Microcom 438 - Manual (Page 28)

Chapter 4 Designing Labels with LDS
438 Operator’s Manual - 880052-0100 4-3
There are some special features offered by the printer that assist in label design. For
example, the auto-size command (^A2^D39 ) provides most of the header format
information needed to define the different properties of the media being used. The current
state of the printer is accessed through the enquiry command (^D5 , Ctrl E, or 5 NULL
characters + 01 (HEX 00 00 00 00 00 01) if binary compression has been enabled). The
statistical information of the printer is made available through the use of the ^A0^D29
or more simply ^D29 command.
The following sections of this chapter are intended to provide the user an overview of the
LDS language. The overview will include information regarding the label format, header
definition, and list the different types of field information available. The combination of these
sections and Chapter 5 should provide the user with the information required for easy format
creation and printing. Once some understanding of these basic concepts has been
achieved, use the Quick Reference Guide in Appendix C for expedient label design.
4.3 Label Design: An Overview
A label format consists of a header record and field records, followed by the text data to be
printed. The records describe how the label is to be printed. The header contains
information about the label itself such as label height, width, print speed, etc. The field
records refer to the data section and contain information about positioning coordinates, and
the type of character generation such as text, graphics, bar codes, etc. The number of
fields is limited only by the amount of free memory available.
Below is a sample label format created for the Model 424 with a 300 DPI print head. We will
refer to this format as we break down the steps and components to produce the format.
Refer to Figure 4-2 for a printed representation.
^D57
A label format is coming.
5,1280,900,20,40,7,0,1,405,0,0 Header Information.
1,640,650,8,1,5,0,4,2,2,,,,,0 Field #1 format information.
2,640,591,11,1,5,0,4,2,2,,,,,0 Field #2 format information.
3,640,443,26,1,5,0,4 Field #3 format information.
4,640,296,6,1,5,0,4 Field #4 format information.
4,640,148,6,16,3,,4,3,75 Field #4 format information.
^D56 Signals the end of the label field definition .
^D2 Text data is coming.
Microcom Text data string #1.
Corporation Text data string #2.
Thermal Printing Solutions Text data string #3.
012345 Text data string #4.
^D3 Print label.
The command ^D57 on the first line informs the printer that a format is coming and
causes the printer to enter the format entry mode.
The next line is the header information that sets the label size and other pertinent
information.