the botom of each page.  So for the power cards, it is essentially cutting off the "used" checkbox on the bottom row of cards.

I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.8

I assume this is still unsolved? No one's come up with a good workaround (other than booting into Windows...)?

Okay, I have found a solution for Windows machines. Do NOT use Internet Explorer as your browser when using Character Builder.  Instead, Firefox seems to work fine.

Rex Joyner

Feb 23, 2012 -- 12:43PM, DrOct wrote:

Oct 22, 2011 -- 4:31PM, SlayerConman wrote:

Same problem here as most.  When I am attempting to print from the character builder it is cutting off the botom of each page.  So for the power cards, it is essentially cutting off the "used" checkbox on the bottom row of cards.

I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.8

I assume this is still unsolved? No one's come up with a good workaround (other than booting into Windows...)?

Just checked, this is still unsolved. What's really anoying is that it used to work, it broke when they added page numbers, stayed broken when they removed page numbers, and isn't listed as a known issue.

I've submited another bug report. I suggest that all other Mac users do so as well. Maybe they'll get the message that they need to fix this! 

Nov 10, 2008 -- 12:20PM, jcheraz wrote:

The viewer/printing of the character sheet cuts off the last few lines on the first sheet, regardless of portrait/landscape. I can unlock the items, move some things around, and get the lines to display. However, the defaults probably should show every line without the need to do this. In my viewer, the Portrait view ends at the Religion line in Skills. In Landscape view, it makes it to showing most of Thievery, but the word "Thievery" can't be seen (so, about the last 1/3 of the line is gone) plus anything below that. It prints as seen (without these lines). On the power cards page, the words "ACTION" and "RANGE" have the bottom few pixels of cut off on the line. Looks like they are set to bottom of square and need to be reset to Centered.

I am having the same problem using OSX 10.7.3. The bottom of every page is cut off. Any ideas?

I can print OK (Chrome, WinXP), and can use a PDF printer (CutePDF) - but one thing I've noticed is the unbelievable *size* of the data file CB is sending to the printer.  It's over 120 MB per page - the finished PDF, when I'm making them, is about 1 MB per page.  I figure that the PDF will have *some* compression... but 100-to-1?!?  No other application that I run on my computer seems to send such enormous files to a print device.

I also get *frequent* "Silverlight not responding" alerts while I use the CB.  What is going on with the memory management?

Apr 20, 2012 -- 5:33AM, Rau7 wrote:

I can print OK (Chrome, WinXP), and can use a PDF printer (CutePDF) - but one thing I've noticed is the unbelievable *size* of the data file CB is sending to the printer.  It's over 120 MB per page - the finished PDF, when I'm making them, is about 1 MB per page.  I figure that the PDF will have *some* compression... but 100-to-1?!?  No other application that I run on my computer seems to send such enormous files to a print device.

I also get *frequent* "Silverlight not responding" alerts while I use the CB.  What is going on with the memory management?

I don't know if it has been said in this thread before or not but Silverlight 4 (which the CB is built in) does not have any native print support. So when you are printing from the CB it is printing a large image file.  This is where the huge spool size problems came from.

Apr 20, 2012 -- 6:06PM, Mithreinmaethor wrote:

Apr 20, 2012 -- 5:33AM, Rau7 wrote:

I can print OK (Chrome, WinXP), and can use a PDF printer (CutePDF) - but one thing I've noticed is the unbelievable *size* of the data file CB is sending to the printer.  It's over 120 MB per page - the finished PDF, when I'm making them, is about 1 MB per page.  I figure that the PDF will have *some* compression... but 100-to-1?!?  No other application that I run on my computer seems to send such enormous files to a print device.

I also get *frequent* "Silverlight not responding" alerts while I use the CB.  What is going on with the memory management?

I don't know if it has been said in this thread before or not but Silverlight 4 (which the CB is built in) does not have any native print support. So when you are printing from the CB it is printing a large image file.  This is where the huge spool size problems came from.

Thanks, Mithreinmaethor.  

I saw that there was some issues concerning Silverlight 4, but nothing about its print support.

The spool size *still* seems rather large at 120+MB per page - one page from the PDF printout I get from CutePDF is 2550 x 3300, at I assume 3 bytes per pixel, which would be about a 25MB bitmap per page... it's as if CB is sending the images of all the pages, each time it's asking the printer to produce 1 page.

It just seems like a major software development issue (like, a pre-beta issue), unless a character made in CB is only viewed in CB.

Unless there's an application that can parse the .dnd4e export files?  Seems like an XML derivative.

Apr 24, 2012 -- 4:19PM, Rau7 wrote:

Apr 20, 2012 -- 6:06PM, Mithreinmaethor wrote:

Apr 20, 2012 -- 5:33AM, Rau7 wrote:

I can print OK (Chrome, WinXP), and can use a PDF printer (CutePDF) - but one thing I've noticed is the unbelievable *size* of the data file CB is sending to the printer.  It's over 120 MB per page - the finished PDF, when I'm making them, is about 1 MB per page.  I figure that the PDF will have *some* compression... but 100-to-1?!?  No other application that I run on my computer seems to send such enormous files to a print device.

I also get *frequent* "Silverlight not responding" alerts while I use the CB.  What is going on with the memory management?

I don't know if it has been said in this thread before or not but Silverlight 4 (which the CB is built in) does not have any native print support. So when you are printing from the CB it is printing a large image file.  This is where the huge spool size problems came from.

Thanks, Mithreinmaethor.  

I saw that there was some issues concerning Silverlight 4, but nothing about its print support.

The spool size *still* seems rather large at 120+MB per page - one page from the PDF printout I get from CutePDF is 2550 x 3300, at I assume 3 bytes per pixel, which would be about a 25MB bitmap per page... it's as if CB is sending the images of all the pages, each time it's asking the printer to produce 1 page.

It just seems like a major software development issue (like, a pre-beta issue), unless a character made in CB is only viewed in CB.

Unless there's an application that can parse the .dnd4e export files?  Seems like an XML derivative.

When you are using a print to pdf program you need to make sure to set it so that it prints to 144 or 150 DPI each time otherwise it is going to be a huge file since its trying to print an image to pdf.  Most of my PDFCreator character pdf's range from .8 to 3.8 megs at 150 dpi.

Anyone found a solution for the Mac community and the cut at the end of the pages?  After 2 years of begging, shouldn't we have a solution?  Thanks for anyone who may have a solution.

Jan 13, 2013 -- 3:43PM, Miradorel wrote:

Anyone found a solution for the Mac community and the cut at the end of the pages?  After 2 years of begging, shouldn't we have a solution?  Thanks for anyone who may have a solution.

Don't think this going to happen.

Gak! I can't believe this. I've tried saving to PDF, I've tried choosing "Scale to fit paper size"...I have no idea why this is happening. I'll submit a bug report, but this shouldn't be a problem.