Printing splits

Audience: Organisers deciding what printing gear to bring, and timing operators running the download desk on the day.

This page covers what a printout contains, where printers can be and how to set them up, which computer prints where, result labels for the results board, what to do when a print does not come out, and what upgrading from an older version does to your printing.

Note: Everything here is about the printed slip. What a spectator sees on a phone or a TV is covered in TV screens and Event info screens.

What a printout contains

The whole slip is laid out by the server, whichever printer it eventually comes out of — a USB printer on a laptop included. That is worth knowing up front: it means every printer at your event produces the same slip, and the settings that decide what goes on it live in one place rather than on each laptop.

Reading down the slip:

Section	What it says	When it appears
Header	Event name and date	Always
Competitor	Name, club, class, course, course length and climb	Always (club, class and course only when the competitor has them)
Result	Status and race time, in large type. On a score course, the points they finished with — and, when finishing late cost them some, what they collected and what was deducted, so the three add up	Always
Timing	Check, start, finish, card number, and the SIAC battery voltage	Each line only when that time exists
Splits	One row per control: number, control code, leg time, elapsed time — then the finish row	When the card has been read
Extra controls	Punches that were not on the course	Only on a clean (OK) run that has some
Mistakes	The legs that cost time, and the total lost	When the Print mistakes on splits setting is on and the analysis found time lost
Strong legs	The legs run best against the runner's own pace, and the total gained	When the Print strong legs on splits setting is on and the analysis found at least one. At most five — the biggest, printed in course order
Class standings	The current top 3, the runner's own place if they finished outside it, and how much of the class has finished	When the Print top 3 places setting is on and someone has a place
QR code	A heading, the code, and a caption	When the QR code is switched on and has an address
Footer	The meshO logo, or the words meshO Manager	Always

Four of those sections answer questions the operator would otherwise be asked at the desk. Mistakes heads off "where did I lose it?", strong legs heads off "did I do anything right?", class standings heads off "who won?", and the QR code heads off "where do I see the full results?".

Note: Strong legs is the mistakes analysis run the other way, against the same yardstick: the runner's own pace over the rest of their course, not the fastest split. That is deliberate — somebody half way down the field never has the fastest split on anything, so a comparison against the winner would hand most of your entrants a blank section at every event they ever run. Measured against themselves, they get told which control they nailed.

Only the five biggest fit, so a runner who ran well all day gets their best five and a heading that says Strong Legs (top 5). The total underneath still counts every one of them, which is why it can come to more than the five rows above it add up to.

Tip: The standings heading is what stops a runner reading a provisional top 3 as a final result: it says Current top 3 at 10:42am while anyone in the class could still displace those places, and Final top 3 once nobody can. Leave the section on.

Note: The line beneath the places — Finished: 6 of 11 — counts the runners who hold a place against everyone entered in the class. The two do not close the gap between them, and that is not an error: someone who mis-punched, retired, was disqualified, or was seen by the radio finish but has not downloaded yet is neither placed nor still out on the course. If you want to know who is actually still in the forest, that question is Safety check: accounting for everyone, not this line.

Paper width

Manager lays the slip out for the roll it is printing on: 80 mm (the standard width) or 58 mm. The narrow roll fits the same information into fewer columns, so lines wrap more and the slip comes out longer.

Paper width is set per printer, not per event, on the Printers page — except for a printer drawn for its driver in Windows, whose paper size is set in Windows, in that printer's Printing Preferences.

Characters per line and the paper cut

Two more things depend on the printer, not the paper, and Manager cannot find them out for itself. Both are set beside Paper width, and the printer setup test tells you what to choose.

• Characters per line — how many characters of the printer's own font fit across the roll. Standard for this paper is 48 on 80 mm and 32 on 58 mm, which is right for most printers. Printers with a 180 dpi print head — the Epson TM-T88 family and the Bixolon SRP-350 and SRP-F310 among them — fit only 42 on 80 mm paper. Set 48 on one of those and the long lines of every slip wrap onto a second line; switch to the 58 mm setting to stop it and you waste a quarter of the roll.
• Paper cut — which cut command the printer's cutter obeys. A printer quietly ignores a cut it cannot do, so the wrong choice gives you a perfect slip still attached to the roll. 1 · Partial cut works on almost every printer and leaves the slip hanging by a thread, so it does not drop on the floor. 2 · Full cut cuts right through, on printers that have a full cutter. 3 and 4 are older forms of the same cuts, for printers that obey neither of the first two. No cut — tear off is for a printer without a cutter.

Each printer has its own, for the lane that borrowed a different model.

Language

The slip is printed in whichever language you choose in Splits language, independently of the language the operator's browser is in. Left as Same as display language it follows the installation's default language, so an installation that switches language switches its splits prints with it. An event can name a different language of its own, which is what an international event needs.

Where printers can be

Every printer at your event is set up once, in Settings → Printing → Printers, and every computer running Manager can print on it. A printer can be in one of three places:

• On the network. A thermal printer with its own network address (wired or Wi-Fi). The server sends it each printout. Works whatever the server runs on.
• Plugged into the server. A printer installed on the computer running Manager — through Windows, or through the print system of a Mac or Linux computer. The server prints on it.
• Plugged into a laptop running Manager. A USB thermal printer on a download laptop, or on the laptop in the results tent. That laptop's browser prints on it. Shared — the default — every other computer can print on it too, while Manager is open on that laptop. It has to be a printer that understands ESC/POS — see Which printers a laptop can print on. A label printer that needs its own driver, such as a Brother QL, goes on the server instead.

Whichever it is, the server decides what prints where. Each computer has its own choice of printer for the splits of the cards read at it, and another for their result labels. A card read at the download desk in one tent can have its slip printed beside that desk and its label printed on the label printer in the results tent, on a laptop on the other side of the arena.

