Printing Ticket Numbers

[John Rayner]

Hello Albacore,

Let me know if you run into a problem. I might be able to help you. I would suggest writing the script so it runs on your machine and creates a Local CSS/HTML page. Then just open a browser and print. I would use tables and 1 pixel gifs for positioning. Remember to leave room for the header and footer/pagebreaks. Set your number of tickets in a cfg file. Changing the ticket body would just be a case of replacing the gif/jpg. You do not have to be limited to 96 DPI graphics either. Set the height and width in the img tag and go for 300DPI at 100% quality.

[jens g.r. benthien]

As appealing as John's method is, you don't need to code one single line.

Print the amount of tickets you need. Then use your word processor (Word, TextMaker, Wordpad), insert a page number (auto number) where the ticket number should appear, select the font, define 10.000 pages for the document and print. Though I don't know about Word, I know this works with TextMaker, which is similar to Word.

Or you can use PageMaker or InDesign for this job as well: just define the auto page numbering on the Master Pages, specify 10.000 pages and print.

No hair pulling involved ;-}

[John Rayner]

"I am sure there is another way where you take the design of say your twenty tickets on one page into a spreadsheet and work from there." - Albacore

Jens That is totally correct for 1 ticket per page. What you happened to miss was his desire to have 20 tickets on one page.

[jens g.r. benthien]

John,

no problem with TextMaker... you simply define 20 labels as pages and insert an auto number for the pages...

Doesn't Word offer this feature? I don't use Word at all ;-}, just the SoftMaker Office and OpenOffice.

And if you use fineprint (www.fineprint.com) you can assign one page number per page (the size of your label) and use the n-up function to print the result.

There are so many great little apps out there, but most people don't know about them. Fineprint does work with any app...

[Kman]

I have made an Excel "solution"/example for
you, Albacore. The spreadsheet is set up to
print 20 tickets per page, with the numbers
incremented from your "Start Number". The main
body of the "ticket" is a XaraX made graphic.

I used Excel 2000. If you read the comments
at the top of the sheet, you'll find simple
instructions. I hope this idea helps.

Note : you could modify the spreadsheet by
copying down vertically the Print Range
several times, to get a greater volume of
printable ranges.

Here's the zip file.

Ken

[weldorman]

There is also a nice,free app from www.Avery.com called DesignPro that has a serial number feature.The program is very flexible with custom label sizes. I couldn't find any templates with just 20 labels other
than some address labels but created a 20 label
page(8.5 X 11) with labels 1.95 X 2 inches. Of course one would have to cut these out by hand but if not many where needed would be practical.



Mike

[OklaEd]

"Of course one would have to cut these out by hand"

No need to cut by hand ... I work closely with my local printshop, and print business card, annoucements, (and tickets) on my color laser ... then take to the printshop to be cut. They charge me $5.00 to cut 1000 business cards. If you do a little design work for them on the side ... it can be a nice arrangement. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Albacore]

After posting last night I did a search, rather than get my peril book out, and found many methods which all of you have stated bar the Avery one.

Yes I spent too long over the computer and I tried Jens method using InDesign with the auto number and linked text cells and with the master having a very small text frame just wide enough to fit the number and then using Kmans Excel sheet I took it into word and made it into a Word doc which was then posted into the text frame and then whizz bang I had the tickets ready to print.

I found another way which is the same as Ed's script for CorelDraw which uses Java script that I can use in Illustrator but before I try it I will need to semi understand the script as I would like to print some tickets out with rows, eg. A, 025 and down to X, 012.

Thank you once again, as I have been overwhelmed by your responces, and all of you pointed me in the right direction. Thank you.

[Egg Bramhill]

Albacore
Just another way !!! If you have Flash you can easily create a home ticket maker. Example here.
This is a very basic one just to show the idea, no maximising ticket sizes or print button added.
Egg

[Albacore]

Gosh! that is a wonderful solution Egg. Can you please point me in the right direction for the answer, as my Flash skills are not that bad. Even my action script is better than my HTML coding knowledge.

Yes I do own copy of Flash and like you I work on the bare bones in Xara and then import although lately the confidence has increased and now if I don't go straight into Flash I go through FH.