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Dot Matrix escape codes

Hi,
We are trying to send escape codes to bold certain sections of an invoice. The printer is an epson Dot Matrix. The printing goes through the Windows print driver. The escape codes are showing on the printout so they were not interpreted as escape codes and therefore not printing in bold. Is anyone still sending escape codes to dot matrix? How are you doing it?

6 Answers
0   | Posted by Tony Rivers to Synergy DBL on 11/23/2020 9:01 PM
Bill Ferris
We're sending escape codes to PCL compliant printers -- which should be the same dynamic.

We output to a file and then queue the file via the LPQUE command.

We were doing the same thing with dot matrix printers, way back when.

12/3/2020 10:28 PM   0  
Tony Rivers
Thanks Bill. Appreciate the response. They have a network card in the printer and use the IP protocol. Have you tried the "RAW" setting on the port? It is set to LPR right now.

12/4/2020 5:27 PM   0  
Hank Vander Waal
Tony,   have you tried setting the printer as a GENERIC  text only printer?

The print driver may be messing with the escape sequences.

We send Zebra codes to our  label printers    and it worked best when they are set as generic / text only.

Hank

12/11/2020 12:33 AM   0  
Gordon Ireland
Just seeing this now.  Do you still need input on this ?
 

1/6/2021 4:38 PM   0  
Tony Rivers
Hi Gordon,
Thanks for checking. Yes this is still an outstanding item.

1/6/2021 10:18 PM   0  
Gordon Ireland
I address this by bypassing windows printing completely.

I write my output to a text file and then use use shell  to run a DOS command from the server in the form

    print/d:\\pcname\printername printfile.txt

I have a subroutine called FONT hwere I pass in things such as BOLD, UNDERLINE, 10CPI, 6LPI.

My user configuration defines the printer to use for print/d:, and teh type of dot matrix printer, as escape sequences are printer type dependent.

I then display the escape sequence required to achieve the required result based on printer type and request type into the print file

It has worked fine for 6 years with 100 users

 

1/8/2021 4:36 PM   0  
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