Printer Code Template Options Dialog

The Template Fields tab is used to configure the job option data fields. The available template fields are listed in a tree view, which is located on the left side of the page. You can select from one of the following print dialog data sources or from any data source in your template.

Print Dialog Data Sources

• Format ID/Name: Identifies the identification number or name of the format that is stored in the printer.

• Copies: Identifies the number of copies to print.

• Serial Numbers: Identifies the number of serial numbers to print. This option depends on the printer's support for serialization.

• Batch Copies: Identifies the total number of items (number of copies multiplied by the number of serial numbers) to print. This option may be shown instead of Serial Numbers, depending on how the printer's command language supports serialization.

External Keyboard

• Enable prompting on external keyboard (KDU): Enables prompts to be displayed on the external keypad print system when the user prints a document, based on the content of the printer code template.

• Prompt Text: Specifies the text that is displayed next to the prompt that is shown by the keypad print system. This text can be used to inform the user about what input is expected in the associated data entry field.

Template Field

• Source: Determines the type of source of the information that is inputted into the template field. You can select a database field, a named data source, or embedded data; alternatively, you can specify a custom field. Available when a Template Object Data Source is selected.

• Type: Determines the type that you want to assign to the template field. Available when a Print Dialog Data Source is selected.

  • A basic Template Field serves as a placeholder. At print-time, the print system will replace the field name with actual data. For example, you might use "NumberOfCopies" as the value for the Printer Copies field. (The name will be immediately preceded in the printer code template with the characters that you specified as the value of the Start Field Delimiter on the Delimiters tab of the Printer Code Template dialog. Similarly, it will be followed by the value of the End Field Delimiter. For example, if you specify "<" and ">" as the start and end characters and "NumberOfCopies" as the field name, BarTender will put "<NumberOfCopies>", without the quotation marks, into the printer code template.)

  • A Constant field type will be inserted into the printer code template as a literal value. For example, you might use "1" as the value for the Printer Copies field. BarTender will put "1" (without the quotation marks) in the file, but it will not put the field delimiters around the value.

  • With a Set By Driver field, the driver will supply the field name when the printer code template is generated. (This option is not available for every kind of template field.)

  • With a Set by Print Dialog field, the number of copies can be configured in the Print dialog by using the Copies option on the Quantity mini-tab.

• Name/Value: Provides the value of each field. This value will be inserted into the printer code template for the selected template field.

The Printer tab displays the properties for the selected printer.

• Name: Displays the name of the printer.

• Status: Displays the status of the printer.

• Model: Displays the model of the printer.

• Port: Displays the port that the printer is using.

• Location: Displays the location of the printer on your local computer or network.

• Comments: Displays any comments that were entered when the printer was installed.

• Document Properties: Opens the Document Properties dialog for the printer.

• Printer Properties: Opens the Printer Properties dialog for the printer.

The options on the Object Print Method tab are used to specify how objects will be printed on a thermal printer when an object type is not directly supported by either the printer or the Seagull Scientific printer driver.

Objects

• TrueType Text: Specifies whether to print TrueType fonts as Text Output or Raster Graphics. This choice affects how colored TrueType text is printed when the color is not directly supported by the printer, such as when the printer supports red and yellow but the TrueType font is orange. Choosing Raster Graphics causes the printer to dither (that is, mix) dots of different colors to produce text of the color that you want. For example, the printer would dither red and yellow dots to produce orange letters. But dithered color text can be hard to read, especially with small font sizes. Choosing Text Output causes the text to be printed in the closest directly supported color, so orange text will be printed as either red or yellow, depending on how dark the orange is.

• Unsupported 1D (or 2D) Barcodes: Specifies whether 1-D and 2-D barcodes will be printed by using Raster Graphics or Device Lines if the symbology is unsupported by either the printer or the Seagull Scientific printer driver. If this option is set to Auto, the driver will determine the best printing method.

• Lines, Boxes, and Ellipses: Specifies whether lines, boxes, or ellipses will be printed by using Raster Graphics or by using the printer's device settings if they are unsupported by either the printer or the Seagull Scientific printer driver. If this option is set to Auto, the driver will determine the best printing method.

The Performance tab specifies how BarTender will take advantage of built-in printer capabilities when using a Seagull printer driver.

Printer Optimizations

• Allow Static Graphics: Specifies that BarTender will use the printer's static graphics feature to store the specifications for all raster-type graphic objects that are printed exactly the same from item to item, including TrueType fonts.

• Allow Static Objects: Specifies that BarTender will use the printer's static objects feature to store the specifications for all objects that are printed exactly the same from item to item, whether or not they are raster graphics. This includes printer fonts, barcodes, imported graphics, and TrueType fonts.

• Allow Serialization: Specifies that BarTender will use the built-in incrementing capabilities of the specified printer whenever appropriate. (This option cannot be turned off when you are exporting a printer code template.)

• Allow Variable Data Optimization: Specifies that BarTender will use the printer's data merge feature to store the formatting specifications (object positions, symbology, fonts, and so on) so that only object data needs to be transmitted.

Keep in mind that TrueType fonts are transmitted to thermal printers as graphics rather than as downloaded fonts. Since thermal printers can increment data only when it is being handled as a font, a TrueType font cannot be incremented by using the printer's built-in serialization capabilities. If you want to serialize an object on your template and take advantage of your printer's serialization capabilities, you must use one of your printer's built-in fonts.

The Advanced tab enables you to determine the version of BarTender with which you want your printer code to be compatible. You can use the resulting printer code with both current and past versions of BarTender.

Compatibility Options

• Version: Specifies the version of BarTender that is used to create printer code templates.