You may print a GnuCash transaction as a check by selecting "Print Check" from the Transaction menu in a register display window.
In the Print Check dialog, select the style of check form that you wish to use, the position of the check on the page, and the format for printing the date on the check. Clicking OK will take you to the GnuCash Printing dialog, which will allow you to preview the check, select a printer and paper size, and start the print job.
In order to print a check, it is necessary to know where the pre-printed lines and boxes are on the check form. There are two widely-used standard check formats: Quicken/QuickBooks (tm) compatible, and Microsoft Money (tm) compatible.
By default, the check format is Quicken/QuickBooks, which prints to any Quicken-compatible check forms.
If you wish to print to a type of check form that is not in the Check Format option menu, select Custom in the format menu and enter the positions of the various check fields in the entry boxes below.
Positions in the Custom Check Format entry area are specified with x = 0 at the left edge of the check with x increasing to the right, and y = 0 at the bottom edge of the check with y increasing as you travel up. Numbers may be entered as integer or floating point values. The length units specified in the Units option menu are used to interpret all values entered in the custom check format area.
If you arrive at a working set of Custom Check Format parameters for a commercially-available printable check form, please submit them to gnucash-devel@gnucash.org so we can include them as standard in a future release.
Printable check forms are available in several styles. In general, each printable sheet is divided into three sections, and each section can be either a check or a stub. The Check Position option menu allows you to select which section of the page contains the check you wish to print to. Top, Middle, and Bottom should be defined correctly for check forms using the paper size that you select in the printing dialog.
If the preset check positions do not work correctly for your check forms, you may choose Custom from the Check Position option menu and enter a position for the check in the Check Position entry. Enter the distance along the left edge of the paper from the lower left-hand corner of the page to the lower left-hand corner of the check. The units of this measurement are those selected in the "Units" option menu.
Select your preferred date format from the picker. The picker shows examples using the date of December 31, 2000 for all formats, but your date will be substituted when printing.
The MM/DD/YY and DD/MM/YY formats are available, but they are strongly discouraged since they cannot always be distinguished from each other. Please use a format with a full or abbreviated month name instead of a number.
If you wish to use another date format besides those available in the picker, select Custom and enter a date-formatting string in the Date Format entry in the custom settings area. If custom date format is selected, this string is passed to strftime(3) as a format specifier.