Frequently Asked Questions About Drivers and How They Affect the Realfast Program?
What is a driver?
- A program designed to interface a particular piece of hardware
to an operating system or other software.
- A set of software that contains instructions that allows the
computer to communicate with its peripheral devices.
- A program that acts like a translator, converting
the output from one device into data that another device can understand.
For example, a PC needs a device driver before it can understand the signals
from a mouse; and needs a device driver in order to interact
with a fax-modem, etc.
- Drivers operate on a very privileged level within your operating system, giving them the ability to interact with other software programs. Video and Printer Drivers are used to interpret the way a program should look on your monitor or print.
Printer Drivers
What is a Printer Driver and what does it do?
- Software that serves as the communication link between applications
and the page-description language used by printers.
- A piece of software installed on a computer which tells the
computer how a certain printer works, how to access the printer, and what
capabilities (such as page size and resolution) the printer has.
- A program that controls printing and sets options such as print
quality and paper size for a particular printer.
How can my Printer Driver affect how my Realfast contracts print?
- With today's technology, the functionality of printers continues
to grow and expand. Some printers have the ability to override formatting
of documents, including but not limited to: changing the font size, changing
the text to be bold/italics/underlined, changing the margins, changing
the page breaks, etc.
- Realfast contracts are complex to print. They contain detailed formatting
to accommodate the headers, footers, tables, fields and other intricacies
of the forms. Sometimes the formatting is predetermined by Realfast software and sometimes the printer to takes on some formatting (page breaks, for example, are
up to your printer to determine). If your printer overrides our code,
there is a greater potential the form will print incorrectly.
- Printer manufacturers will test many software programs to be
sure their printer and its drivers work properly. Realfast also tests
our program and forms on many different printers and computers, to be
sure our product works with the major hardware/software that's out there.
Just like printer companies cannot test every software program out there,
Realfast cannot test every printer. As a result, there can be times where
a printer (especially newer ones) does not interpret the Realfast Forms
correctly. Nine times out of ten, a different printer driver being loaded
onto your computer will fix this problem.
Where can I find what Printer Driver I have loaded on a computer?
You can locate what Printer Driver you have installed on any computer by doing the following:
- Click on your Start button and click on the Control Panel.
- Click on Printers and Faxes.
- Right click on the Printer and left click on Properties.
- Click on the Advanced tab at the top and you can see what driver
is loaded next to where it says Driver.
How can I obtain a different Printer Driver?
- You may contact your printer manufacturer to obtain a different
printer driver. We do not necessarily recommend getting the newest Printer
Driver, because sometimes an older driver may work better.
- Drivers are usually downloadable. With Windows XP, you can "roll back" the driver, in the event that
the Driver you tested does not work properly.
Are there any other things to try before I download a different Printer Driver?
- Yes, you can always try converting your contract to a PDF (Adobe)
file (via the Utilities menu inside the Realfast Program), and test if
it prints better that way. Also, there are more printer setting options
in Adobe than in Realfast, so you can adjust those setting as well.
- Or you may slow down your printer's spooling and disable the
Advanced Printing Features from your Printer's Properties (see above
to see how to get to your Printer's Properties). Under the Advanced tab
there should be spooling options, you want to Start Printing After the
Last Page is Spooled and uncheck Enable Advanced Printing Features.
Video Drivers
What is a Video Driver and what does it do?
- The software that the system uses to communicate with a device
such as a display, printer, mouse, or communications adapter.
- A graphics card, video card, video board, video display board,
display adapter, video adapter, or graphics adapter is a component of
a computer which is designed to convert a logical representation of an
image stored in memory to a signal that can be used as input for a display
medium, most often a monitor utilizing a variety of display standards.
Typically, it also provides functionality to manipulate the logical image
in memory.
How can my Video Driver affect how my Realfast contracts are viewed on my computer screen?
- Your video driver communicates to your monitor how text, graphics,
formatting and all aspects of display appear for each software program.
The Realfast Forms contain extensive amounts of formatting and require
an accurate interpretation to appear correctly. Whenever two software
programs have to communicate, there can be discrepancies. Therefore, if
your video driver does not display the forms correctly, you may try loading
a different one from your computer's manufacturer.
- Computer and software manufacturers test many different software
programs to be sure their video drivers/display adapters work properly.
Realfast also tests our program and forms on many different computers
and operating systems, to be sure our product works with the major hardware
and software that's out there. Just like computer companies cannot test
every software program out there, Realfast cannot test every computer,
video driver and/or display adapter. As a result, there can be times where
a display adapter does not read the Realfast Forms correctly. Nine times
out of ten, a different video driver being loaded onto your computer will
fix this problem.
Where can I find out what Video Driver I have on a computer?
You can locate what video driver/display adapter you have installed on your computer by doing the following:
- Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and click
Properties.
- Click on the Hardware tab at the top.
- Click Device Manger.
- Click the + sign next to Display Adapters, and you will see
the Video Driver or Video Card you have installed on this machine.
How can I obtain a different Video Driver for my computer?
- You may always contact your computer's manufacturer to obtain
a different Video Driver. We do not necessarily recommend getting the
newest Video Driver, because sometimes an older driver may work better.
- Drivers are usually downloadable. With Microsoft
Windows XP, you can "roll back" the driver, in the event that
the Driver you tested does not work properly.
Are there any other things to try before I download a different Video Driver?
Yes! You can try to adjust the Screen Resolution, the Hardware Acceleration and/or the Compatibility Settings (only available on Windows XP). See the links below for more information on those solutions.
• How to Adjust your Compatibility Settings
• How to Adjust your Screen Resolution
• How to Adjust your Hardware Acceleration