A laptop's settings — its printer, and where its splits and labels go — are kept on the server, so the laptop is set up at your next event too. If the venue's network gives the server a different address, tell the laptop which computer it is, once — see A USB printer on a laptop: what it needs.

Choosing your setup

One printer, at a collection table

Everything prints in one place: a network printer, or a printer plugged into the server.

Advantages	Disadvantages
One printer to buy, configure, feed with paper and troubleshoot	The slip comes out where the printer is, not where the runner is, so the collection point needs someone at it — or a rack the slips can be left in
The download desk stays lean, and the queue keeps moving — see below	At peak, every lane's slips queue behind one printer, interleaved in whatever order downloads arrive
Any computer can print, whatever browser or device it is running — including a tablet	If it jams or runs out, nothing prints anywhere until it is fixed
Nothing to set up on each download laptop	A network printer needs a stable network and a fixed address to stay reachable

The layout this buys you. Because the printer doesn't have to sit at the desk, downloading and collecting become two separate queues. Reading a card takes a few seconds, so a runner downloads and moves on immediately, and picks their slip up from a table at the far end of the tent — away from the readers, where they can read it and compare times without holding anyone up. The download lanes need less space and less equipment: a laptop and a reader, no printer, no cable, no spare rolls under the table.

Best for: club nights and smaller events, and any event that would rather keep its download lanes clear and hand slips out at a separate table.

A printer at each download desk

Each desk has a printer of its own — a USB printer plugged into its laptop, or a network printer standing beside it — and hands the slip straight over.

Advantages	Disadvantages
The slip comes out beside the runner who just downloaded — no fetching, no mixing up	A printer, a cable and a paper supply per lane
Capacity scales with lanes: four desks print four slips at once	The runner stays at the desk until their slip appears, so the lane moves at the speed of the printing
A printer failing takes out one lane, not the whole tent	A USB printer needs Chrome or Edge on its laptop, and a secure connection on any laptop that is not the server

Best for: events with two or more download lanes where you want the slip handed over at the desk, and lanes spread across separate tents.

Mixing them, and a label printer of its own

Any mix works: a printer on the busy lanes, the quieter ones printing at the collection table, and the results board's labels on a printer of their own. Each computer is set separately, so moving one lane to the collection table is one choice on that lane's row.

Tip: Whichever you choose, bring a spare roll and put it beside the printer. The most common "the printer has stopped" call at an event is an empty roll.

The Printers page

Open Settings → Printing → Printers. The map at the top shows the whole system as it is right now: the computers Manager has been opened on and the USB printers plugged into them on the left, the server in the middle, the network printers on the right. Inside the server's box are the printers installed on it and, if Manager is open in a browser on the server's own computer, that browser too — it is on the server, so it has no line to it. A dot on each says whether it can print: green ready, amber waiting for something (a laptop that is not open, a printer that is not plugged in), red not answering.

Click a computer on the map to see where its prints go: a solid line for its splits, a dotted one for its labels. The computer and the printers they lead to are outlined in the same colour as the lines.

When cards read over the radio network print, the Radio network stands below the computers, joined to the server like one of them. Click it the same way to see where those cards print. It is on the map whenever meshO Prime is switched on; as on Settings → Printing → Radio downloads, it shows where their splits go even when downloads do not print their splits by themselves, and their labels only while labels are on. When neither leads anywhere, its line says Not printed. See Cards read over the radio network.

Below the map:

• This computer — the computer you are sitting at: the USB printer plugged into it, if it has one, and where the splits and labels of cards read here print. On the server's own computer it also lists the printers installed there, which the server prints on whether or not Manager is open. Changing either takes effect at once. Rename changes the name every screen knows this computer by.
• On the network, Plugged into the server, Plugged into other computers — every other printer, with whether it can print now and, for a laptop's printer, how many prints are waiting for it. The ⋮ menu on each has Test print, Printer setup test, Change… and Remove printer….
• Computers — every computer Manager has been opened on, whether it is open now, and where its prints go. While meshO Prime is switched on, the Radio network is listed after them, with where cards read over it print.

Check now asks the network printers and the server's printers whether they answer. The page asks once as it opens; it never asks while a printer is printing.

Adding a printer

Press Add a printer. The first question is the one that decides everything after it: where is it plugged in?

• Into the network — fill in its IP address or host name (most thermal printers print their address if you hold the feed button while switching them on) and the Port (9100 is the usual one).
• Into the server — choose it from the printers installed on the server's computer, and how to print on it (see below). If the server's computer has no print system Manager can use, this choice says so.
• Into this computer — a USB printer plugged into the laptop you are sitting at. Press Choose the USB printer and pick it from the browser's list. Share with every computer is on to begin with: other computers can print on it while Manager is open here. Print the splits of cards read here on it points this computer's splits at it in the same step.
• Into another computer — go to that computer, open Manager there, and add it there. Only the laptop a printer is plugged into can see it.

On the server's own computer, choose Into the server. When you add a printer at the computer running the server, Into the server comes first and says why: the server prints on it even when no Manager page is open — cards read over the radio network included. Into this computer prints only while Manager is open on that computer, and on Windows the printer's own driver usually stops the browser using it at all. Use it there only for a printer the computer's print system cannot use — a thermal printer on a Mac with no print queue set up for it, say.

Then, for every printer:

• Name — use where it stands, not what it is: Lane A, Results board, Prize table. That name is what everyone else picks from, so Epson TM-T20III #2 helps nobody standing in a tent. Leave it blank and the printer is named after its address, its name on the server's computer, or the USB device's own name.
• Paper width — the roll in that printer, 80 mm or 58 mm. A printer drawn for its driver in Windows does not ask: Windows sets its paper size and its cut, in that printer's Printing Preferences.
• Characters per line and Paper cut — for a thermal printer. If you are not sure, print the printer setup test first.

