Printing Barcodes
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1 Labels: Special Topics Printing Barcodes Overview A barcode is a series of printed vertical bars, which can be machine-read using an optical input device such as a light pen, a beam reader, or a slot scanner. CounterPoint allows you to format and output CounterPoint data into printed barcodes. CounterPoint can “translate” text and codes into printed vertical bars without the use of other manufacturers’ barcode hardware and/or software. You can also use CounterPoint in conjunction with third-party products to produce barcode images. This document explains how to print barcodes, and provides a description of the barcode types supported by CounterPoint. Printing barcodes without other barcode products CounterPoint contains the ability to format a line of text for output as a barcode for use with most dot matrix and laser printers. Four basic steps are required to print a barcode on a label: 1. Set up the physical definition for the label (See Physical Definitions for more information.) 2. Set up a barcode definition for the type of barcode to print (See Barcode Definitions for more information.) 3. Define the custom format, including the data to print in barcode format (See Custom Formats for more information.) 4. Print the label (See Printing Labels for more information.) These four steps are described in more detail in the following sections, using an Inventory Item label as an example where the Barcode field for each item prints as a Code 39 type barcode. Labels: Special Topics - Printing Barcodes 2 Setting up the physical definition Select Setup / Labels / Physical definitions. You must consider the height of the printed barcode when setting up the physical definition for a label on which to print the barcode. This screen illustrates a physical definition for “multi-up” 1-inch labels on which a .5-inch high barcode is to be printed on a printer set at 6 lines per inch. Note the entry of 4 for Lines per label. The .5-inch barcode will occupy three physical lines on the label, leaving three additional physical lines for printing of other data. Because a barcode is always considered to be one print line (regardless of its height), there are actually only 4 print lines available per label. Labels: Special Topics - Printing Barcodes 3 Setting up the barcode definition Select Setup / Labels / Barcode definitions. You must set up a barcode definition in order to print a barcode if you are not using another manufacturer’s barcode products. The definition provides the information required to format the barcode for printing. If you are using an “intelligent” barcode printer, such as the Barcode Blaster (by Cognitive Solutions, Inc.), the internal barcode functions provided by the barcode definition are not required. This screen shows a barcode definition for Code 39 barcodes. NOTE: The Code 39 barcode is probably the most commonly used barcode because it allows from 2 to 30 characters to be barcoded, including numbers, letters, and some punctuation. Any lower case letters in the text are converted to upper case for bar coding. For descriptions of all the barcode types supported by CounterPoint, see the Barcode types section on page 7 for more information. In the example, the Code 39 barcode is defined to print on an IBM Proprinter compatible printer. You should specify the appropriate type of printer for Printer type. When you have completed setting up the barcode definition, you can print a test barcode by pressing F2 at Field number to change ?. You can then use a barcode reader or scanner to scan this barcode to ensure that it is readable. Labels: Special Topics - Printing Barcodes 4 Defining the custom format Select Setup / Labels / Custom formats. These screens illustrate a custom format for Inventory Item labels, where the Barcode field prints in barcode format. On the first screen, note that the physical definition specific to barcode printing is entered for Definition ID. Labels: Special Topics - Printing Barcodes 5 If your barcode definition indicated that the barcodes print on an HP Laserjet II printer in landscape orientation, and you want any text or other data to also print in landscape mode, you would specify the control codes that place the printer in landscape mode for Pre-run-print-control and the control codes to return the printer to portrait orientation for Post-run-print-control. On the second screen, when you enter Yes to Bar for the Barcode field, you are asked to specify the ID of the barcode definition to use for this field. Enter CODE39 to use the Code 39 barcode definition. Note that Pre- fld-print-control and Post-fld-print-control codes are not required