Jason 'Bug' Fenter
2012-02-01 23:32:32
I've found yet an easier way to write to a Zebra printer over a COM port. I went to the Windows control panel and added a new printer. For the port, I chose COM1 (the port the printer was plugged in to). I used a "Generic / Text Only" printer driver. I disabled the print spooler (a standard option in the printer preferences) as well as all advanced printing options. Now, I can just print any string to that printer and if the string contains ZPL, the printer renders the ZPL just fine! No need for special "start sequences" or funky stuff like that. Yay for simplicity!
I have two questions. 1. What do you mean by "print any string to that printer"? 2. Does disabling spooling and advanced printing options interfere with other printers?
You can disable spooling on a per-printer basis, so turning off the spooler for this printer will not affect any other printer. "Print any string" means that anything I send to the printer through any means will get treated by the printer as ZPL. So if you send binary data (like a Word doc or a PDF), the Zebra printer will interpret it as garbage. If the print a text file and the text in that file contains valid ZPL statements, the printer will interpret the valid ZPL statements and render a label.