IPL printing

[Petrus Vorster]

Hi All

Has anyone here ever worked with IPL printers and sending IPL commands to such printers?
My app works perfectly via Windows drivers, but it is slow in comparison to the IPL professional software.
To me it looks like you simply connect to a com port like with BAUD, PARITY etc and send Certain TEXT commands to the printer.

Anyone with some skills on this?

-Peter

[philbar]

Hi Peter,

I'm not much help with IPL, but I've printed labels with Zebra printers and ZPL, which is similar but different.

I did find a link to the IPL user's manual at https://cleversoftsolutions.com/descargas/utilidades/Impresoras/Etiquetas/Intermec/IPL.pdf . Despite the appearance of the link, the PDF is in English.

I can confirm that it is much faster to go to the printer directly with its command language. If you want to print a thousand copies of one label, it's easier to use the Windows driver. If you want to print a thousand different labels, it's faster to use IPL (ZPL).

You'll set up a serial port, as you say, with baud rate, parity, and according to the manual, hardware flow control (XON/XOFF), which is the definition of software flow control. So you'll have to check that out yourself. If it's really hardware flow control, you need a properly configured cable, but since you're already using the printer, you've got the cable.

The actual text sent to the printer is the text of the label, but heavily marked up with escape codes controlling row, column, font, size, etc. Probably an unreadable mess. The good news is that your printer probably has a bunch of bar code fonts already built in, so you can just select the font, size it, place it, and print the text. If you want to print images, e.g. company logo, you'll probably have to convert your bitmap to a format the printer likes. (Hint: Irfanview can convert anything.)

There's a learning curve, but it's doable. Definitely a start-over compared to the Windows version.

Phil

[Petrus Vorster]

Hi Phil

I have both Intermec and Zebra printers available. (see Photos)
I also see there are virtual printers of both available to test without wasting packs of paper.

Tomorrow they will run it with windows drivers. It prints INDIVIDUAL labels , each with unique barcodes and tracking numbers.
I dont think i should dwell down this avenue too soon, unless it becomes critical.

What i need to do now is to figure out a way to put my label routine in an external text type file to accomodate different labels sizes and layouts.

-Thanks for the advice mate.

-Peter