EPP 10.3.0.0 has introduced a new printer agnostic, ‘Generic Printer’ label template option, enabling designers to create more versatile label templates that EPP will auto-convert to the printing language option for the designated EPP printer profile.
Generic Printer label templates support printing in the following printing languages:
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Zebra [ZPL]
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Intermec [IPL]
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SATO [SBPL]
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Printronix [PGL]
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Datamax [DPL]
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HP LaserJet [PCL5e]
Designing label templates using the Generic Printer model option will also allow access to much more font options than many printers natively support, without having to load additional font files to the printers themselves.
Product Release/Version
EPP 10.3.0.0 and later service packs
Enabling Generic Printers
After installing or upgrading to EPP 10.3 (or later), you will need to enable the Generic Printer model option for label designing.
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Navigate to ‘Admin > System Configuration > Printer Models’
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Select the “Other” option, from the Available Printer Manufacturers drop-down
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Scroll down and select OR double-click the “Generic Printer” option and move it to the ‘Installed Printer Models’ list
You can also access the Printer Models options window during label template creation, on the Label Designer page.
Generic Printer Label Designing
Here’s a quick sample of a label I recreated from the ‘#Samples\MIL-STD\MIL-STD-129P.zebra’ template which is included in every base EPP installation.
The Generic Printer label templates allow more font styles and configuration than most label printers will support by default.
For comparison, Zebra printers primarily only ship with a single scalable font option, CG Triumvirate Bold Condensed.
Generic Printer Label Printing
Here’s a quick example of a print request using the above Generic Printer label template.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE labels SYSTEM "dsi-label.dtd">
<labels _FORMAT="MIL-STD-129P.generic.lbl" _PRINTERNAME="FauxPrinter" _QUANTITY="1">
<label _FORMAT="MIL-STD-129P.generic.lbl" _PRINTERNAME="FauxPrinter" _QUANTITY="1">
<variable name="SW8123">T26243A9X7B1N4K8R</variable>
<variable name="FromName">Cloud Inventory</variable>
<variable name="FromAddressLine1">11101 Switzer Road, Suite 300</variable>
<variable name="FromCity">Overland Park</variable>
<variable name="FromState">KS</variable>
<variable name="FromZip">48309</variable>
<variable name="DOV">DOV</variable>
<variable name="ToName">Somer Himpson</variable>
<variable name="ToAddressLine1"/>
<variable name="ToAddressLine2"></variable>
<variable name="ToAddressLine3">712 Red Bark Lane</variable>
<variable name="ToCity">Henderson </variable>
<variable name="ToState">NV</variable>
<variable name="ToZip">89011</variable>
<variable name="RMS">RMS</variable>
<variable name="Piece01">1</variable>
<variable name="Piece02">3</variable>
<variable name="Weight">4813</variable>
<variable name="ShipDate">24SEP2001</variable>
<variable name="RDD">999</variable>
<variable name="Cube">385</variable>
<variable name="Project">9BU</variable>
<variable name="Case">CKM</variable>
<variable name="TAC">SZZZ</variable>
<variable name="TypSrv">Frt</variable>
<variable name="Postage">LTL</variable>
<variable name="Priority">1</variable>
<variable name="POD">RMS</variable>
<variable name="W55XGJ">W55XGJ</variable>
</label>
</labels>
Printer Profile Properties Impact
The PRINTERNAME or printer destination will determine which printing language EPP uses to generate the print job data. Each printer profile in the EPP ‘Admin > Printer Admin > Setup’ page will have Make and Model & Interpreter options enabled. These options were always enabled for SOCKET printer connections, but are now available for LOCAL printer profiles as well.
SOCKET printer profiles are for printers that EPP will directly integrate with over an IPV4 IP address and usually TCP connections on port 9100.
LOCAL printer profiles are simple mappings to system printer queues, like Windows Spooler or Linux CUPS print queues. EPP does not directly manage the communication with these printers but will send the print data files to the association system printer for the designated spooler service to manage. See Guidelines for Creating LOCAL Printer Profiles for examples.
The printer profiles Make and Model option primarily impacts the resulting resolution of the Generic Printer label data but the Interpreter determines the printing language that is used. If a Make and Model option does not state the resolution, then the selected printer may not have multiple resolution options available. Usually, options without the DPI stated are assumed to be 203 DPI by default.
Expected Printing Results
When the print data is sent to the configured printer, it will be using the printing language set by the Interpreter option, but the resulting label should look the same, no matter which printer manufacturer is used.
FYI, some of the characters in the print data shown in print job details is not compatible with the web view, so might be not well presented under Print Job Data. For more accurate print data character reviews, you can open the print jobs assigned .pcl data file in the EPP ‘../DSIPrint/Data’ directory with an editor like Notepad++, with show all characters option enabled.