Label Printing

Has anyone ever printed directly from Windev to a thermal label printer?

The printer I'm using has a default paper size set of 165mm wide by 112mm high (landscape mode).

In my label report I'm setting the paper size as the same (165x112) and the label size to 162mm by 108mm - 1 label per row.

Whenever I preview the label it only shows the controls positioned no further right than about 110mm, so I only have a 'real' print width available of 110mm even though I've set the label width to 162mm????

Also, nothings prints at all unless I click the "resize the block to fit the controls" option.

I have pulled about every hair of my head out on this. Any help,tips etc would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,
using windev, you can print to any label printers, on your case, i guess you must check the paper distance in your thermal printer. by printing it, you can either code it or design the label itself first using windev.

left top = 0
top = 0

regards
mikz

Hi mikz,

Thanks for responding, but I'm not sure what you're saying. I have already designed the label in Windev, measured the label I am trying to print to and defined both the paper size and label size in the label report, yet still it will not print correctly. What do you mean by 'left top=0' and 'top=0'?

Rgds
Reg

Hi,

Have you solved this?

You don't say what label printer you are using... All label printers aren't the same. It's true to say that WinDev will be able to print to all printers, but it's a matter of knowing how your printer expects the data.

For example, Brother P-Touch printers can be more difficult as you can't send data directly - you must use an ActiveX control, but the re-distributable AX control isn't supplied with the printer :confused:

Whereas, Zebra printers are a lot easier as they have their own mini-programming language and labels are printed by building and sending a text file :rp:

Both are label printers, both thermal and both great printers in their own right, but both are VERY different in the way they work.

There are a couple of issues that may be causing your problems:

1) WinDev is trying to "help" you by controlling margins, label size etc..

2) The operating systems "generic" printer driver/interface layer also tries to "help" as it expects proportional fonts etc...

In my experience, if you want fast, platform independant printing, Zebra printers, with their internal programming language, allow you to by-pass all these "hurdles" and get results - fast! :spos:

HTH...

Hi Darren:

I am interested in your answer about the ZEBRA printer, i have a zebra connected by bluetooth, how exactly do you send the text file ?, I already tested by sending strings to the com4 port, but it prints exactly what it is send, instead of interpreting the commands.

Thanks

Andres Sanchez R.

Hi Andres,

Sounds like you have a similar problem to the one I had - windows is trying to "help" you :sneg: But while "helping", it strips out the control characters that you MUST have in the beginning of any text files you send to Zebra printers :-(

I presume you have a text file like:

N
A230,5,0,3,2,2,N,"Great Company Ltd"
A230,45,0,3,1,1,N,"Shimano"
A480,45,0,3,1,1,N,"9999.99"
A230,65,0,3,1,1,N,"A great product"
B245,90,0,E30,3,5,70,B,"123456789012"
A250,185,0,3,1,1,R,"www.greatcycles.co.uk"
P1

I then created a .bat file with a COPY statement like:

rem *** Print a barcode label to a Zebra LP2844
copy c:\a5webroot\barcode_label.txt lpt1:

You may guess what's coming next - simply execute the .bat file from within WinDev.

However, as you are dropping into DOS to execute this bat file, I'm not sure if that will stop your bluetooth working properly???

Let us know how you get on...?

HTH...

Still having the problem. I've tried it with at 2 different printers, a Datamax and a Cognitive Advantage LX.

I have eliminated the Op System etc by desiging a label in MS Access. This works absolutely perfectly. I know I could create .txt files containing the data and then design the label within the printer software, but I want to be able to re-sell the system I'm writing and this would complicate it, in any case this should not be necessary.

I'm waiting for PCSoft support get back to me on this. However clever the software is, if you design a label and place content within the outlined Body section then provided the paper size is ok everything should print, and it isn't...