Printer commands and control codes

[Mark Gregory]

I am trying to send commands and control codes to a printer.

Below is an example of some PJL and PCL commands used to print a sample check.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to accomplish this in PowerBasic?

I am trying to avoid placing these commands in a text file and copying the file to the printer.



<ESC>%[email protected] LDECLARE LRESOURCE:"flash:" LRWLOCK="PASSWORD"

@PJL MICRJOB

@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = PCL

<ESC>&l2a1h6d1e64F



Thanks for any assistance.
Mark

[Anne Wilson]

Mark
Can you write All these statements into a string PrinStr and then send this string to the printer?

LOCAL  PrinStr  AS WSTRING
PrinStr =  "<ESC>%[email protected] LDECLARE LRESOURCE:"+CHR$(34) + flash:+CHR$(34)  + _
                 "LRWLOCK=" + CHR$(34) +PASSWORD+CHR$(34) +  CRLF$ + _
                 "@PJL MICRJOB" + CRLF$ + _
                 "@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = PCL" + CRLF$ + _
                 "<ESC>&l2a1h6d1e64F"​

[Bud Durland]

I am trying to send commands and control codes to a printer.

Below is an example of some PJL and PCL commands used to print a sample check.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to accomplish this in PowerBasic?

Anne's example is a good one on how to format the data.

Part of the challenge will be: how is the printer connected, and how are you sending the data? If you are attaching to a COM port, an LPT port, or a \\network\share, you should be able to just use LPRINT ATTACH and send the string. If you are printing through windows (LPRINT ATTACH <printer name>), you may need to put the windows driver into "passthrough" mode so that Windoze and the associated driver does not mung up the data stream. I have to do that with the Zebra barcode label printers we use at work in order to use the native language (ZPL).

[Stuart McLachlan]

LPRINT ATTACH and send the string. If you are printing through windows (LPRINT ATTACH <printer name>), you may need to put the windows driver into "passthrough" mode so that Windoze and the associated driver does not mung up the data stream.).

Is that a typo? Did you mean "printing through windows (XPRINT ATTACH <printer name>)"

[Bud Durland]

Is that a typo? Did you mean "printing through windows (XPRINT ATTACH <printer name>)"

XPRINT, yes, thanks for the correction. When using a Windows/GDI printer, windows will process the data through the printer driver. If the objective is to send Epson ESC codes or HP PJL codes to the printer, they will get garbled on their way. We use Zebra barcode printers at work, and when they are connected via USB, I have to use XPRINT, and have the driver on the windows machine set to enable "bypass mode" which in this case means wrapping special characters around my text:

' snippet
XPrint Attach LabelPrinter
tStr1 = XPrint$
If Len(tStr1) = 0 Then
  MsgBox "failed to connect to printer",%MB_OKMODAL,"Printer Error"
else
  XPrint "${" & LabelData & "}$"
  XPrint Close​​​
End If

Some of the Zebras are connected via serial (COM1), and I don't need bypass mode; jsut a couple lines to open the COM port and send the data. Easier yet with LPT1, but we haven't been able to buy a PC with a parallel port in years.

[Claudio DalZovo]

I use Windows API OpenPrinter, WritePrinter etc. to send raw data to printers, such as Zebra label printers or Esc/POS printers etc.
Here a working example (constants in Italian)..
By the way, some of my customers are using it on old PC, so I just discovered that to work on Windows 10 it's necessary to change a parameter (datatype from RAW to XPS_PASS).
So I added here a test on Windows version using the first one I found; maybe there are better ways to do this job..
In the example I use xprint attach choose to select the printer; the printer must be installed in Windows.
The file to print can contain any kind of control codes.

      #include "win32api.inc"
      #include "winspool.inc"
      declare function RtlGetVersion lib "NtDll.dll" alias "RtlGetVersion" (OsVerInfoEx as OSVERSIONINFOEXW) as long

Function PBMain() as long
      file$=trim$(command$)
      if file$="" then
         display openfile 0,,,"File da stampare","","","","",%ofn_filemustexist to file$
      end if
      if file$="" then
         exit function
      end if
      xprint attach choose, "Stampa "+file$
      if xprint$<>"" then
         lpt$=xprint$
         xprint cancel
         call StampaDiretta(file$,lpt$,er$)
         if er$<>"" then
            msgbox er$,%mb_iconwarning or %mb_taskmodal,"Stampa "+file$
         else
            msgbox "Stampa completata",%mb_iconinformation or %mb_taskmodal,"Stampa "+file$
         end if
      end if
      exit function
End Function

sub StampaDiretta(fileprn$,printername$,er$)
      Dim lStatus As Long
      Dim hPrinter As Dword
      Dim dmDevmod As DEVMODE
      Dim lLevel As Dword
      Dim diDocInfo As DOC_INFO_1
      Dim lWritten As Long
      Dim iFile As Integer
      Dim i As Long
      Dim Spazi as asciiz * 128
      Dim sPrinter as asciiz * 128
      Dim sFileprn as asciiz * 128
      Dim sFileout as asciiz * 128
      Dim sDatatype as asciiz * 128

      er$=""
      if dir$(fileprn$)="" then
         er$="Archivio "+fileprn$+" non trovato"
         exit sub
      end if

