Printing Foils

Pharmacies using foils have to produce three types of printed output. Usually these are produced on the same printer, so the foils printer has to be defined three times within the Windows control panel, once for each task with appropriate form size.

All three logical printers point to the same physical printer.

Setting up foils printer

• From the Windows Start button click on Settings

• Select printers

• Select Add printer

Create three printer icons.

• Change the name of the first to FoilPackaging<Printer Type> or FoilHeader<Printer Type> etc. Do not use spaces in a network printer name as this prevents some versions of Windows recognising it. It is helpful for support if the name includes the printer model.

• Right-click on the icon and select Properties

• Select Paper tab at top.

• Select "custom" paper size.

• Set width and height as shown below, in 0.1mm scale, see below for settings for various brands and functions.

• Click on Unprintable area button, and set all values to zero.

• Select Details tab at top and check that the port is correct.

• Click OK and get back to the printers control and set the next foil printer function.

Make sure the Scale is set to 0.1mm.

Webster brand foils:

Webster uses the normal labels for the Header label.

There are two varieties of signing sheets, pre-printed or non-pre-printed, so set accordingly.

Foil Header

The Webster brand uses normal labels for this, so direct the Foil header printer to the Label printer, which will be already set. 

Medico

The Medico brand comes in three varieties, either Perforated, Unperforated or Pre Cut. Each of those can use one of two types of signing sheet, either Pre-printed or Non-pre-printed. Unlike Webster, the Header Label is not the same as the normal prescription label and so needs to be directed to the foils printer rather than the label printer.

Foil Printer Setup (0.1mm)

Webster

To change the Pharmacy Details on the Foil Pack.

"Medico packaging licensed to;" header defaults to "Test". To change this to "XYZ Pharmacy"; click on the Windows start button, select Run and type in \lots\foilbody.ini <enter>. Then <F3> to get What? box, type in test <enter>, close the find box and type over the highlighted test with the XYZ pharmacy.

 Advanced setup, period names.

If you have gone into the Foil Packaging Advanced setup, and changed the names in the foil periods, and saved them by pressing OK, before exiting, but find that upon doing a foil, the new period names appear not to have changed, the likely reason is that you have modified to wrong foil type. To correct this.

• Go into Options, then Switchboard.

• Look at see what foil type you are using, e.g. Webster, Medico Perf, or Medico.

• Go back into Printer Setup, then click on Foil Packaging, then click on Advanced.

• When asked to select foil type, ensure that you have chosen the same foil type as you have just viewed in the Switchboards.

• Modify the foil period, as you require them to be, and press OK, to save the changes, before exiting.

• Do a test foil, and check that the new periods are showing. If not, repeat the steps as listed above, starting from Step 1.

Notes

Always test carefully after making changes to foil printing as it is easy to get wrong.

Related Topics

Webster - print to labels click here.

Foil printer problems are described separately in these notes.

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