Thanks for your reply. I've used these properties for my textfield; it works fine when ran from iReport, but not from my java app. this is the way I call the report : public static void prnStyledText(Connection conn, int nm1, int nm2, long nm3) { try { HashMap reportParam = new HashMap(); reportParam.put("par1,", nm1); reportParam.put("par2", nm2); reportParam.put("par3", nm3); reportParam.put("SUBREPORT_DIR", "./dir/subdir/"); JasperPrint jPrint = JasperFillManager.fillReport(new FileInputStream("./dir/subdir/TestStyledText.jasper"), reportParam, conn); JasperPrintManager.printReport(jPrint, false); } catch (Exception e) { ErrorHandler errorHandler = new ErrorHandler((Exception) e); errorHandler.log(); } } gr. Geert Post Edited by Geert Steyaert at 11/20/08 06:58