Test print prints with the settings as they are on screen, before you add the printer. Test each printer as you name it — that is how you find out you have Lane A and Lane B the wrong way round while it still costs nothing. A test waits its turn behind any prints already on their way to that printer, so it never comes out in the middle of a runner's slip. A laptop's printer tested from another computer prints as it was last saved, through its laptop — save your changes first, or test it on the laptop itself.

Renaming a printer later is safe: everything pointed at it stays pointed at it. Removing one is not quite, so Remove printer… asks first:

• Every computer that chose it goes back to the default. If it was the Default splits printer, the default becomes Not printed, and computers on the default print no splits until you choose another.
• Prints still waiting for it are reported as not printed on the computer that asked for them, so they can be printed somewhere else.
• An event that chose it — for its result labels, or for cards read over the radio network — prints on the default instead, and that event shows an alert saying so.

How a printer prints: its own font, or a drawn slip

Every printer is printed on one of these ways, chosen when you add or change it:

• Send it ESC/POS sends raw thermal-printer commands, printed in the printer's own font. Use this for a thermal printer — almost all of them understand ESC/POS — and set its Characters per line and Paper cut. It is the fastest, and the slip looks the way that printer's font looks.
• Draw the slip and send it as a picture — Manager draws the slip itself, the way it draws it for a driver, and sends it to the thermal printer as one black-and-white picture. You choose the text size, spacing and boldness, and no driver is needed, so this works for any thermal printer: on the network, a USB printer on a laptop, or one plugged into the server. Characters per line still matters — it tells Manager how wide the printer's head is, so the picture fits — and so does Paper cut, because Manager still cuts the slip.
• Draw the page for its driver (a printer plugged into the server only) prints through the printer's own driver, the way MeOS does: the slip is drawn at the print head's own resolution, so it comes out sharp on a thermal printer, a label printer and an ordinary office printer alike. The driver fits the slip to its paper and cuts it, so characters per line and paper cut do not apply — if a slip comes out uncut, turn on paper cutting ("cut at end of document") in the printer's own settings.

A drawn slip — as a picture, or for a driver — is asked three more things, two for a printer whose output is coming out faint, and one for a slip that runs long:

• Text size — 100%, 115%, 130% or 150% of the usual size. Bigger text prints more clearly on a tired printer. Long names in a table are shortened to make room.
• Line spacing — Spacious, Medium, Compact or Extra compact. Compact, the default, suits most printers; Extra compact makes the shortest slip.
• Print everything in bold — thicker strokes throughout, worth trying on a worn print head or cheap paper.

Printer setup test prints a sample at every size, plain and bold, so you can compare them on one slip. On a printer sent a picture, it first prints the usual ESC/POS setup test, so you can pick its Characters per line and Paper cut from the same slip.

None of these reaches a slip sent in the printer's own font: that slip is printed in the printer's built-in font, at its own size. If it is coming out faint, either switch the printer to Draw the slip and send it as a picture, or raise the print density in the printer's own settings.

Tip: A picture is a bigger job than text, and a cheap printer prints it more slowly. If slips start backing up at a busy finish, switch that printer back to ESC/POS.

Result labels are always drawn, whichever of these a printer uses.

A USB printer on a laptop: what it needs

The laptop's browser prints on the printer, which needs:

• Chrome or Edge. Firefox can read cards but cannot drive a USB printer.
• A secure connection. On the computer running the server, opening Manager at http://localhost:5154/manager is enough. On any other laptop, HTTPS has to be on and meshO's certificate trusted — the same one-off setup card download already needs. See HTTPS and certificates.
• Manager open on that laptop. Prints for its printer wait while it is closed — see When a print does not come out.

On Windows, change the printer's driver once first. Windows attaches its own driver to almost every USB printer the moment it is plugged in, and the browser cannot open a printer while that driver holds it — whatever the make, and even when the printer was never installed in Windows. Switch the driver to WinUSB with the free tool Zadig, once per laptop: see USB printers on Windows. Removing the printer from Windows' Printers & scanners is not enough on its own. Or plug the printer into the server instead and add it Into the server, where Windows' own driver is what prints.

Which printers a laptop can print on

A laptop's browser has no printer driver to print through. It sends the printer ESC/POS, the command language of thermal printers — the slip as text in the printer's own font, or as a picture Manager drew (see How a printer prints). That is why the only choices offered for a laptop's printer are about thermal printers: there is no Draw the page for its driver for it, because there is no driver.

So a laptop can print on almost any USB thermal printer — Epson TM, Bixolon, Star, and the unbranded POS-58 and POS-80 printers — and on a label printer that understands ESC/POS. It cannot print on a printer that only understands its own maker's commands and needs that maker's driver. The ones you are most likely to bring are:

• Brother QL label printers (QL-500, QL-570, QL-700, QL-800 and the rest of the range) — they speak Brother's own raster commands, not ESC/POS.
• DYMO LabelWriter printers.
• Ordinary office printers — inkjet and laser.

Such a printer gives no error. Manager hands the printer its bytes over USB and the printer accepts them, so Test print says it worked — but the printer does not understand them, throws them away, and nothing comes out. If a laptop's USB printer passes Test print with blank paper or no paper at all, check that it is an ESC/POS printer before anything else.

