As an exercise in getting familiar with the Qt 4 toolkit, I'm working on a program that seems to be missing from all the linux money programs I can discover (gnucash, kmymoney, etc). None of 'em can print real physical checks worth spit (or even at all for some).
I figure I can just make this a stand alone program that prints checks and generates .qif files at the same time, which I can then import into the money program of my choice.
Does this sound remotely useful? Have I missed some program that does a good job of check printing (quicken does, of course, but the point is to get away from windows).
Is it worth aiming to make this thing release quality, or should I just stick with the learning exercise? :-).
On Sunday 24 December 2006 23:39, Tom Horsley wrote:
As an exercise in getting familiar with the Qt 4 toolkit, I'm working on a program that seems to be missing from all the linux money programs I can discover (gnucash, kmymoney, etc). None of 'em can print real physical checks worth spit (or even at all for some).
I figure I can just make this a stand alone program that prints checks and generates .qif files at the same time, which I can then import into the money program of my choice.
Does this sound remotely useful? Have I missed some program that does a good job of check printing (quicken does, of course, but the point is to get away from windows).
Is it worth aiming to make this thing release quality, or should I just stick with the learning exercise? :-).
I think you are wasting your time unless you just want to fill in the blanks of a ready-made, purchased from the bank, check.
The reason? They are custom imprinted with a magnetic pattern that contains the information to route and clear that check, with only the amount being required to be read and entered by hand at the clearing point.
We don't have the facilities to do that for an otherwise identical looking check, and if we did, I imagine the secret service would come to pay a visit, probably without knocking other than the door in to gain entrance. They tend to take a very dim view of counterfeiting, which could easily be done with essentially the same printing equipment.
That's the main reason none of the money programs go there. However, I'd imagine that most are capable of printing on the banks checks even if a template might have to be built.
But, why bother since most online banking can now be done without you're having to write a check at all. Its the end of the year and I just used the last check in that book of 40. I put it in the carrier of my billfold in february. Everything else has been handled online.
On Mon, 25 Dec 2006 00:17:53 -0500 Gene Heskett gene.heskett@verizon.net wrote:
I think you are wasting your time unless you just want to fill in the blanks of a ready-made, purchased from the bank, check.
That's exactly what I want to do (and what quicken can do as well).
However, I'd imagine that most are capable of printing on the banks checks even if a template might have to be built.
I imagined that too until I tried a bunch of them. GnuCash can print exactly one check, and you have to tell it where the fields are each and every time you want to print a check (it won't remember templates for different checks).
KMyMoney won't print anything - not reports, not nuthin (and especially no checks).
But, why bother since most online banking can now be done without you're having to write a check at all.
Every once and a while I have to write a real check (less and less frequently as time passes), and it always irritates me to write the same set of numbers on the check and into the computer, so if I write the program, by the year 3099 I will have saved enough time duplicating information on checks to make up for the time it took to write the program :-).
But, like I said, it is mostly a Qt4 learning exercise (and if I do release it, there will be one less "yea, but linux can't do XXX" :-).
On Monday 25 December 2006 00:35, Tom Horsley wrote:
On Mon, 25 Dec 2006 00:17:53 -0500
Gene Heskett gene.heskett@verizon.net wrote:
I think you are wasting your time unless you just want to fill in the blanks of a ready-made, purchased from the bank, check.
That's exactly what I want to do (and what quicken can do as well).
However, I'd imagine that most are capable of printing on the banks checks even if a template might have to be built.
I imagined that too until I tried a bunch of them. GnuCash can print exactly one check, and you have to tell it where the fields are each and every time you want to print a check (it won't remember templates for different checks).
Have you tried gnumeric? I haven't checked, but its rather highly thought of. Hummm, just did, couldn't find a print function except for the whole sheet. Bummer.
KMyMoney won't print anything - not reports, not nuthin (and especially no checks).
But, why bother since most online banking can now be done without you're having to write a check at all.
Every once and a while I have to write a real check (less and less frequently as time passes), and it always irritates me to write the same set of numbers on the check and into the computer, so if I write the program, by the year 3099 I will have saved enough time duplicating information on checks to make up for the time it took to write the program :-).
But, like I said, it is mostly a Qt4 learning exercise (and if I do release it, there will be one less "yea, but linux can't do XXX" :-).
Which is always a Good Thing(TM), so if you've ever been green like Kermit, then by all means jump right in. Of course I'm not the boss, just another retired old fart tossing in his $0.02 worth. Adjust for inflation over the last 72 years. :)
Gene Heskett wrote:
I think you are wasting your time unless you just want to fill in the blanks of a ready-made, purchased from the bank, check.
The reason? They are custom imprinted with a magnetic pattern that contains the information to route and clear that check, with only the amount being required to be read and entered by hand at the clearing point.
We don't have the facilities to do that for an otherwise identical looking check, and if we did, I imagine the secret service would come to pay a visit, probably without knocking other than the door in to gain entrance. They tend to take a very dim view of counterfeiting, which could easily be done with essentially the same printing equipment.
Just about any laser printer can print checks with the magnetic encoding. The hard part is getting the toner cartridge with the magnetic ink. But they are available. You do have to be a bit careful of the check layout - too much artwork can give the readers problems. It also get expensive as the magnetic ink cost more. One way around this is to use a color laser printer, and replace one of the toner cartridges with the magnetic ink. You have to do the layout so that you do not use the magnetic ink except in the account/routing information, and only use the magnetic ink there. There is a font for producing the account/routing information. As an added benefit, you can encode the check amount when you print the check. (I don't remember all the details any more - the setup was 15-20 years ago, with a monochrome laser printer.)
