I am printing barcodes using neodynamic but there are issues in scanning on thermal printers while printing on laser printer, can scan easily. I have zebra printer TLP 2844. When code is like "G00001" then it scan but when code is like "G00001-ABC-ABC" it is not scanned. Barcode settings are
barcode.Symbology = Symbology.Code128
barcode.BarWidth = 0.2
barcode.BarHeight = 5
barcode.TextAlignment = Alignment.AboveLeft
barcode.CodeAlignment = Alignment.BelowLeft
Thanks in advance.
The main issue here is that Neodynamic Barcode generates an image that gets printed. On the Zebra that image might be too low in resolution.
Do you only use the Neodynamic Barcode? If so, and under the premise that you need to use Neodynamic, then you need to get the Neodynamic ThermalLabel SDK, otherwise I'd recommend that you create the label layout in ZPL/EPL directly, then you can tell the printer directly to create a barcode of a specific symbology and content and it'll do the job just fine for you.
Related
I have acquired an Epson thermal printer (TM-T82II) with a control utility (APD5) that allows me to configure and test the printer. I use the utility to (try to) print barcodes, but cannot find any documentation on how to make use of the Code128 support I need.
I want to print out a Code 128 barcode for "PQR123X1122331807110011223344". I seem to be able to do this by specifying a test string of "{APQR123X1122331807110011223344" to encode the string in Font A, and likewise use "{BPQR123X1122331807110011223344" to encode it entirely in Font B. Both generate barcodes too wide for the paper I have. However, there is a large run of digits after the "X" which is more efficiently encoded in Font C and that I know will fit (I have an example from another printer). The obvious thing of using "{APQR123X{C1122331807110011223344" produces garbage.
Can anyone point to documentation that unravels how Epson do font-switching in Code 128?
#Omatai,
Epson's ESC/POS printer language does not use fonts for rendering barcodes. If you are directly sending escape codes to the Epson printer, GS w is the command to set the barcode width in ESC/POS, where w is a number between from 2 (thinnest) to 6 (thickest) which specifies the width of the barcode's minimum element. The actual measurement is dependent on the model of the Epson printer.
Epson ESC/POS Documentation: https://reference.epson-biz.com/modules/ref_escpos/index.php?content_id=2
To help you further, this group would need to know more about the programming model that you are using and the associated code that you are attempting to use.
Terry Warwick, Microsoft
I use Raspberry Pi connected to a Zebra GX430t with CUPS. I use the "Local Raw Printer" driver and I send the ZPL directly to the printer using Python.
I use the termal transfert mode, but I have a problem with the printer (300dpi), because the printing of the datamatrix is quite blurry, so I can't read it.
I emailed the Zebra support, and they told me to modify the temperature of the printing head, but I have no clue on how to do it with ZPL. I also have to modify the grayscale with ZPL. Do you know how to do one of this commands please ?
Plus, could you confirm that ^MTT is the command to set the printer to Thermal Transfert and that ^PW is used to set the width of the label ? Is the configuration saved in the printer, even when turned off, until the configuration change ?
Use ^MDa command. where a is the value of the darkness level. Value is 0 to 30 in increments of 0.1.
Yes, ^MTa sets printer mode where a is the setting, T= Thermal Transfer, D= Direct
I have an app that prints out labels to a Zebra GK420t label printer. The ZPL sends some text and a QRCode. This works fine when the printer is first turned on, but there is another app that prints to it, and after the other app has printed, the position of the QRCode changes on our labels.
I don't have access to the source for the other program so I can't see what ZPL it is sending. I know it is sending some config to the printer (Print Width for example) but I can't figure out what it could be sending to change the positioning for just the QRCode.
This is the label from our app when the label printer is first turned on
And this is label from our app, after the other app has printed a label and changed some settings.
The QR Code moved up and to the right, but everything else stayed in the same place.
This is some example ZPL for one of our labels
^XA
^PW420
^LS0
^LH0,0
^CF0,40^FO20,25^FDUnknown Vendor^FS
^FO15,0^BQN,2,6^FD##hCsck00000000000779/221a1^FS
^CFR,15^FO55,220^FD3877^FS
^CFR,15^FO180,70^FDTue 07:30 Nov 10^FS
^FO180,100^FDU. Surgeon^FS
^FO180,130^FDTotal hip^FS
^FO180,160^FDsigma^FS
^FO180,190^FDHip tool^FS
^FO180,220^FD1 of 2^FS
^XZ
^BY (Bar Code Field Default) is the only command that can affect all barcodes. However it shouldn't affect field origin, but you may want to test this.
Your best bet is to print a config label before and after and look for the difference. Also, it's good practice to create a 'config' format and send as needed. In your case where you are sharing the printer among different applications you should send the config each time you print.
We have many Zebra printers across our manufacturing site, and we send all of the config data each time we print a label.
If you have an Ethernet enabled printer you should also be able to type the IP address into IE and view the printer config information from your web browser.