For a Brother QL or another driver printer, plug it into the server instead:

1. Plug it into the computer running the Manager server and install the maker's own driver there, as for any program — on Windows, Brother's QL driver from Brother's website; on a Mac or Linux computer, a CUPS queue with the maker's driver. Do not run Zadig on that computer.
2. In the driver's own settings, choose the label you have loaded — 62 mm continuous, or 29 × 90 mm die-cut — and the orientation. A die-cut label printed across the board is usually landscape.
3. In Manager, Add a printer → Into the server, choose it, and choose Draw the page for its driver.
4. Choose it as the Label printer on Settings → Printing → Result labels, or for any computer's labels. Every computer can then print on it, the results tent's laptop included, and the server prints on it even when no Manager page is open. See Result labels for the results board.

If the printer has to stand in another tent from the server, use an ESC/POS label or thermal printer there instead — on the laptop, or on the network.

If you already ran Zadig on the laptop for a Brother QL, Windows itself can no longer print on it there. To give it back to Windows, see To undo it in USB printers on Windows.

The laptop finds its printer again by itself after a reload, when it is plugged back in, and at the next event. If you open Manager at a different web address from last time — the venue's network gave the server a new address — the browser does not know it is the same laptop. The Name this computer prompt, and Set up here before? on the Printers page, list the computers Manager already knows: pick yours, and its name, its printer and where its prints go come back. The browser may ask you to choose the USB printer once more.

Where each computer's splits and labels print

Settings → Printing → Splits print starts with where splits print:

• Default splits printer — where a computer that has not chosen prints its splits. Not printed means a computer prints no splits until it chooses a printer. The default has to be a printer every computer may use, so a laptop's printer kept for its own laptop cannot be chosen here.
• Each computer — every computer Manager has been opened on, with its own choice: The default, any printer it may use, or Don't print. Saved with the rest of the page.

The Result labels page has the same table for labels, with one more choice: The same printer as its splits, which prints the label straight after the slip.

A computer can also change its own choices from the strip at the top of the Card downloads page, which says where a card read here will print before the first one is read:

Note: Cards read over the radio network have no computer behind them, so none of these choices apply to them. They have a page of their own — see below.

Cards read over the radio network

A card read by a radio download station reaches the server over the meshO network with nobody at a desk and no computer behind it. Settings → Printing → Radio downloads says where those cards print:

• Splits — The default (the default splits printer), any printer every computer may use, or Don't print.
• Labels — The default (the label printer on the Result labels page), The same printer as its splits, any printer every computer may use, or Don't print.
• Print splits only when the status is OK — a mis-punch, DNF or anything else prints no splits, and is left for the download desk to look at rather than printed where nobody is standing. A label on a printer of its own still prints.

These say only where. Whether a download prints its splits, or a label, by itself is still the switch on the Splits print and Result labels pages, and with either off nothing comes out here either — the page says so under the choice it affects. A printer kept for its own laptop cannot be chosen: no laptop read the card. Out of the box, cards read over the radio network print as they always did: splits on the default splits printer, labels where the event's labels go, every run.

Each event can override all three, in Event details → Printing → Cards read over the radio network.

Setting up a new thermal printer

The printer setup test answers the two questions only the printer can: how many characters fit on its line, and which cut it obeys. Print it once for each printer model you use — from the printer's ⋮ menu on the Printers page, or from Test print → Printer setup test in the printer's dialog — and read the answers off the paper.

1. Characters per line. The slip prints a column of numbered lines, widest first: 48 ---- 48, 46 ---- 46, down to 28. The ones too wide for this printer wrap, so their second number lands on a line of its own. Choose the largest number whose line printed whole, with the number at both ends.
2. Paper cut. The slip then tries the four cuts one after another, each printed under its number and name. The paper is cut just below the name of each cut this printer obeys, so you end up with a few pieces of paper. Choose the number at the foot of the piece you like — 1 · Partial cut if it worked, since the slip then hangs by a thread instead of falling. If nothing was cut at all, choose No cut — tear off.
3. Set both, save, and press Test print. It prints a ruler exactly as wide as you chose — numbered at both ends again, so a wrong number shows at once — and ends with the cut you chose.

Example: a Bixolon SRP-F310 is a 180 dpi printer: on 80 mm paper it prints the 42 line whole and wraps 44 and above, so it is set to 42 characters.

A printer drawn for its driver has nothing to choose here — the driver fits the line and cuts the paper — so its setup test prints a sample of every text size instead.

What each printout contains: the defaults

Settings → Printing → Splits print, under When and Layout, decides when a slip prints and what goes on it, for every event on this server, on whichever printer prints it.

Setting	What it does
Automatic print splits on download	A slip is printed for every download that produces a result, without anyone pressing anything, wherever the computer that read the card prints its splits. Turning it off means no download prints its splits by itself anywhere. Result labels have their own switch
Print meshO logo	The logo at the foot of the slip. Off prints the words meshO Manager instead
Print top 3 places on splits	Ends each slip with the current top 3 in the runner's class, plus their own place when they finished outside it
Print mistakes on splits	The Mistakes section: the legs where the runner lost time, and the total lost
Print strong legs on splits	The Strong legs section: the legs where the runner gained the most time, and the total gained. Separate from mistakes — a club night for beginners may want the encouragement without the criticism
Splits language	The language the slip is printed in
Print QR code	Ends each slip with a QR code — see The QR code

With auto-print off, no slip prints by itself, and no countdown is drawn for one. Result labels have their own switch: with Print a label automatically when a card is read on, a label still prints, and a mis-punch label still waits out its own hold. Slips then print only when you ask for one — see Printing by hand, and reprinting.

A slip is printed automatically for every result except one with nothing to say: an unknown or unassigned card, a repeat of a download already recorded, a card whose owner already has a result, and a competitor with no class. Mis-punches, DNFs and disqualifications all still print — a runner with a problem is exactly the one who wants the slip.

Mis-punches wait before they print

Most mis-punches at a download desk are not mis-punches. The runner went round a different course to the one they entered; you change their class, the download is re-evaluated, and the corrected slip prints. Which means the MP slip that came out the instant the card was read only ever went in the bin. Over a weekend that is a lot of paper.

