Printer Code Template Options Dialog

Use the Template Fields tab to configure the job option data fields. The available template fields are listed in a tree view on the left side of the dialog. 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: Specifies the identification number or name of the format that is stored in the printer.

• Copies: Specifies the number of copies to print.

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

• Batch Copies: Specifies the total number of items to print. The total number is the number of copies multiplied by the number of serial numbers. 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): Specifies that prompts are 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 Options

• Continue Prompting: Specifies that the template prompts are run continuously. If this option is not selected, the template is run only one time, and the template prompts are displayed only one time.

Template Field

• Source: Specifies the source type for the information that is entered 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: Specifies the type that you want to assign to the template field. Available when a print dialog data source is selected.

  • Template Field: This field type serves as a placeholder. At print time, the print system replaces the field name with actual data. For example, you might use "NumberOfCopies" as the value for the Printer Copies field.
    
    The name is 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, the name is 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> into the printer code template.

  • Constant: This field type is 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 puts 1 in the file, but it does not put the field delimiters around the value.

  • Set By Driver: For this field type, the driver supplies the field name when the printer code template is generated. Not available for every kind of template field.

  • Set by Print Dialog: This field type specifies that you can configure the number of copies in the Print dialog by using the Copies option on the Quantity mini-tab.

• Name/Value: Specifies the value of each field. This value is inserted into the printer code template for the selected template field.

The Printer tab displays the properties for the selected printer, as follows:

• 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.

Use the options on the Object Print Method tab to specify how objects are 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 setting 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. When you select Raster Graphics, the printer will dither (that is, mix) dots of different colors to produce text of the color that you want. In this 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. When you select Text Output, the text is printed in the closest directly supported color. In this example, orange text is printed as either red or yellow, depending on how dark the orange is.

• Unsupported 1D Barcodes, Unsupported 2D Barcodes: Specifies whether linear (1-D) and 2-D barcodes are printed by using Raster Graphics or Device Lines if the symbology is not supported by either the printer or the printer driver. If this option is set to Auto, the driver determines the best printing method.

• Lines, Boxes, and Ellipses: Specifies whether lines, boxes, and ellipses are printed by using Raster Graphics or by using the printer's device settings if they are not supported by either the printer or the printer driver. If this option is set to Auto, the driver determines the best printing method.

The Performance tab specifies how BarTender uses built-in printer capabilities when it uses a Seagull printer driver.

Printer Optimizations

• Allow Static Graphics: Specifies that BarTender uses 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 uses 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 uses 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 uses 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.

TrueType fonts are transmitted to thermal printers as graphics rather than as downloaded fonts. Because 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 use your printer's serialization capabilities, you must use one of your printer's built-in fonts.

Use the Advanced tab to specify 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.