Issue in compiling JRXML through Jaspersoft Studio: Column spacing must be positive

Question

I'm designing JRXML in JasperSoft Studio. I want the no. of columns in the page to be more. A4 Page Format doesn't suit my needs. So selected 'Custom' Page Format and changed the Width to '1000' and Height to '900'. With these properties when i compile I'm getting the below error message. Can i know what should i do to increase the page width to add more fields as columns.

Column spacing must be positive net.sf.jasperreports.engine.design.JasperDesign

Sample JRXML which is empty :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jasperReport xmlns="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/jasperreports http://jasperreports.sourceforge.net/xsd/jasperreport.xsd" name="Sample_1" language="groovy" pageWidth="1000" pageHeight="900" columnWidth="960" columnSpacing="-39" leftMargin="20" rightMargin="20" topMargin="20" bottomMargin="20" uuid="eaebc377-4aaf-4a46-9a9f-ededa4246308">
    <queryString language="xPath">
        <![CDATA[/menu-compare/field-details/fields]]>
    </queryString>
    <background>
        <band splitType="Stretch"/>
    </background>
    <title>
        <band height="79" splitType="Stretch"/>
    </title>
    <pageHeader>
        <band height="35" splitType="Stretch"/>
    </pageHeader>
    <columnHeader>
        <band height="61" splitType="Stretch"/>
    </columnHeader>
    <detail>
        <band height="125" splitType="Stretch"/>
    </detail>
    <columnFooter>
        <band height="45" splitType="Stretch"/>
    </columnFooter>
    <pageFooter>
        <band height="54" splitType="Stretch"/>
    </pageFooter>
    <summary>
        <band height="42" splitType="Stretch"/>
    </summary>
</jasperReport>