AMT Datasouth 4000 - Manual (Page 56)

User's Guide 56
Example of How to Define Label Formats
The example below shows how a label format can be defined as a PAL procedure. This label format
called Mailing_Label uses 5 variables. Notice how the variables are defined in reverse order compared
to how this format is called. This format is defined in Pal_Procs_and_Formats.txt. Looking at this file
will also reveal that this procedure makes use of the print utility procedures also defined in this file.
Instead of using these print utilities, these formats could also use direct PAL operators. This approach
however allows label formats to be defined with very little knowledge of the PAL Print and Program
Language. In this label format the procedures Printfont, PrintBoldfont, and Printbarcode are used. These
are not native PAL operators but new procedures also defined in this file. Using print utility procedures
like this in the label format makes it easy to define formats using inches as the measurement system with
very little knowledge of PAL operators.
The procedure below defines a label format called Mailing_Label. This name is case sensitive. The first
5 lines after the { character assign the passed parameters to names. These names are in turn used when
needed to pass information to PAL operators or in this case other PAL procedures. When the label
format is called, the very first parameter specified will be the name. Notice in the definition below that
the Name variable is actually the last defined. This is due to the stack based nature of PAL. The first
defined parameter on the stack is the last off the stack (just like a stack of plates for example, last one
stacked is first one off). The line below shows that at an X,Y position of 0.25", 0.75", the name variable
will be printed in bold at a size of 12 points with no rotation. This PrintBoldfont procedure makes it easy
to place text of any size and rotation at any position just by specifying the parameters in correct order
then calling the PrintBoldfont.
0.25 0.75 0 12 Name PrintBoldfont
If should also be noted that the label format defined below is actually just another PAL procedure
definition just like the PrintBoldfont. Parameters are passed to these procedures in the same way. The
big difference is that the PAL operator showpage is included in the label format procedure which will
actually cause a label to be printed each time this format is called.
%===============================================================================
% Mailing_Label procedure definition
% Usage: Name Street CityState Zip5 Zip4 Mailing_Label
% Example: (John Doe) (1234 Main St.) (Anytown, NC) (12345) (1234) Mailing_Label
%===============================================================================
/Mailing_Label
{
/Zip4 exch def
/Zip5 exch def
/CityState exch def
/Street exch def
/Name exch def
0.25 0.75 0 12 Name PrintBoldfont
0.25 0.55 0 12 Street Printfont
0.25 0.35 0 12 CityState ( ) concat Zip5 concat (-) concat Zip4 concat Printfont
0.1 0.1 0 0.1 Zip4 Zip5 concat /Postnet Printbarcode
showpage
} bind def