      Spazi=space$(127)
      sPrinter=printername$
      lStatus=OpenPrinter(sPrinter,hPrinter,ByVal 0&)
      if lStatus=0 then
         er$="Errore durante l'apertura stampante "+printername$
         exit sub
      end if

      lLevel=1
      sFileprn=fileprn$
      sFileout=""
      if Winver()>=6.2! then ' Windows 8 o maggiore
         sDatatype="XPS_PASS"
      else
         sDatatype="RAW"
      end if
      diDocInfo.pDocName=varptr(sFileprn)
      diDocInfo.pOutputFile=varptr(sFileout)
      diDocInfo.pDatatype=varptr(sDatatype)
      lStatus=StartDocPrinter(hPrinter,lLevel,varptr(diDocInfo))
      if lStatus=0 then
         AbortPrinter hPrinter
         er$="Errore durante l'inizio della stampa di "+fileprn$
         exit sub
      end if

      lStatus=StartPagePrinter(hPrinter)
      if lStatus = 0 then
         AbortPrinter hPrinter
         er$="Errore durante l'inizio della stampa di "+fileprn$
         exit sub
      end if

      iFile=freeFile
      open fileprn$ for binary as #ifile base=1
      redim Buffer(1 to &h4000) as Byte
      for i=1 to lof(iFile)\&h4000
         get #iFile,,Buffer()
         lStatus=WritePrinter(hPrinter,Buffer(1),&h4000,lWritten)
         if lStatus=0 then
            AbortPrinter hPrinter
            er$="Errore durante la stampa di "+fileprn$
            exit sub
         end if
      next i
      if (lof(iFile) mod &h4000)>0 then
         redim Buffer(1 to (lof(iFile) mod &h4000)) as Byte
         get #iFile,,Buffer()
         lStatus=WritePrinter(hPrinter,Buffer(1),lof(iFile) mod &h4000,lWritten)
         if lStatus=0 then
            AbortPrinter hPrinter
            er$="Errore durante la stampa di "+fileprn$
            exit sub
         end if
      end if
      close #iFile

      lStatus=EndPagePrinter(hPrinter)
      if lStatus = 0 then
         AbortPrinter hPrinter
         er$="Errore durante la chiusura della stampa di "+fileprn$
         exit sub
      end if
      lStatus=EndDocPrinter(hPrinter)
      if lStatus = 0 then
         AbortPrinter hPrinter
         er$="Errore durante la chiusura della stampa di "+fileprn$
         exit sub
      end if
      lStatus=ClosePrinter(hPrinter)
      if lStatus = 0 then
         AbortPrinter hPrinter
         er$="Errore durante la chiusura stampante "+printername$
         exit sub
      end if
      exit sub
end sub

function Winver() as single
      local OsInfoEx as osversioninfoexw
      RtlGetVersion OsInfoEx
      function=osinfoex.dwmajorversion+osinfoex.dwminorversion / iif(osinfoex.dwminorversion>9,100,10)
end function

​

[Paul Dixon]

Is that a typo? Did you mean "printing through windows (XPRINT ATTACH <printer name>)"

Is LPRINT ATTACH not correct?

XPRINT uses the windows GDI printer drivers to create an internal image and then sends that bitmap image to the printer.
LPRINT just sends the codes direct to the printer and lets the printer handle them. That's how PCL printers work.

[Stuart McLachlan]

Is LPRINT ATTACH not correct?

XPRINT uses the windows GDI printer drivers to create an internal image and then sends that bitmap image to the printer.
LPRINT just sends the codes direct to the printer and lets the printer handle them. That's how PCL printers work.

Yes, it's not correct
see Post #5, You can't use LPRINT easily with a USB attached device, which is why you have to avoid the GDI page creation when using XPRINT for ZPL etc.

[Paul Dixon]

Yes, it's not correct
see Post #5, You can't use LPRINT easily with a USB attached device, which is why you have to avoid the GDI page creation when using XPRINT for ZPL etc.

It works ok here.
I disconnected my network PCL printer, connected it with USB (although the OP doesn't say it needs to be USB connected) and I can send PCL codes to it using LPRINT in PBCC6 and it prints as I expect.

[Mark Gregory]

Thanks to everyone for your assistance. I will see what I can do to make this work. Thanks again.