Regards,
For some more info on Brians answer, in case anyone comes up against this. The ^BY field does affect QRCodes on the GK420t printer.
The other vendor was setting the barcode defaults
^BY2,2,59
And that was moving the QR Code down by 59. I've tested it on another model which didn't have the same issue so I think it's a bug.
If you are in 600 dpi Subst ^FO15,0 with ^FO15,050
015,050 is the position of qr code inside your label.
Try putting ^LH0,0 right after ^XA. That fixed mine.
I have two different Zebra printers, the RW420 and the iMZ320.
I am trying to print images on them.
I am using the Java/Android SDK provided by Zebra to first upload the image.
printer.storeImage("R:IMAGE.GRF", ZebraImageFactory.getImage(bmp), ImageUtils.IMAGE_DIMEN, ImageUtils.IMAGE_DIMEN);
On the iMZ320, the image uploads just fine and I am able to print it out.
However, on the RW420, I cannot print the image and when I print the config page with the list of file names, the file is listed as 'IMAGE.PCX'
The printer's language is set to 'ZPL'
Any ideas on why this is happening?
So it depends upon how you created 'printer' in your example. If you used the ZebraPrinterFactory.getInstance(Connection connection) call directly, the SDK will communicate with the printer and determine the type of printer based on a few criteria. For RW420 it will use CPCL as the default language of choice (even though it is in ZPL mode) which will force it to use PCX rather than GRF.
To override this, you can create the printer using the explicit language you wish to use.
ZebraPrinter printer = ZebraPrinterFactory.getInstance(PrinterLanguage.ZPL, connection);
I need to print an image that is being returned to me through a web service (the data is returned as RAW) and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to print a graphic to a label with EPL.
The EPL manual defines the Graphic Write instruction as:
GWp1, p2, p3, p4, DATA
All of the parameters are returned to me, so I don't have to worry about calculating the height, width, etc., but my problem is that I don't know how to format the DATA.
The manual says DATA should be
Raw binary data without graphic file formatting. Data must be in bytes.
I've tried passing a binary string and a hex string, but nothing seems to work. There is no example on how to use this command in the EPL manual and after hours of searching online I have not been able to find a single example of how to use the command (i.e. example EPL commands that I can copy & paste to send to the printer).
Does anyone have an idea of how to use this command? Could you provide me with an example? (by example I don't mean a framework, code, etc., what I mean is just the plain EPL commands).
I can confirm that the data is in raw, uncompressed binary. It is also inverted-- that is, the 0 bits print as black, at least on my UPS-firmware LP-2844. I have no idea why all the examples from Zebra show the data as encoded into a hex representation.
It's worth noting that most print servers (HP Jetdirect, Lantronix LPS1-T, and almost certainly the Zebra built-in and external print servers) will form a binary connection to the printer if you spit data at them on port 9100 (using netcat for example):
nc printer_hostname_or_ip_address 9100 < test_file.txt
You get no feedback from the printer, except for the label having printed or not.
It takes my LP-2844 (UPS Firmware) printer about 5-6 seconds to print a label containing a 816 wide x 1218 tall downloaded bitmap onto a 4" wide x 6" tall label. It seems to be all imaging time: sending three labels at once is not any faster, and the network connection (through a Lantronix LPS1-T) is held open until the final label prints. That image is at the native resolution of the printer (203 dots/inch), and there is no dithering or resizing going on (I don't think EPL2 even knows how to dither or resize).
It might be possible to speed up the imaging time by optimizing the label into many smaller bitmaps (and horizontal and vertical line segments, and perhaps filled-in rectangular blocks). This wouldn't be a very hard optimization because the image is a single-bit black and white bitmap, and the code would be fairly simple. I don't know if it would really speed it up, though.
A more modern Zebra GX420 running ZPL with a built-in ethernet port ($500 online) can print the same label (with essentially the same graphic download encoding) in 1-2 seconds.
By the way, since I haven't yet actually answered the question, the raw EPL code for this is:
(a blank line)
N
q816
Q1218,20
GW10,10,102,1218,(124236 bytes of inverted bitmap data)
P
all the newlines are 0x0a (unix-style).
Maybe this will help, it has examples (and corrects an error in the manual). Also, it may be easier to use the GM command instead and just delete the image each time (see here for a stackexhange related question).
That being said, I've never gotten my Eltrons to successfully print an image (but my jobs don't require it).
Good luck!!
EDIT: Here's another link with example Perl code. They're aiming for Chinese characters but show how to print the Great Wave image (which oddly is Japanese).
I found that it is not possible to send a graphic to a Zebra printer with EPL using ASCII characters. The data must actually be sent as RAW data. So, for example, you can't send a graphic to the printer using Zebra Setup Utilities, or through any other means that cannot write RAW data from a file directly through the printer.
The only way around this I've found is to create the label as an image and send that image to the printer via a print command within your application.