If you use 40-character addresses (that is, the 'Limit address label width to 30 characters' field on the 'General' tab of the preferences definition screen is not checked) you may experience some problems when printing your labels, bills, and renewal notices. In most cases, these problems can be resolved by choosing the proper font.
If you use a printer that uses downloadable scalable fonts, such as an ink jet or laser printer then it is easy to choose a font that is small enough to print 40-character wide labels within the physical confines of a label. For example the commonly available Avery 5160 label stock for laser printers has 10 rows of 3 labels on an 8.5" x 11" sheet, each label being one inch high and 2 and 5/8 inches wide. In order to fit 40 characters into a width of 2 5/8 inches the character, the pitch must be no more than 16 characters per inch. This requirement can be met by using a 7 point "Lucida Console" or an 8 point "Courier New" font. Both of these are fixed pitch fonts. You can also use a proportional font such as Times New Roman or Arial Narrow, but then the width of the label text will depend on exactly what characters are on each line and you risk running off the edge of the label if there are a lot of wide characters. This is particularly a problem if you have entered your addresses in upper case because upper case characters are wider than lower case characters.
If, on the other hand, you have an impact printer such as one of the Epson DFX series, then the printer achieves its maximum rated speed only when you use one of the built-in printer fonts. Windows will allow you to use scalable fonts with these printers but the printing will be very slow. Suppose you are printing standard Cheshire labels with four labels across on 14 1/2 inch paper. The labels are supposed to be 3 inches wide with a half inch between each label to allow sufficient clearance for the Cheshire machine to cut the labels. In order to print 40 characters in a width of 3 inches, the character pitch must be no more than 40/3 or 13.33 characters per inch. The Epson DFX 5000 has built-in fonts with a pitch of 10, 12 and 17 characters per inch. The 10 and 12 pitch fonts are too wide. The 17 pitch font is narrow enough -- but it is so narrow as to be virtually unreadable. The Epson DFX 5000+, on the other hand, has a built-in 15 pitch font which should be acceptable.
Printing 40-character wide addresses on standard bills and renewal notices is a little easier. There is approximately 3 1/3 inches available for printing the address. Forty-character wide addresses will fit in that space if they are printed at 12 characters per inch. On laser and ink jet printers with scalable fonts, this requirement can be met by using a 10 point "Lucida Console" or an 11 point "Courier New" font. Most impact printers (such as the Epson DFX series) have built-in 12 pitch fonts that should work.
Overall, whether you choose to make use of 30-character wide or 40-character wide addresses will depend on how you print your labels, bills, and renewal notices. If your printer (or your letter shop's printer) cannot print using a font small enough to fit your label stock then you must select the 'Limit address label width to 30 characters' field on the 'General' tab of the preferences definition screen.
Click here for additional label setup information.
Click here for general page setup information.