Mikkel
Gene Heskett wrote:
I think you are wasting your time unless you just want to fill in the blanks of a ready-made, purchased from the bank, check.
The reason? They are custom imprinted with a magnetic pattern that contains the information to route and clear that check, with only the amount being required to be read and entered by hand at the clearing point.
We don't have the facilities to do that for an otherwise identical looking check, and if we did, I imagine the secret service would come to pay a visit, probably without knocking other than the door in to gain entrance. They tend to take a very dim view of counterfeiting, which could easily be done with essentially the same printing equipment.
On Mon, Dec 25, 2006 at 11:03:34AM -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
Gene Heskett wrote:
How about taking either one of these and making it availalble as a library so that other programs (e.g. gnucash) can then call the library.
Or make it available as a command line program. Most languages have something equivalent to perl's system() call.
Or both.
On Monday 25 December 2006 12:49, Charles Curley wrote:
On Mon, Dec 25, 2006 at 11:03:34AM -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
Gene Heskett wrote:
How about taking either one of these and making it availalble as a library so that other programs (e.g. gnucash) can then call the library.
Or make it available as a command line program. Most languages have something equivalent to perl's system() call.
Or both.
From reading the sites docs, I have to assume this utility only will work
with laser printers, there not being any magnetic ink available for these that I'm aware of. I can see where it might be a print head clogger too.
On Monday 25 December 2006 12:03, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
Gene Heskett wrote:
I think you are wasting your time unless you just want to fill in the blanks of a ready-made, purchased from the bank, check.
The reason? They are custom imprinted with a magnetic pattern that contains the information to route and clear that check, with only the amount being required to be read and entered by hand at the clearing point.
We don't have the facilities to do that for an otherwise identical looking check, and if we did, I imagine the secret service would come to pay a visit, probably without knocking other than the door in to gain entrance. They tend to take a very dim view of counterfeiting, which could easily be done with essentially the same printing equipment.
Neat, but that does leave things exclusively for printers for which there is magnetic toner available for. I'm not aware of any ink squirters that have such a formulation available. So this may be a laser printer only method.
Tom Horsley wrote:
As an exercise in getting familiar with the Qt 4 toolkit, I'm working on a program that seems to be missing from all the linux money programs I can discover (gnucash, kmymoney, etc). None of 'em can print real physical checks worth spit (or even at all for some).
I figure I can just make this a stand alone program that prints checks and generates .qif files at the same time, which I can then import into the money program of my choice.
Does this sound remotely useful? Have I missed some program that does a good job of check printing (quicken does, of course, but the point is to get away from windows).
Is it worth aiming to make this thing release quality, or should I just stick with the learning exercise? :-).
If you decide to do it, you may want to generate a postscript file that is the template for the check, and your program sets the values of the variables in the template. I did something like that in a script for printing envelopes.
http://www.infinity-ltd.com/mikkel/programs.html
Mikkel
On Sun, 24 Dec 2006, Tom Horsley wrote:
As an exercise in getting familiar with the Qt 4 toolkit, I'm working on a program that seems to be missing from all the linux money programs I can discover (gnucash, kmymoney, etc). None of 'em can print real physical checks worth spit (or even at all for some).
I figure I can just make this a stand alone program that prints checks and generates .qif files at the same time, which I can then import into the money program of my choice.
Does this sound remotely useful? Have I missed some program that does a good job of check printing (quicken does, of course, but the point is to get away from windows).
How about sql-ledger (www.sql-ledger.org), although that might be over kill. But it is good at filling in preprinted checks. Printing your own checks is too much of a hassel in the USA. You need to meet all of the various requirements for magnetic ink in the correct places, etc.
Is it worth aiming to make this thing release quality, or should I just stick with the learning exercise? :-).
Filling out preprinted checks is easy. Printing your own checks is IMO more trouble than it is worth. Especially since today fewer and fewer checks are being written. In my business we have written about 15 checks so far for 2006.
It is just too easy to pay on line for most transactions.
Regards,
On Mon, 25 Dec 2006 13:38:00 -0500 (EST) Tom Diehl tdiehl@rogueind.com wrote:
How about sql-ledger (www.sql-ledger.org), although that might be over kill. But it is good at filling in preprinted checks. Printing your own checks is too much of a hassel in the USA. You need to meet all of the various requirements for magnetic ink in the correct places, etc.
I hadn't found that one before, looks like it can indeed print checks (but would be like killing a fly with a 500 pound bomb to use it for just a checkbook :-).
On Mon, 2006-12-25 at 15:42 -0500, Tom Horsley wrote:
On Mon, 25 Dec 2006 13:38:00 -0500 (EST) Tom Diehl tdiehl@rogueind.com wrote:
How about sql-ledger (www.sql-ledger.org), although that might be over kill. But it is good at filling in preprinted checks. Printing your own checks is too much of a hassel in the USA. You need to meet all of the various requirements for magnetic ink in the correct places, etc.
I hadn't found that one before, looks like it can indeed print checks (but would be like killing a fly with a 500 pound bomb to use it for just a checkbook :-).
I have been hesitant to offer this, but from what I just read, this might be a good time! Use a pen. <ducks and runs> Ric
On Mon, 25 Dec 2006 17:19:01 -0500 Ric Moore wayward4now@gmail.com wrote:
I have been hesitant to offer this, but from what I just read, this might be a good time! Use a pen. <ducks and runs> Ric
Nah, that's what I do now, but then I have to type the same number into the computer, so if I write a program, in forty years or so I will have saved enough time to make up for the time it took to write the program :-).
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Charles Curley -
Gene Heskett -
Mikkel -
Ric Moore -
Tom Diehl -
Tom Horsley