I'm attempting to programmatically adjust the offset of PowerPoint data labels based on their length. I can edit the XML to whatever I want using Python, but I'm having trouble figuring out the units and how to get the correct values.
XML that Creates a ~0.69 inch offset to the right
<c:manualLayout>
<c:x val="5.6138097651134596E-2"/>
<c:y val="0"/>
</c:manualLayout>
XML that Creates a ~1.16 inch offset to the right
<c:manualLayout>
<c:x val="9.5554208767888671E-2"/>
<c:y val="0"/>
</c:manualLayout>
Unless I'm missing something (entirely possible), I can't get these values to line up. It doesn't seem to line up with DXAs or EMUs, Points, or anything else I can find. I'd love to convert inches to this unit, as inches are used in other parts of the code.
It's likely a percentage offset, based off of c:xMode.
Related
I am working on creating text based data feed files that have fixed column widths. Example: Position 1-5 is record layout ID, position 6-35 is part number, position 36-70 is description, etc.
I wish there were a tool I could provide these data input widths, then paste in the raw text to visually see where it lines up. Conceptually, this would seem to be a pretty simple tool.
Do you know of any solutions or creative ideas?
Thanks!
Use https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/substr
Layout Id would be str.substr(1, 5)
Part number would be str.substr(6, 35)
etc.
I use simple GDI DrawText to output blocks of text to a printer.
The font used in the sample is Segoe UI. But you can use Arial or others too. It doesn't matter.
The algorithm for large text blocks is simple. DrawText is called with DT_CALCRECT with a kind of binary search for the length to get the largest possible text to print. Than DrawText is called without DT_CALCRECT to print the block.
Simple one line text column text is written with one call to DrawText with the given coordinates of the rectangle.
The result is real strange and can be seen in this sample PDF.
Just look on the first line after the header. You can see the text "Test, Test" and you can see the strange kerning here perfectly. The kerning os sometimes so bad, that you can't even read the words.
How to get around this? Is it a problem with the used printer? Is it a problem with DrawText?
The distance between some chars in a word seem to be random in some case. Some spacing are wide other to narrow. The letter combination looks strange unreadable and ugly.
I tried different fonts and printers but the problem just varies but it is always present.
I know about ExTextOut and the capabilities to define the distance/kerning between all chars, but frankly I don't want to care about this. I just want that DrawText behaves on the printer like on the screen. The stuff works on the screen perfectly.
Added 2018-08-23 08:49 GMT+2*
To the code (it is a complex printing engine).
1.Fonts to print are created simply with CFont::CreatePointFont, so the LOGFONT structure is cleared to zero and no additional flags are used except point and face.
2.The mapping mode is MM_ANISOTROPIC. To scale what is seen on the screen and what is to be printed I just use the size of a komparable object (textblock) on the printer and the same size on the screen. The real values for the sample printout to the Microsoft PDF Printer are as follows, the real way I calculate them is not of interest:
m_pDC->SetMapMode(MM_ANISOTROPIC);
m_pDC->SetViewportExt(2363,100);
m_pDC->SetWindowExt(355,13);
This has the effect that the height of a line in LPs is 13, the average character width in LPs is 6...
I would like to reduce my barcode's size but still be the same ratio like picture below.
From
Original Size
To be
Reduced Size
Here is my ZPL code.
^XA
^FO50,20
^BY2,2,20
^BCN,,N,N,N,D
^FDZWW011601512345^FS
^XZ
Please help me how do I deal with it?
Thank you.
This website is great for testing against: http://labelary.com/viewer.html.
Assuming you don't want the position to move it should just be changing
^BY2,2,20
to
^BY1,1,10
The API Reference guide can be found https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra/manuals/en-us/software/zpl-zbi2-pm-en.pdf
Don't forget to take into consideration the print density, i.e. at 152 DPI you probably want something like
^FO150,20
^BY1,1,10
But at 600 DPI
^FO550,80
^BY4,1,40
EAN-13 Text Modifications
If you are using the the inbuilt EAN-13 text function i.e. ^BEN,40,Y,N you can't modify the text. It is to a standard. You can however add your own text e.g.
