Datamax-O'Neil PrintPAD AN-10 (Easy Print) - Manual

AN-10 (Easy Print)
December 6, 2005
HOW TO PRINT STORED GRAPHICS
The O’Neil thermal printers offer several different ways to print a graphic image. The Line Printer mode, covered in
separate application notes, covers printing transient graphics. These are graphics that are printed once, then thrown
away – such as a signature. Easy Print mode allows graphics to be stored in the printer one time and printed out as often
as needed without sending down all of the graphic information each time.
Before you can print a stored graphic, you must use either the MFLASH Windows Configuration Program or the OPDI
suite to download the .PCX graphic. When you are downloading the graphic image, you must specify a unique one and a
five character name to be used later when printing the graphic image (not used by any other font, graphic, or format). You
can also assign the graphic a version number, creation date, and description.
In easy print, fonts, bar codes, and stored graphics are printed using virtually the same field description. In each field
entry you need to specify the graphic image you want to print. To print using Easy Print, the command is PRINT and the
DATA is a succession of descriptors for each field, or “thing” to be printed (whether the “thing” is text, bar code, or
graphic). Optional global parameters affect the entire print job.
{PRINT<,GLOBALPARAMETERS>:
[FIELD 1]
•
[FIELD n]
}
Each field, regardless of what is to be printed is virtually identical. If a field is to contain a bar code, then the bar code
must be selected for that field. Each FIELD has the form:
@ROW,COL:NAME|DATA|
But since there is no data associated with printing a graphic image, the field does not contain a data field:
@ROW,COL:NAME|
Begins with an “@” (0x40)
Is followed by WHERE the data is to be printed (ROW,COL). The row and column are always followed by a
colon “:” (0x3A)
That is followed by HOW is to be printed. In this case, since we are printing a downloaded graphic image we
include the name we assigned to that image. The final vertical bar (0x7C) on that line tells Easy Print that this
is the end of that field