# Frequently Asked Questions

I should have added this page years ago. I get a ton of QSLMaker email, it'a almost all about the same few questions.

- How do I print 4 cards per page
- I always get a black background when I print
- How can I add a jpeg file as a background
- How can I save the card as a jpeg/gif/whatever
- How can I send the finished card in an email
- How do I get a slashed zero in my call
- It looks OK on the screen but the fonts are messed up when printing

### How do I print 4 cards per page

There are really 2 possibilities here, get a different printer or use bigger paper. There is also a little hack that sometimes works.

To print 4 cards on a page, you need to print an area 7x11 (2 - 3.5" cards high by 2 - 5.5" cards wide). The 7 inch direction is no problem. Most printers only need 1/4" or so margin on the long edge, leaving plenty of room for 7" of printing. The 11" is a problem, though. Virtually all printers require some margin, and 11" of printing on 11" of paper leaves no margin at all. The problem can be especially confusing on HP DeskJets, which require almost no margin on the leading edge (usually the left), but a whopping 0.8" margin on the trailing edge.

You can get "borderless" printers that require no margins at all, but the affordable ones only print small pages and are very expensive to operate.

The obvious alternative is to use bigger paper. A4 paper is almost perfect, but A4 paper is hard to get on this side of the Atlantic, and I've never seen A4 card stock here. Legal size paper works just fine, and photo coated legal size card stock is not only available, but reasonably priced.

I mentioned a hack. If your printer has a very small leading margin, you can set up QSLMaker to print 2 cards right up against the left edge of the page, print the 2 cards, then turn the paper and print 2 more cards. This will require you to put a negative number in for the X value of the cards on the Set->Page dialog. You will need to experiment with the value which depends on your particular printer and driver. This is a little tedious but it will let you use up that stock of letter size card stock.

### I always get a black background when I print

If you are using an HP DeskJet, download Version 2.4. If you are using some other printer, please email me.

### How can I add a jpeg file as a background

QSLMaker will only accept Windows bitmaps for backgrounds (as of version 2.4). Convert the .jpg to a .bmp using Windows Paint or your favorite graphics program.

### How can I save the card as a jpeg/gif/whatever

QSLMaker has no capability at the current time to export the card as an image file. You can, however, do a screen capture and save the card, especially if you have a reasonably high resolution screen. There are hundreds of screen capture programs and if you have one, I would recommend using it. However, if you don't have such a program, you can still do it, using the following (admittedly ugly) technique:

- Bring the card up on the screen the way you want it to look in the image file.
- Press PrtScn
- Open Windows Paint (usually at Start->Programs->Accessories->Paint)
- Type Ctrl+V
- Click Yes when asked if you would like the bitmap enlarged
- Click on the eraser tool
- Click on the rectangular select tool (upper right of the tool box)
- Carefully drag a rectangle over the QSL Card image
- Type Ctrl+C
- Select File->New
- Click No when asked if you want to save changes
- Select Image->Attributes and put in some small number for length and width
- Type Ctrl+V
- Click Yes when asked if you would like the bitmap enlarged
- Select File->Save and save the card image

### How can I send the finished card in an email

Follow the procedure above. At the last step, select JPEG from the "Save file as type" box at the bottom of the File Save dialog. Attach the saved file to your email.

### How do I get a slashed zero in my call

The slash through the zero is a characteristic of the font. The short answer is to use a font containing a slashed zero. Chances are if you have any such fonts, they are really ugly.

The workaround has been to use the Nordic character that looks like a letter o with a slash though it. You can form this character by holding down the Alt key, pressing the digits 0 2 1 6 on the numeric keypad, then releasing the Alt key. This will usually show up as a block in the Set->Call dialog, but will show as a slashed 0 for most fonts.

Recently, WA6AXE put up a web page with a number of fonts having slashed zeroes. This page, at the time this help file is being created, is at: http://www.qsl.net/wa6axe/fonts.html.

### It looks OK on the screen but the fonts are messed up when printing

Go to Start->Settings->Printers. Right click on your printer and select Properties. Depending on the printer, there will be a number of tabs. Look for a control (usually a button) labeled Spool Setting or something similar (possibly on the Details tab). Click the button and there should be a selection for Spool Data format. There will be only 2 or 3 choices (depending on your printer). Select a different one.

31 Oct 02