So a mis-punch slip waits. Settings → Printing → Splits print has two controls for it: Hold a mis-punch printout, on by default, and Hold it for — 20 seconds by default, up to a minute. Switch the hold off and a mis-punch prints the moment the card is read, as every other verdict does. Both apply whichever printer the slip comes out of. Result labels have a hold of their own, on their own page.

An event can take its own line on the hold, under Event details → Printing → Hold a mis-punch printout — the usual three-way choice of Use global setting, On for this event, Off for this event. This is the one worth reaching for: whether the wait suits a desk depends on how that desk works. An event handing each runner their slip at the counter does not want twenty seconds of nothing between the beep and the paper; one correcting wrong-course entries all afternoon does. How long it waits is not overridable — it is set once, in Settings, for every event.

While it waits, the result banner draws the window as an arc around a small printer icon, emptying as it closes. The arc appears only when something is actually coming and actually waiting: a mis-punch slip held by Hold a mis-punch printout, or a mis-punch label held by Hold a mis-punch label — it runs to whichever comes out later. With Automatic print splits on download off, or the hold off, no slip is waited for; a waiting label still draws the arc. The splits' switch and hold read the event's override before the installation's setting.

What you do inside the window	What comes out
Change the class — or anything else that re-evaluates the download	The corrected slip, immediately. Nothing prints later than it used to; only the wasted sheet stops being printed
Press the ✕ beside the countdown, or open a dialog about that runner	Nothing at all — see below
Unassign or delete the download	Nothing. There is no longer a result for the slip to describe
Print the slip by hand	Your slip, once. The waiting slip is dropped rather than following it out. A label waiting for the same runner is not: it still prints when the window closes
Print the label by hand	Your label, once. The waiting label is dropped; a waiting slip still prints
Nothing	The mis-punch slip, at the end of the window. A genuine mis-punch nobody touches still gets its slip

When the window closes, the slip goes where that computer's splits go then: if its printer was removed in the meantime it prints on the default. If there is nowhere left to print it at all, it is not lost without a word — it shows on that computer as a print that did not come out (There was no printer to print it on.), ready for Print on… — see When a print does not come out.

Note: Changing the class to another one the punches also don't fit starts the window again — you haven't finished correcting yet.

Ending the wait with nothing printed

Sometimes there is nothing to correct: the runner really did miss a control, and the slip is a foregone conclusion you'd rather not wait for — or not print at all. The ✕ beside the countdown ends the wait there and then, and prints nothing.

Opening a dialog about that runner does the same. Clicking the banner to open their result, opening a download's detail dialog from the history table, clicking a name in that table, or opening the controls the dashboard tile dropped into a dialog — each ends that runner's wait. Opening them is you taking the correction in hand, and that is open-ended: reading the splits, choosing a class, thinking about it for a minute. A slip printing out from under you mid-edit is exactly the wasted sheet the wait exists to stop.

If the change you then make re-evaluates the download, the corrected slip prints as normal. If you close the dialog having changed nothing and you do want the mis-punch slip after all, print it with the printer button on that download's row — see Printing by hand, and reprinting.

The wait is per runner, not one at a time. Cards keep arriving while you work, and cancelling — or opening a dialog about — one runner never takes the slip of the next one, still standing at the desk waiting for theirs.

Note: Only mis-punches ever wait. Every other verdict prints exactly as it always did.

Per-event overrides

Most of those defaults can be overridden for a single event, under Event details → Printing — including whether a mis-punch printout waits, covered in Mis-punches wait before they print above. This is where a low-key club night turns the QR code off, or an international event prints in a different language, without changing what every other event does.

The tab holds, from the top:

• Per-event overrides — Automatic print splits on download, Hold a mis-punch printout, Print meshO logo, Print top 3 places, Print mistakes, Print strong legs and Splits language.
• Result label overrides — Result labels, whether this event prints them, and its Label printer. The layout stays the one in Settings.
• Cards read over the radio network — where their Splits and Labels print, and Print splits only when the status is OK, each overriding Settings → Printing → Radio downloads for this event alone. The default is a choice of its own here — the default splits printer, or this event's label printer — not the same as Use global setting.
• QR code — see The QR code.

Each override is a three-way choice, and the first option names what the installation currently does — so you can see what you would be inheriting before you decide to override it:

• Use global setting (on/off) — follow Settings. Change the setting there later and this event follows.
• On for this event / Off for this event — this event goes its own way, whatever Settings says.

The QR code picker in the same tab works the same way but has more to say than on or off, so its middle option is Customise for this event — see The QR code.

Note: Printers, and where each computer prints, are deliberately not here. They belong to the printers and the computers, not to an event, so they stay set up from one event to the next. The tab says so at the top, with a link to Settings → Printing. If a printer this event chose — for its labels, or for cards read over the radio network — is later removed, the event prints on the default instead and shows an alert saying so.

The QR code

A QR code at the foot of the slip is the shortest route from a paper result to the full results on a phone. Scanned, it opens whatever address you configure — normally this server's own spectator page, with the runner's card number in it, so the page opens with them as the phone's Focused competitor — their own result, splits and analysis one tap away — rather than on a page they have to search. (An event's copy on the meshO cloud has no Focused competitor, so there it simply opens the event.) See The spectator site and kiosk.

Four things make it up, and only the address has to be filled in:

Field	What it is
Print QR code	The switch. Off prints no code, even with an address configured — so you can keep the address on file between events
QR code URL	What the code encodes. Placeholders {competitorId}, {eventId} and {cardNumber} are filled in per runner
QR code heading	The line printed above the code. Left empty, a standard heading is printed, translated with the rest of the slip
QR code caption	The line printed below the code. Left empty, nothing is printed there

Use this server's spectator URL fills the address in for you, with the card number as the parameter. That is the right answer for most events; type your own address only if results are published somewhere else.

