Windows Printer Driver User Guide for NCR Retail Printers B005-0000-1609 Issue G The product described in this book is a licensed product of NCR Corporation. NCR is a registered trademark of NCR Corporation. It is the policy of NCR Corporation (NCR) to improve products as new technology, components, software, and firmware become available. NCR, therefore, reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. All features, functions, and operations described herein may not be marketed by NCR in all parts of the world. In some instances, photographs are of equipment prototypes. Therefore, before using this document, consult with your NCR representative or NCR office for information that is applicable and current. To maintain the quality of our publications, we need your comments on the accuracy, clarity, organization, and value of this book. Address correspondence to: Copyright © 2017 By NCR Corporation Duluth, GA U.S.A. All Rights Reserved i Preface Audience This guide is targeted to users who want to understand how NCR printer driver works in order to maximize the capabilities of the printer and print text/graphics documents successfully. This guide is also geared toward software developers who need to create custom application to perform special printer functionalities using native printer command sequences such as barcode printing, bit-image download, bit-image printing, printer status notification, etc. Notice: This document is NCR proprietary information and is not to be disclosed or reproduced without consent. ii References • NCR 7197 Thermal Receipt Printer Owner’s Manual (B005-000-1409) • NCR 7167 Two Station-POS Printer Owner’s Manual (B005-000-1406) • NCR K590 Self Service Printer Owner’s Guide (B005-0000-1346) • NCR 7198 Thermal Receipt Printer Owner’s Guide (B005-0000-1736) • NCR 7168 Thermal Receipt Printer Owner’s Guide (B005-0000-1713) • NCR F306 FastLane Thermal Printer Owner’s Guide • NCR 7152 Self Service Printer Owner’s Manual (B005-0000-1739) • NCR 7346-F309 2ST FastLane Printer Owner’s Manual (B005-0000- 1816) iii Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Printer driver Architecture ...................................................................... 2 Printing Mechanism in Windows .................................................... 2 Printer Driver Components .............................................................. 4 Minidriver ........................................................................................... 5 Language Monitor ............................................................................. 5 NCR POS Application Programming Interface ............................. 6 SETTINGS .................................................................................................. 9 Resolution ........................................................................................... 9 Paper Sizes ........................................................................................ 10 Paper Sources ................................................................................... 11 Paper Orientation ............................................................................. 13 Two sided thermal Printing............................................................ 14 Two Sided Thermal(2ST) Printing Modes ............................... 15 Print on both Sides ...................................................................... 17 Knife Cut Feature ............................................................................. 19 Changing Default Settings .............................................................. 21 Programming (NCR Language Monitor & NCRPOSAPI) ............... 22 Commands ........................................................................................ 22 Application Information & Error Notification ........................ 22 How To Use NCRPOSAPI.dll ........................................................ 27 Interfaces ........................................................................................... 31 NCRPOS API Exported Functions ............................................ 31 DLL-Related Functions ............................................................... 34 Job Control Functions ................................................................. 36 iv Revision Record Issue Date Remarks A Nov 2004 First issue B Jun 2007 Driver 4.0 release; NCRPOSAPI 4.2 release; Windows standalone install documentation C Jan 2008 Addition of Knife Cut Feature D Feb 2008 Addition of F307, F309, 7198 Receipt, 7198 Slip printer models. E May 2008 Two Sided thermal printing feature F May 2008 Addition of 7198 Receipt Label printer. Removal of references for O/S prior to XP, and non-existant printer models G Apr 2017 Driver 6.x.x Release Windows Printer Driver 1 Introduction This manual discusses the windows printer driver technology in order to successfully print on the following NCR Retail raster printers: • NCR 7167 Receipt Printer • NCR 7167 Slip Printer • NCR 7197 Receipt Printer • NCR K590 Self-Service Printer • NCR F306 Self-Service Printer • NCR 7168 Receipt 2ST Printer • NCR 7168 Slip Printer • NCR 7198 Receipt 2ST Printer • NCR 7198 Slip Printer • NCR F307 Self-Service Printer • NCR F309 Self-Service Printer • NCR 7198xx4x Label Receipt Printer • NCR 7199 Receipt Printer 2 Windows Printer Driver Printer driver Architecture Printing Mechanism in Windows If an application uses a printer in Windows, it starts a complex interaction with the GDI16 / GDI32 library module, the printer device driver library module (which has a .DRV/.dll extension) and the Windows print spooler. Windows Printer Driver 3 The following figure explains how the printing mechanism is being implemented in Windows platform. Program Call Print GDI functions (StartDoc, StartPage, EndDoc etc.) GDI Calls (lineTo, Rectangle etc.) GDI (16) Module (Win XP SP3/ 7/ 10) Control Calls (Printer Escapes) Drawing Instructions (Output, BitBlt etc.) GDI 32 Module Printer Driver (Win XP SP3/ 7/ 10) Spooler Process Print Provider Router (SPOOLER.EXE) Language Port Monitor Monitor Printer Figure 1. Printing Mechanism in Windows 4 Windows Printer Driver When the application wants printing to begin using a printer, it first obtains a handle to the printer device context using CreateDC or PrintDlg. This causes the printer device driver library module to be loaded into memory and to initialize itself. The program then calls the StartDoc function, which signals the beginning of a new document. The StartDoc function is handled by the GDI module. The GDI module calls the Control function in the printer device driver, telling the device driver to prepare for printing. The call to StartDoc begins the process of printing a document; the process ends when the program calls EndDoc. These two calls act as bookends for the normal GDI functions that display text or graphics to the document pages. Each page is itself delimited by a call to StartPage to begin a page and EndPage to end the page. For example, if a program wants to draw an ellipse on the page, it first calls StartDoc to begin the print job, then StartPage to signal a new page. It then calls Ellipse, just as it does when drawing an ellipse on the screen. When the application program is finished, the program then calls EndPage. Printer Driver Components A Windows Raster printer driver consists of the following components: • The printer graphics driver DLL implements the DDI to the degree necessary to support printer rendering features and capabilities that cannot be adequately handled by the graphics engine. • The printer interface driver DLL creates an interface that allows users to set the physical properties of the printer and the logical properties of the document. This interface is also responsible for interacting with the Common Property Sheet User Interface to provide device- and document-specific property sheet page(s) in response to an application request. • An optional print processor that helps the spooler process to despool print jobs. Windows Printer Driver 5 • An optional language monitor to enable spooler to communicate with the bi-directional printer • An optional port monitor that sends printer-ready data to hardware port drivers. To help vendors provide printing solutions to customers, Microsoft provides a standard printer driver for non-Postscript printers called Universal Printer Driver (Unidrv). Instead of creating full-blown drivers, printer vendors only need to provide minidrivers to support new printers. In Windows 2000/XP and later versions, system-supplied UNIDRV.DLL and UNIDRVUI.DLL are the printer graphics driver DLL and printer interface DLL respectively. Minidriver A printer minidriver is data file that provides device-driver support for a particular class of printers. A printer minidriver contains a collection of data structures referred to as the printer's data table. A data table contains data such as the printer's resolution, color capabilities, metrics for device fonts, and the strings that correspond to various printer commands. It also specifies printer model-specific aspects of how primitive bitmap and text operations are to be performed. NCR provides minidrivers to allow Unidrv to support NCR POS printers. Language Monitor NCR printer drivers also include a language monitor based on ESC/P POS language to provide a full-duplex communication channel between the print spooler and the NCR printers. This Language