As per an example URL shortened here:
http://goo.gl/info/kW1c#week
What is the displayed 2D barcode for (copied here):
It's actually a 2D barcode, and it is a QR code. It is meant to print on stickers and what not to read with your cell phone camera.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code
Takes you to the webpage of the shortened URL (usually for mobile devices that can read a QR code).
bonus:
to get a QR code for a goo.gl URL - append .qr :
http://goo.gl/kW1c.qr
Quick answer: printing these barcodes on a webpage is a common way to let people visit/bookmark that page from their phone (using the phone's camera and barcode reader function).
It is important to understand a barcode is a piece of text data, and not an instruction. For example, the above bar code contains the text "http://goo.gl/info/kW1c".
It is the application reading the barcode which interprets it as an instruction. The data is read by a barcode reading application (for example, on a smart phone), and then an appropriate action is typically launched depending on the type of data. For example, if the text starts with "http://" a browser may be launched with that URL. If the data starts with "phone:" the phone application may be launch with that number.
Related
QR codes are great for printing machine readable URLs if you have a square space. But they look horrible if placed in a text as they are much taller than a line of text.
Is there a way I can have a 1d-barcode with the same functionality as QR code (URL being the most important feature) so it can be put as text in a normal paragraph without special formatting?
If yes: How do I generate those barcodes?
There're different barcode symbologies that can encode text. The main problem is how much text you want to encode and which apps are you going to use to decode the barcode.
If you're using an URL shortener and you want to stick to a 1D barcode, CODE128 is probably the best choice.
Another option could be a PDF417, it's a 2D barcode but is not square like QRCode. In this case you can encode more chars in less space and this symbology is supported by iOS and the major Barcodes library.
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 am developing a Windows Mobile App that requires printing into a Zebra printer. Problem is, I do not have the printer with me here in my country since the client did not provide any.
My approach was to design a label first in ZebraDesigner2, then print out the label into a text file. Printing the label to a text file instead of a printer sends out the ZPL Code to produce the label I was trying to print. Hence, I can generate ZPL codes faster by designing a label first then seeing the ZPL code. Kinda like having a drag and drop GUI with a background XML.
Say that I have this simple label that contains this text:
Hello World!
If I print this in ZebraDesigner2 it would be written to my text file as:
CT~~CD,~CC^~CT~
^XA~TA000~JSN^LT0^MNW^MTT^PON^PMN^LH0,0^JMA^PR5,5~SD15^JUS^LRN^CI0^XZ
^XA
^MMT
^PW609
^LL0406
^LS0
^FT1,29^A0N,28,28^FH\^FDHello World!^FS
^PQ1,0,1,Y^XZ
My main question is, which one do I include in my C# Code if im going to send this code to the printer via my Windows Mobile C# app? Do I include the part with ^XA until ^XZ? I believe that CT~~CD,~CC^~CT~ should not be included in my code If im not mistaken.
Late answer, but since this is getting viewed...
The CT line and first set of XA..XZ sequence sets up the modes, label length, printable area, etc.
If you remove those, it will take those settings from the label/printer settings, which is usually what you want. The printers can sense the length and width of the label.
Leaving them in can cause big problems, because if you define the printable area in your label, and then the next label type submitted does not, it will use the settings you have defined -- which can cause blank areas in the label, eg. cutoff USPS Label barcodes that are printed after your Zebra Designer custom labels.
Found this out the hard way - leave those out, and you should leave out of the remaining XA..XZ sequence the MMT, PW609, LL0406, and LS0 as well - your Hello World will not be affected.
If you really want to limit the area printed to, set up margins inside the printable area, etc, refer to the manual.
you have to look at the programmers guide before you remove anything of the code. The CT~ command for example changes the control prefix.
Search the internet or zebra.com site for "ZPL Programming guide".
So, leave the text file as is and then include that into your windows mobile application.
PS: zebra offers SDKs for label/receipt printers: http://www.zebra.com/gb/en/products-services/software/adapt-software.html
PS2: without a test printer you may get bad final results.
My project for JDE is to convert the invoice number that appear on JDE report to bar-code. Would you mind to tell me how I am able to do it? Because I am just a beginner for JDE software.
You need some kind of bar code java or jde library which you include into your project. Then you use the APIs provided by the library to convert numbers to barcode. ZXing
is one of hte libraries I know. However, I never used it with Blackberry.
A simple google after 'blackbaeery jde barcode' would give you plenty of more info.
If you install a Barcode Font you're supposed to convert any character into a barcode. But you should define what type of barcode you'll use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode#Types_of_barcodes
For 1 dimensional codes (like EAN f.e.) - you can use bar code font as recommended by
lhoffman. - Usually you need to calculate control character, add it to your string and output it in BI Publisher with barcode font.
Second approach - is kind of workaround - generate bar code as image using third party web application and include image into report (in runtime).
f.e. create simple wrapper for library like this - http://barcode-coder.com/en/barcode-php-class-203.html
it should receive invoice number as part of url and return image with proper bar code.
something like: http://..*.*/barcode/12321312312.png
shouldn't take more than 5 lines of php.
and include it in bi publisher like this: https://blogs.oracle.com/xmlpublisher/entry/dynamic_images
as advantage- you have more control on bar code and can use 2D bar codes.
I'm developing a WP7 app that has a lot of math content, and I need to display expressions as images.
The data for these expressions is in the form of strings like this:
"d=\\sqrt{2} \\times a"
"A=a \\times \\frac{\\pi}{4}"
etc.
The goal is to take a string like this, run it through some parser of some sort that then outputs an image of the expression in LateX style.
Does anyone know of some magic code I can include / have a solution?
Much appreciated.
A possible solution without getting Tex to run on windows 7 phone, would be to use a web service.
You would post your equation string to a web service and it would reply with the image data or a url. Example
In the event that tex for windows 7 phone exists, that above mentioned page also links to a script called tex2im which shows how to create an image from tex code.