An event can take its own line on all of this. Under Event details → Printing, the QR code picker offers:

• Use global setting (on/off) — what Settings says, with the installation's address spelled out underneath.
• Customise for this event — print a code, with this event's own address and wording.
• Disable for this event — no code on this event's slips, whatever Settings says.

In Customise for this event, each of the three fields is independent: fill in only the heading and the event keeps the installation's address and caption. A field left empty inherits; it does not blank the line.

Tip: A custom heading is a good place for the club's or event's own words — Full results and analysis, or the name of the series. Leave it empty at an international event: the standard heading is translated with the rest of the slip, and your own words are not.

Printing by hand, and reprinting

Automatic printing covers the normal case. Three places print on demand — for a slip that jammed, a runner who came back for another copy, or an event that prints only on request.

From the download history. Every row on the Card downloads page has a printer button that prints that download's slip.

From the competitor. Open a competitor and choose the Prints tab. It shows the slip exactly as it would print, rendered by the server, with a Print button underneath. The switch above the picture changes it between Splits and Result label, and Print prints whichever one is showing.

That preview is worth using while you set printing up: it shows the effect of every setting on this page — logo, top 3, language, QR code — without spending any paper.

From the dashboard. In the Quick competitor actions tile, search for the competitor and click the printer button beside the search. It is greyed out until their card has been read, and clicking the × in the search clears them, ready for the next runner.

All three print where this computer's splits go, and say what became of the print: printed, sent to the printer, on its way — or why not, in which case it is also kept on screen for you to try again (see When a print does not come out).

Printing the results

The same printer will print the results, class by class — the sheet for the prize-giving table, or for whoever is reading the places out. On the Results page choose Publish → Print to splits printer.

The dialog asks what goes on the sheet, starting with the question you will change most often:

Setting	What it does
Show	How many places per class. Top 3 to begin with — that is what the sheet is usually for. All prints everyone. Whatever you pick is printed at the top of the sheet, so nobody reads a Top 3 as a whole class
Group by, Classes / Courses, Organisation	The same filters as the Results page
Class sort order (the sort button beside Classes)	Opens the event's class order — the order the classes print in, and the order they appear in everywhere else. Changing it here redraws the preview
Include (the tickboxes)	Unsettled classes — whether a class where somebody could still take a place appears at all. Leave it on to see everything; turn it off when you are printing a sheet to read out. On course, No status, DNS — whether those competitors are listed, exactly as on the Results page. Club and Behind — whether each gets a column. Club switches itself off when you filter to one organisation, since it would then be the same on every line; put it back if you want it. On a 58 mm roll there is no room for either, and they are dropped so the names stay readable. Team members — on an event with a relay, whether each team's runners are listed beneath it; see below. The i beside the heading says all of this in the dialog
Printer	Which printer it comes out of: any printer this computer may print on, a laptop's shared USB printer included, each with whether it can print now. It starts on the printer this computer's splits go to. If the printer you chose is removed while the dialog is open, the sheet is not printed somewhere else instead: Manager says so, and you choose again

The preview beside the settings is the sheet itself, drawn by the server — what you see is what comes out, so you can get it right before spending any paper.

A class where somebody could still change the places is marked with * beside its name, and the sheet explains the mark once at the bottom. That covers the case a list of finishers cannot: three runners home and placed, a fourth still in the forest. Competitors who have finished but whose card has not been downloaded yet are never listed as results, here or in any other Publish action.

Tip: The sheet is deliberately spare — a heading per class, then place, name, club abbreviation and time. A Top 3 of twenty classes is about a hand's length of paper.

A score class gets one more column, just before the time: the points each runner collected. That is what its places were made on — the winner of a score course is often the slower of two who collected the same — so the sheet would otherwise read as a podium in the wrong order. The Behind column follows suit on such a class and shows the gap in points rather than in time. You do not switch the column on: it appears when a score class is on the sheet, and the classes beside it simply leave the space blank. On a 58 mm roll it is paid for out of the names, so turn Club off if you would rather have the names back.

A relay class lists each team's runners beneath the team, in leg order, each with their own leg time — or the status of a leg that ended badly (MP, DNF), which is usually what explains the team's own. Team members is ticked to begin with; untick it for a sheet of team names only. The runners take no place and do not count towards a Top 3 — the team they ran for already has. Relay classes are only listed under Group by: Class, so the tickbox is greyed out under Group by: Course.

Result labels for the results board

A result label is a small printout for each competitor — their name, time, class and whatever else you choose — to stick or pin onto a physical results board. It is a printout of its own: the splits print still goes into the runner's hand, and the label goes on the board.

Labels have a page of their own, Settings → Printing → Result labels, laid out as the splits print's is — Where, When and Layout — and are off until you turn them on there:

Setting	What it does
Label printer	Where the labels of a computer that has not chosen go. Not printed — such a computer prints no labels until it chooses a printer, as Not printed does for the default splits printer. The splits printer, straight after the splits — the label comes out of whichever printer that computer's splits come out of, directly after the slip. Or any printer by name — a printer of its own puts every label in one place, such as the label printer on the results tent's laptop, whichever desk read the card
Each computer	Every computer with its own choice for labels: the label printer above, any printer, The same printer as its splits, or Don't print. Saved with the rest of the page
Print a label automatically when a card is read	One label for every card read that produces a result. This is its own switch: the splits do not have to print themselves for the labels to, so a desk that hands out slips only on request — or a club that only does labels — can still put every result on the board
Hold a mis-punch label, Hold it for	A mis-punch label waits, so a runner whose class you correct gets one label, for the corrected result. Its own setting, separate from the splits'
Layout	Three rows, each with a place at the left, the centre and the right. Choose what each place holds and how big it prints: Small, Medium or Large. There are two layouts — Individual and Relays — chosen above the grid; see Relay labels
Space above the label, Space below the label	On a thermal printer, how much blank paper is kept above the first line and below the last — everything else is trimmed. 0.5 mm and 6 mm to begin with; turn them down to save paper, or up for room to pin the label. The printer adds a gap of its own above every label, between its print head and its cutter, which these cannot remove (see below). A printer drawn for its driver lays the label out on its own page and ignores both

The fields you can place are Name, Time, Class, Status (when not OK), Club name, Club abbreviation, Club logo, Country and Course. A label starts with the name across the top and the class, status and time beneath it.