to print a Code 39 barcode on an IBM Proprinter when using CounterPoint independently of other barcode products. Under certain circumstances, your printer may require control codes in these fields to restore the normal print mode when barcode printing completes. If you want to print barcodes for individual color/sizes of gridded items, you must also select to print Descrip-2 in the custom format. When you specify to print this field, you should select an option 1 through 9 in the window that appears. NOTE: Secondary barcodes for items or color/sizes cannot be printed on labels. Printing the barcode labels Select Labels / Print / Labels. This screen shows how you would print the Inventory Item labels, with a quantity of 1 for each item. NOTE: To print individual color/size barcodes, you must press F2 at Qty per selected record to print the inventory quantity on hand for the items. (To print a different quantity for your gridded items, create a Tag record for the item and print labels from those tags.) Labels: Special Topics - Printing Barcodes 6 NOTE: Secondary cell barcodes can not be printed on user-defined forms or labels. Be sure to select the printer that corresponds with the printer that is specified in the barcode definition. If a barcode cannot be generated at print time, an error message indicating why the barcode could not be generated prints on the label, and printing is terminated. For example, the message Barcode generation error prints if the data to be encoded is invalid. An Internal buffer overflow message indicates that too many dots have been generated for the labels. Use smaller barcodes or fewer labels across the page. When printing UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN/JAN-13, EAN/JAN-8, Codabar, Zip+4 Postnet, or UCC-128 barcodes, if the data to be encoded is blank (all spaces), the blank data is replaced by a string of zeros of the specified length. For Codabar barcodes, the first zero is then replaced with A and the last zero is replaced with B. Prior to printing a large group of barcode labels for the first time, you should print a smaller test group, then use your barcode scanner or reader to verify that the printed barcodes can actually be read. (Note that special post office equipment is required to read Zip+4 Postnet barcodes.) If the printing of a barcode leaves your printer in an undesirable state, enter control codes in Post-fld-print-control for the barcoded field in the custom format to restore the printer to the desired state. Printing barcodes using other barcode products Through the use of appropriate special control codes in a custom format, CounterPoint can output data for production of barcodes by barcode printers, PC plug-in cards, and barcode software. Barcode printer Although many printers can print matrix dots densely enough to form readable bars, very few printers are intelligent enough to “translate” text and control codes into bars. The Barcode Blaster, by Cognitive Solutions, Inc., is one example of an “intelligent” printer. Below is an example of the entries for an Inventory type custom format to print item numbers (field D) in barcode format on the Barcode Blaster: Fld Row Col Len Bar Pre-fld-print-control Post-fld-print-control 14. D 1 1 15 N BB_HDR_A BLAST HEADER A BB_PCHW1 BLAST PITCH 1/W Since Item Number is printing as a barcode, and the item numbers for the items may vary in length, you may want to specify “0” (instead of “15”) for the Len column to suppress trailing spaces on item numbers less than 15 characters. Labels: Special Topics - Printing Barcodes 7 The following is an example of the entries for an Inventory type custom format to print item numbers (field D) in barcode format and to print item descriptions (field E) in text format: Fld Row Col Len Bar Pre-fld-print-control Post-fld-print-control 14. D 1 1 15 N BB_HDR_A BLAST HEADER A BB_PCHW1 BLAST PITCH 1/W 15. E 5 1 23 N BB_ST_43 BLAST STRING 43 None Note that there are too many control codes to enter individually for Pre-fld-print-control, so a predefined code group is required. In this example, CODEGROUPA is defined with the following control codes: Hexadecimal format: 21 20 30 20 31 35 30 20 34 30 20 31 0D 0A 42 41 52 43 4F 44 45 20 43 4F 44 45 33 39 20 30 20 32 35 20 32 30 20 ASCII format: ! 0 150 40 1(cr)BARCODE CODE39 0 25 20 The CODEGROUPA control codes establish a barcode type of Code 39, and set positioning and height of the barcode. CODEGROUPB is defined with the following control codes: 53 20 35 58 37 20 30 20 34 30 20 Hexadecimal format: ASCII format: S 5X7 0 40 The CODEGROUPB control codes use Barcode Blaster’s STRING command to establish a font size of 5x7, and set positioning of the text string.