I am maintaining a printing program that now requires printing both a ~ and an * in a code128 barcode in zpl.
Currently, I am using the code below that uses the ^FH to represent the tilde in hex:
^BCN,120,Y,N,N,N^FH^FDSPECIAL*MAKE_7e123456^FS
The barcode prints excluding the * and ~ as 'SPECIALMAKE123456'. Is it possible to print the tilde and asterisk in a zpl code128 barcode?
As a quick guess, since I don't have a ZPLII printer immediately available, I'd try
^BCN,120,Y,N,N,A^FH^FDSPECIAL*MAKE_7e123456^FS
(note A before the ^FH = Auto-select codeset)
Perhaps also forcing a codeset by ...^FH^FD>:SPECIAL*... may work, but subset B is the default in any case...
I located my old A300 printer, and was able to produce the required interpretation line using each of
^BCN,120,Y,N,N,A^FH^FDSPECIAL*MAKE_7E123456^FS
^BCN,120,Y,N,N,A^FH^FDSPECIAL_2AMAKE_7E123456^FS
Can't find my scanner to verify at present - but the computer room is a mite tidier...
It may depends on type of barcode.
For example, to print in 'barcode 128', you have to change code to code B, by signs >:
And: to print tilde ~, type >=. To print ^, type ><. To print >, type >0.
Look to zpl documentation, to table with Code 128 Invocation Characters.
My sample zpl code:
^XA
^BY2,3,95^FT0,206^BCN,,Y,N
^FD>:caret >< bigger >0 tilde >= end^FS
^PQ1,1,1,Y^XZ
Related
In the past, we've used ZPL to create Code39 barcodes with a TAB character encoded in the middle using something similar to the following:
*USERNAME$IPASSWORD*
The $I in the middle gets translated to a TAB by the barcode scanners we use.
Now we have a need to do the same thing, but using Code128. With Code39, all the text needs to be uppercase (unless you're using Code39Extended, which supports lowercase letters). Because some of the data that is going to be encoded will be lowercase, we need to use Code128 B for most of the barcode, switching to Code128 A in the middle to encode the TAB character, then back to Code128 B for the final part.
Looking through the "ZPL II Programming Guide", it should be as easy as:
>:username>7{TAB}>6PA55w0rd
The >: at the beginning sets the subset to B, the >7 changes the subset to A, and the >6 changes the subset back to B. The problem I'm having (and haven't found a solution after almost a week of searching) is: How do I encode a TAB character using only text?
Use the ^FH (field hexidecimal encoding) command immediately prior to your field data. Based on your example:
^FH_^FD>:username>7_09>6PA55w0rd^FS
Where the underscore '_' is used as the escape character and 09 is the hex value for tab.
Also note that if the chosen escape character appears in the user name or password, you will need to escape it as well.
I tried what Mark Warren suggested, but unfortunately, it didn't work. It did, however, get me looking back through the ZPL II Programming Guide and I found the following, which I had overlooked before:
Code 128, Subsets A and C are programmed in pairs of digits, 00 to 99, in the field data string.
...
In Subset A, each pair of digits results in a single character being encoded in the bar code...
So, since 73 equates to a TAB in Subset A, I tried the following:
>:username>773>6PA55w0rd
And it worked!
I found this commit from facebook infer, and I have no idea what \027[0K and \027[%iA means.
What does these special string mean? And (I think) if there are more strings like this, where can I find the full documentation about this?
Those are escape sequences to tell your terminal what to do.
For example, the sequence of characters represented by \027[0K (where \027 is ASCII decimal value for Esc character) tells the terminal to "clear line from cursor to the end."
One helpful document/guide on this subject can be found at https://shiroyasha.svbtle.com/escape-sequences-a-quick-guide-1
The facebook code is copied from another source here, which uses hard-coded formatters imitating termcap (this page gives some background). The original has comments indicating where its information came from.
The formatter uses "%i" for integers. That's a repeat-count for the cursor movement "cursor-up" \033[A
In most languages, \033 (octal) is used for the ASCII escape character. But this source (according to the github analysis) is written in OCaml, and is using the decimal value for the ASCII escape character. According to the OCaml syntax, you could use an octal value like this: \o033
Once you see that the formatting parts (how the escape character is represented, the use of %i to format a number), the rest of this is documented in several places.