• The name is on every label. Its place cannot be emptied; put another field over it and the two swap places.
• The status prints only when it is not OK — an OK label says so by carrying a time — and the time prints only for a valid run (OK, or out of competition). A mis-punch label reads MP where the time would be, not a time that is not a result.
• The place is not offered. A label prints the moment the runner downloads, and their place is only true until the next runner does — the order of the labels on the board is what shows it.
• The club abbreviation falls back to the club's full name for a club that has none, and the country is the club's. The club logo is the one in the Club Registry; a club with no logo simply has none on its label.
• A row with nothing to print in it — a status that turned out OK, say — takes no paper, so the label closes up rather than leaving a gap.
• A row too wide for the paper is printed smaller, and if that is not enough the longest field is shortened. Nothing ever runs off the edge.
• Rows are printed close together — a capital letter and a descender apart — so a label takes as little paper as it can and still reads from across the board.

Relay labels

Every runner of a relay class is printed with the Relays layout instead of the individual one. Switch the grid to Relays to set it up; both layouts are saved, and each runner gets the one their class calls for.

• The relay layout has two more fields: Team — the team's name — and Leg, which prints as Leg 2 in the language of the splits print.
• The name, the team and the leg are on every relay label. None of their places can be emptied; put another field over one and the two swap places. With every place full, a new field cannot be put over one of the three.
• The time is the runner's own leg time, from their changeover, as their splits print shows it — not the team's time from the start.
• A relay layout starts with the name across the top, the team and leg beneath it, and the class, status and time on the last row.

The preview and Test print draw whichever layout the grid is showing, with a made-up team.

The preview beside the layout is the label itself, drawn by the server for a made-up runner, so you can try a layout without spending paper. It shows the status wherever you put it, even though on paper it only appears for a runner who is not OK. Test print, under the preview, prints that same label — with the settings as they are on screen, saved or not — on the label printer chosen on the page, or with The splits printer, straight after the splits chosen, where this computer's splits go. So you can check a layout and the space around it on paper before saving. If the label printer chosen has been removed, or is kept for its own laptop, the test says so rather than printing somewhere else.

Mis-punches wait. A mis-punch label waits out its own window (see Mis-punches wait before they print), so a runner whose class you correct gets one label, for the corrected result. When the slip and the label come out of the same printer and the slip is waiting, the label waits with it — for the longer of the two windows, even if Hold a mis-punch label is off — so a label never comes out before its slip.

Reprinting a label. Open the competitor, choose the Prints tab, switch the view to Result label, and press Print. It prints where this computer's labels go. This works even when Print a label automatically when a card is read is off in Settings, or Result labels is off for the event: that switch is only about downloads. A label still waiting for that runner is dropped, so the board gets one, not two.

Still a gap above every label? After a cut, the paper between the printer's head and its cutter becomes the top of the next label — typically 10–20 mm, and no setting in Manager can take it back. Many thermal printers have a setting of their own for it, usually called top margin reduction or paper reduction, in the printer's own utility. Keep the Paper cut on 1 or 2: the older cuts and No cut feed about 21 mm before cutting, and that paper lands at the foot of each label.

Tip: A label printer with its own driver — the kind that prints on die-cut sticky labels, such as a Brother QL — works as a printer plugged into the server: add it Into the server, drawn for its driver, then choose it as the Label printer. It does not work plugged into a laptop: a laptop's browser can only send ESC/POS, which these printers do not understand (see Which printers a laptop can print on). The label is laid out on whatever width the driver reports, and always comes out on one label: a layout taller than the label the driver reports — three Large rows on a 29 mm label turned sideways, say — is printed smaller until it fits, rather than putting its last row on the next label. The preview beside the layout does not know the driver's label size, so it shows the layout at full size. On a thermal roll the label is cut after each one, exactly as a splits print is.

When a print does not come out

A print that cannot be printed is shown on the computer that asked for it — the one that read the card, or where someone pressed Print — whatever page it is on. It names the runner and the printer, and says why: the printer did not answer, the laptop it is plugged into is not open, the USB printer is not plugged in, the printer was removed, or there was no printer to print it on at all. It stays there until you deal with it — or for 12 hours — so a laptop that was closed when it happened still shows it when it is opened again.

• Try again — once the printer is back: a roll changed, a laptop opened, a cable plugged in.
• Print on… — on another printer, now. Use this when the runner is standing in front of you.
• Discard — when it is not wanted any more.

A print waiting for a laptop's printer prints by itself the moment that laptop is open with its printer plugged in — up to 5 minutes for a slip or a test print (after that the runner has walked away, and it is dropped) and 2 hours for a label or a results sheet, counted from when the print was asked for, or from Try again. A printer that stops part way through a print — out of paper, its cover open — fails that print after a short wait rather than holding up everything behind it. On every other computer a printer shows only its state — a dot, and how many prints are waiting for it — so the Printers page tells you which laptop to go and open.

