Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

    Hey, all. Long time, no type. The good news is that I'm now on the writing staff of CHICAGO FIRE. The bad news is that my scripts are printing funky.

    Using Final Draft 8 on a PC (Toshiba Satellite laptop) and Brother laser printer, I'm getting this weird situation where the pages are printing with more lines per page than Final Draft shows onscreen. Which is a pain, because I get notes from my boss with a hard copy in front of me, and our pages don't always line up, because the dialogue is slowly shifting on mine due to gaining an extra bit of dialogue at the bottom of some pages.

    It looks normal when I'm working on it, and even in the print preview, but then when it prints, it pulls the dialogue from the top of the next page up onto the bottom of the previous page.

    It's a small problem, but a very annoying one. Any thoughts? Thanks.
    The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain

  • #2
    Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

    Thanks for noting what kind of computer you're using (PC vs Mac). Is this Win7 or Win 8? (I vaguely recall this may be an FD8/Win8 issue.)

    Also, what is your default printer setting in Windows? Is it the Brother printer? If not, then: Close FD, change your Windows default to that Brother printer, then open FD and see if it looks right on screen and prints right.

    One possible workaround: Print from FD to pdf using a 3rd-party print driver. And then, assuming that does the page-breaks right, print from that to the Brother printer.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

      Win 8, which I'm just learning my way around.

      Since I got this laptop (just a few days ago), the default printer seems to be the Final Draft pdf converter, even though I never use it. But that's what comes up first in the printer dialog box -- even when I'm not in Final Draft.

      But I'm using the Brother print driver when I do print.
      The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

        Well, as I said, try changing the default printer to the Brother printer. I don't know Win8, but I assume you can go to Help, type in "default printer", and that will lead you to where the Win8 settings are.

        Also, install a 3rd-party pdf print driver - such as CutePDF or PrimoPDF, both are free - and then "Print" to them rather than using the FD pdf function, which on Windows is not accurate WYSIWYG.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

          Well, I've successfully changed the default printer. Of course, my printer isn't functional right now anyway because the toner needs to be replaced, but tomorrow I'll be able to give it a shot and see if this corrects the problem. If not, I'll do the third-party driver thing.

          Thanks!
          The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

            Oh, in the meantime - If FD8 Save as PDF does create a pdf with the right pagination, then you can just do that... and then print to the Brother Printer from that pdf

            One of the reasons I suggest people not use FD8's built-in pdf function: Its margins don't come out right (on Windows) - i.e., top and bottom are not accurate to the FD8 settings.

            But for your purposes, if the key is just getting the pagination right, then the internal FD8 pdf function might do what you need. Because, once you create a pdf, a printer can't change the pagination.

            Otherwise, you might give the FD people a call or e-mail. Be sure to tell them you're using Win8, and also mention which Brother printer you're using.

            One other thing: Be sure you have the latest update from the FD website. In FD8 click on Help | Check for Updates.

            _____

            Aha. Not that I was having the problem you have, but I checked and found I don't have the latest patched version of FD installed. And in the Readme file for the patch, it says it fixes a pagination problem when switching between Mac and Windows. So that could be it.

            The latest version of FD8 for Windows is 8.0.3.

            .
            Last edited by Manchester; 08-14-2014, 05:09 PM. Reason: aha

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

              Yeah, it occurred to me after the question that I could just save to pdf & print the pdf. But I still wanted to sort out the pagination issue.

              Changed out the toner today and setting the office printer as my default seems to have done the trick. But I'll double check that I have the latest update for FD as well.

              Thanks!
              The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

                Originally posted by jillybob View Post
                Changed out the toner today and setting the office printer as my default seems to have done the trick.
                Thanks for posting back with that.

                As I said, I don't have Win8, so that was just a hunch. As someone who's been using Windows since Win 3.1, I'm glad to know that some things about "Windows thinking" have stayed the same - here, the default printer setting.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Final Draft 8 printing extra lines per page

                  Originally posted by jillybob View Post
                  Hey, all. Long time, no type. The good news is that I'm now on the writing staff of CHICAGO FIRE. The bad news is that my scripts are printing funky.
                  I know nothing about Windows 8 (thankfully) or FD8, but congratulations on the good news part of your post.
                  STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X