Posted to news:alt.discuss.webtv.printerhelp
Tue. March 7, 2000
by Femaster (powerhouse)
Printing #10 Envelopes
How many of you have been wanting to address your #10 envelopes using the envelope slot that is built into your printer? I know I have for quite some time.... Good news....
I have developed a way to use the supplied envelope slot on your HP printer to address your envelopes. It is a little confusing at first, but once you do it a few times, you'll get the hang of it.
This was designed to work with my HP 610CL printer. It should work for all other HP printers that have the envelope port on the right side of the paper tray as well. I can'y say for sure if it will work on any of the HP 400 series, or any of the Cannon printers..... give it a shot if you like.....
First step, go to The Address Server at http://www.cedar.buffalo.edu/adserv.html
Next, move down to the input box and enter the person's name and address in the box. Be sure you press the RETURN key after each line, even the last line. If you don' know the full address, 0r aren't sure about the spelling, don't worry the site will correct the address automatically. Now click on "Process This Address."
It will bring up another page. Scroll down once, you will find a button labelled "Gif Image" , click this.
This brings up a GIF of an envelope with the address printed on it. Now you need to get the URL of this GIF. To do that, press the GO TO button on your keyboard. Now, move down to the SHOW CURRENT button and click it. Copy the URL shown and insert it into the HTML coding below, in the indicated location...
Now, bring the coding with the URL to an HTML Test-Bed of your choice, and execute it. This should bring up a screen containing the GIF image, only a little smaller in size.
Insert your envelope into the envelope slot, as indicated on the picture on your printer. Choose PRINT, and then from the Print Menu, choose PRINT again (NOT PRINT SCREEN!)
Voila, a perfectly addressed envelope.
HINT: The image of the address only lasts a few days. If you write this person, or place often, you could take and transload the GIF image to your own website, and use it indefinitely... you could also create an actual HTML file with the URL address of the transloaded image on your own site, and have a permanent program for printing the person's address.
NOTE: Change all the "( )" to the standard "< >" before executing the program.
I have received a few emails regarding the barcode not showing up on the printed envelopes. It turns out that the "WIDTH" needs to be adjusted if you are printing with an HP 800 series printer. Thus far, I haven't heard of any problems with use on other HP 600 series printers.
I was told that a setting of "260" instead of my "41%" seems to work for the HP 800 series. It supposedly prints the barcode at the very bottom edge of the envelope. If it is in fact at the VERY edge, I would decrease the width a little more, possibly to "255".
My original figure of "41%" was derived from the careful comparing the size of the printed barcode to those I found on commercial mail I had received. I dont know if barcode size matters to the computer that scans it at the post office, but I just figured it was better to play it safe and match it up.
With a little tinkering, using a standard sheet of paper, I'm sure someone (or you) could come up with a decent width figure that would match up the barcode sizes for use on the HP 800 series printers.
FeMaster
Toodizzy eric's comments..........Since YOU can't use www.stamps.com with wtv to address AND apply postage in one step, you can try this method or use DEll"s excellent Express Envelopes
But for ease I still say use a return address label maker for both the TO and the from.
Or a typewriter, lets face it, you have probably become a much better typist! So knocking out an envelope should take two minutes. No matter which method you use you have to type the actual address. (using Hadoe's or Jerry11's cookied label makers does mean the info would be stored there, you type once. Plus using all 6 users you could have a lot of different combinations of frequently used address.