A card read over the radio network has nobody at a desk to tell, so a radio download that cannot be printed raises an alert in the event instead — at once when it failed, or after half a minute when it is waiting for a laptop that is not open, so a laptop reconnecting for a moment does not raise one.

When nothing prints

What you see	What it usually is
The print buttons are greyed out	This computer's splits are set to print nowhere: its own choice is Don't print, or it uses the default and the default is Not printed. Choose a printer from the strip on the Card downloads page, or in Settings → Printing
Nothing prints on download, but printing by hand works	Automatic print splits on download is off — check Settings → Printing → Splits print, and the event's own override
Slips come out in the wrong tent	That computer's splits go to another printer. The strip at the top of its Card downloads page says where; Change puts it right
Waiting for the computer … is plugged into	The laptop with that USB printer does not have Manager open — or has gone to sleep. Open it, and the waiting prints come out
Waiting for … to be plugged in	The USB printer is unplugged or switched off. On that laptop's Printers page, Choose the USB printer finds it again if it does not reappear by itself
Waiting for …: the browser on its computer cannot drive a USB printer	Manager is open on the printer's laptop, but in a browser that cannot print on it — Firefox or Safari, or a page not opened over https. Open it there in Chrome or Edge, through the secure link
This browser can't print on a USB printer	The laptop with the printer is on Firefox or Safari. Use Chrome or Edge there
A USB printer needs the secure (https://) link	HTTPS isn't set up on the laptop with the printer — see HTTPS and certificates. If the laptop is on an https link, it is an older version of Manager misreading Windows' driver: see USB printers on Windows
Windows has its own driver on this USB printer (older versions: Windows is using this printer through its own driver)	The laptop's printer still has Windows' driver. Switch it to WinUSB with Zadig — USB printers on Windows — then choose it again
Test print on a laptop's USB printer says it printed, but nothing comes out	The printer does not understand ESC/POS — a Brother QL, a DYMO LabelWriter or an office printer. It accepts the bytes and discards them, so Manager cannot tell. Plug it into the server and add it Into the server, drawn for its driver — see Which printers a laptop can print on
This USB device does not look like a thermal printer	The wrong device was picked in the browser's list — choose again and pick the printer
Connection to … timed out	For a network printer, check the address and port, and that it is on the same network. Most thermal printers print their own address if you hold the feed button while switching them on
… stopped taking the print part way through	The network printer answered, then stopped: usually out of paper, its cover open, or jammed. See to the printer, then Try again
…'s print system did not answer in time, or …'s print system refused the print	A printer plugged into the server: the server's own print system (Windows, or the Mac's or Linux computer's) is stuck or has the printer paused. Check the printer in that computer's printer settings
The server's print system is not answering.	The server's computer cannot list its printers at all — its print service has stopped. Every printer plugged into the server is affected; restart that computer's print service, or the computer
There was no printer to print it on.	Where this print was going no longer exists — its printer was removed, and that computer's splits (or labels) now go nowhere. Use Print on…, then choose a printer for that computer
… is plugged into another computer now	The USB printer was set up again on a different laptop since the print was asked for. Use Print on…
Save the printer before testing it from another computer.	A laptop's printer can be tested from elsewhere only once it is saved. Save it, or test it on its own laptop
An alert in the event: A printer this event prints on (…) is no longer one of meshO's printers; prints go to the default instead.	A printer this event chose — for its labels, or for cards read over the radio network — was removed. Prints go to the default meanwhile; choose another in Event details → Printing
Slips print, but the layout is wrong	The paper width, characters per line or cut doesn't match the printer. Set it on that printer, on the Printers page
No result labels print	Print a label automatically when a card is read is off — in Settings, or in the event's own Result labels override — or this computer's labels go nowhere (its own choice is Don't print, or it has none and the Label printer is Not printed), or the label printer's laptop is not open
A runner's slip is blank or missing sections	Sections appear only when there is something to say — a competitor with no class, or a card that has not been read, has nothing to print

What an upgrade does to printing

Printing was rearranged into printers, computers and the choices described on this page. The first time an older installation starts on this version, Manager carries across what it can — there is nothing to do unless something below does not match your event.

• The server's printers become entries on the Printers page, each keeping its name, its paper settings and its place in anything that chose it — a result label printer, an event's own choices.
• The printer that printed by default becomes the Default splits printer — or Not printed, if the server was set not to print splits. The printer at localhost:9100 every installation used to start with is left out if nobody ever changed it and nothing printed on it.
• If your download laptops printed their own slips while the server printed none, Automatic print splits on download is switched on for you, so those laptops go on printing.
• A download laptop's own USB printer is added as that laptop's printer — shared, like any new one — and its splits are pointed at it, the first time Manager is opened there at the same web address as before — the old setting was kept by the browser, for that address. Opened at a different address, there is nothing to carry across: add the printer on that laptop, with Add a printer → Into this computer. A Manager tab left open across the upgrade keeps printing the old way until it is reloaded.
• Cards read over the radio network gain a page of their own, Settings → Printing → Radio downloads, which starts where every event that chose nothing already printed. An event that chose a printer for them, chose Don't print, or printed only an OK run still does, as its own override.
• Result labels move to a page of their own, Settings → Printing → Result labels, keeping their switch, layout and margins, and gain a mis-punch hold of their own, switched on. An event that sent its labels to a printer of its own still does.
• If the old printer settings could not be read, Manager starts with no printers and Not printed as the default, and keeps a copy of the old settings file beside it, its name ending .pre-printers.bak. Add the printers again on the Printers page.

Related

• Downloading cards — the download that triggers a printout
• HTTPS and certificates — needed on any laptop with a USB printer of its own
• Settings reference — every settings page, including this one
• Resolving issues on the day — the wider on-the-day troubleshooting page
• Status and race time rules — what the status on the slip means
• Multi-operator setup — running more than one download station