^XA
^FO100,20
^BEN,40,N,N
^FD011601512345^FS
^CF0,48
^FO90,80^FD011601512345^FS
^XZ
^BEN,40,N,N The first N tells the printer to not generate the number underneath.
^CF0,48 Is the select font function of the printer, its first parameter is a default printer font (can be found in the Standard Printer Fonts section of the link above). The second parameter is the font height. If needed there can be a 3rd parameter which alters the font width, though isn't needed.
^FO90,80^FD011601512345^FS Sets the field origin of the string starting at the location defined by ^FO. ^FDXXXXXXXX^FS draws the string.
I am working on conversion of pdf in to ZPL. I am using zebra programming language(zpl).
I am trying to control the barcode(any barcode) width using By command.
^By4 is giving lower width and ^By5 is going out of the box.
My use case is I want to achieve narrow bar width in float number(here 4.5). We can not pass float number in By command.
Please let me know if we can achieve this using some other method in ZPL.
You don't mention what barcode format you're using. Some of them, like 2of5, can also accept the ratio parameter for ^BY. The default is ^BY2,3, changing that to ^BY2,2 can make a smaller version:
^XA
^POI
^CFO,20
^BY5,3
^FO100,400
^BJN,100,Y,N
^FD200940^FS
^BY5,2
^FO100,700
^BJN,100,Y,N
^FD200940^FS
^XZ
This generates two barcodes in 2of5, one with the default ratio and one with a smaller ratio. The second one has a tighter barcode that uses less space. Valid values are 2.0-3.0 (although many round off to the same values) so there is some flexibility. Please note, this only works with barcode formats that are not fixed ratio formats.
You can check the manual page for ^BY in the ZPL programmers guide, p123, for the table that shows valid values and which ones round off to the same value (ie, 2.0 and 2.1 give the same results)
I am trying to right justify a bar code I am printing using ZPL from a .Net program. Here is my current code:
^FO10,50^FB500,1,0,R,0^AO,40,40^BY3^BCN,100,Y,N,N^FD1234567^FS^XZ
The Field Block seems to be ignored when working with a bar code, but for text it justifies it correctly. Any ideas?
Newer Zebra firmware supports a third parameter on ^FO and ^FT. If you want to right justify something, specify the right edge as the x parameter, and include a 1 as the third parameter.
^XA
^BY3
^FO85,30^GB500,450,3^FS
^FO100,50^BCN,30,Y,N,N
^FD>;12345678^FS
^FO100,120N^BCN,30,Y,N,N
^FD>;123456^FS
^FO100,190^BCN,30,Y,N,N
^FD>;1234^FS
^FO570,260,1^BCN,30,Y,N,N
^FD>;12345678^FS
^FO570,330,1^BCN,30,Y,N,N
^FD>;123456^FS
^FO570,400,1^BY3^BCN,30,Y,N,N
^FD>;1234^FS
^XZ
We had the same issue at our company. The barcode doesn't respond to the Field Block. Based on your example since you are using ZPL commands directly to generate your barcode (as opposed to an image of a barcode), you could do something similar to how we did. We know roughly how wide the barcode is going to be based on the data we write to it. So we created a method to determine the x-axis location of the barcode based on our also known label widths.
For example: We use the s4M printers and estimate the full label width to be about 780 dots wide. So in order to left/center/right justify, we take the rough barcode (estimated) width and calculate accordingly (left is set to xaxis = 0, center is set to xaxis = ((780 - barcodeWidth) / 2), and right justified would be xaxis = (780 - barcodeWidth). It isn't a perfect solution but is very close at least for our needs. You could certainly be more precise in your algorithm by looking at more barcode setting information like the data square size, columns, rows, etc... depending on your needs.
If you were to come up with a solution of generating an image of a barcode (which is what we are also trying to come up with now) then you should be able to easily get the width of the barcode image using build in .net graphics functionality.