The relevant standard is ECMA-48
the termcap (or analogous terminfo) information is in the terminal database.
i was expecting this command
^FO15,240^BY3,2:1^BCN,100,Y,N,Y,^FD>:>842011118888^FS
to generate a
(420) 11118888
interpretation line, instead it generates
~n42011118888
anyone have idea how to generate the expected output?
TIA!
Joey
If the firmware is up to date, D mode can be used.
^BCo,h,f,g,e,m
^XA
^FO15,240
^BY3,2:1
^BCN,100,Y,N,Y,D
^FD(420)11118888^FS
^XZ
D = UCC/EAN Mode (x.11.x and newer firmware)
This allows dealing with UCC/EAN with and without chained
application identifiers. The code starts in the appropriate subset
followed by FNC1 to indicate a UCC/EAN 128 bar code. The printer
automatically strips out parentheses and spaces for encoding, but
prints them in the human-readable section. The printer automatically
determines if a check digit is required, calculate it, and print it.
Automatically sizes the human readable.
The ^BC command's "interpretation line" feature does not support auto-insertion of the parentheses. (I think it's safe to assume this is partly because it has no way of determining what your data identifier is by just looking at the data provided - it could be 420, could be 4, could be any other portion of the data starting from the first character.)
My recommendation is that you create a separate text field which handles the logic for the parentheses, and place it just above or below the barcode itself. This is the way I've always approached these in the past - I prefer this method because I have direct control over the font, font size, and formatting of the interpretation line.
I am maintaining a program that outputs ZPL to a label printer. Today, the character sequence ~Ja came in as part of a string to be printed, which is ZPL's "cancel all" command. Needless to say, the label did not print.
Is there an easy way in ZPL to escape a tilde?
You can use ~CT or ^CT to change the tilde control character to any other ASCII character, and then you can print tildes normally. However, the new control character won't be printable. This is probably going to be quite a hassle to maintain.
An example changing the control command prefix to +, taken from page 165 of the ZPL II programming guide:
^XA
^CT+
^XZ
+HS
If your string is represented as field data with ^FD, ^FV, or ^SN, you can use ^FH to encode the tilde in the string with its hex value, 7E.
An example, taken from page 192 of the ZPL II programming guide:
^XA
^FO100,100
^AD^FH
^FDTilde _7e used for HEX^FS
^XZ
Output:
Tilde ~ used for HEX
~ can be printed by replacing to \7E
It seeems like replacing these three characters will allow any key on the keyboard to print fine. I figured this out using ZebraDesigner, printing to a file and seeing what characters they escape.
\ to \1F - do this first or it will break the two below
~ to \7E
^ to \5E
Here is the code in C#
private static string escapeChars(string working)
{
working = working.Replace(#"\", #"\1F");
working = working.Replace(#"~", #"\7E");
working = working.Replace(#"^", #"\5E");
return working;
}
I am trying to print a Code 128 barcode on a label using the following the piece of ZPL with a Zebra ZP 450 printer:
^BY3^BCN,112,N^FO090,660^FD>;>89102100^FS
I'm expecting the barcode to scan as "9102100". However, when I scan the printed barcode, it reads as "910210" -- cutting off the final digit.
If I change the last digit, it is still cut off. But if I add more digits onto the end, e.g. "9102100357", the barcode correctly reads as "9102100357".
Why am I "losing" a digit in this particular case?
The >; inside of your ^FD block is telling the code 128 barcode to go into a subset (subset C in this case) which forces the data in the barcode to be numeric pairs (00 - 99). Any data that is not supplied in numeric pairs is ignored. If you put a letter in there, it will ignore that pair. In your case 9102100 has an odd number of numbers, so it ignores the last one. If for example, you add another 0, it will put all the letters in the barcode.
The ;> which puts the barcode in Subset C is not the default. Subset B or :> is the default which will allow any character to be encoded in the barcode. So you can replace the ;> with :>, or just remove the ;> entirely, and it will print out properly.
Check out the ^BC documentation in the ZPL programming manual for more information about Code 128 subsets and data validation
See pg 92 of the ZPL Programming Guide.
This issue may have been fixed in the firmware update, see below:
Example: This is an example with the mode parameter set to D*:
^XA
^PON
^LH0,0
^BY2,2.5,145
^FO218,343
^BCB,,Y,N,N,D
^FD(91)0005886>8(10)0000410549>8(99)05^FS
^XZ
D* — When trying to print the last Application Identifier with an odd number of characters, a problem
existed when printing EAN128 bar codes using Mode D. The problem was fixed in firmware version
V60.13.0.6."