eXtendo
®
Thermal Printer Family
HENGSTLER
Part No. D 684 124
Mod. No. 4 080812 LEV
page 19 of 38
manufactured. The code does not control the feature; it only allows identification of what
features are selected in a given printer.
To determine the features of an eXtendo
®
printer, look at the short Information Report that is
generated when paper is loaded. In the section under “PRINTER”, locate the field “FEATURE
CODE”. This code shows 8 digits. These digits decode into features as follows.
FEATURE CODE : [00010000]
Position 1
Position 8
Position
Feature
Meanings
1,2
Warranty
00 = Undefined
01 = 0.5 years
02 = 1.0 years
03 = 1.5 years
04 = 2.0 years
05 = 2.5 years
06 = 3.0 years
3
Max. Print Speed
0 = 350 mm/sec max
4
Environmental Use
0 = -25 to +70ºC 20% to 100% RH
1 = 0 to +50ºC 25% to 80% RH, non-condensing
5
Firmware
Configuration
0 = Advanced
6-8
Reserved for future use
3.8. Graphic Printing vs. Printing with Printer’s Fonts
One area that causes frequent confusion with regard to printers in general is that of graphic
printing versus printing using the printer’s internal fonts. An explanation here may help clarify
this and make application of the eXtendo
®
easier for you.
All printers contain a set of commands that will cause the printer to perform different
functions. (For the eXtendo
®
family of thermal printers, these commands are documented in
the eXtendo
®
Emulation Command Set Reference, P/N D 684 112.) The functions are very
diverse and there are no standards for what these functions may be. This allows printer
manufacturers to innovate and build unique features into their products. These commands
are often referred to as the printer’s “Native Commands”.
A printer’s Native Commands are of many different types, but a few are of particular interest
to us here. One is the family of commands for printing graphics. It is these commands that
allow pictures and other graphic images of any type to be printed.
Another family of commands of interest to us here is the text commands. These commands
involve printing text in response to ASCII data sent to the printer. The printer itself contains
one or more character sets. In these character sets, one printable character corresponds to
one ASCII character. There are also commands for positioning and modifying the printout
from these character sets, such as tab and indent commands and commands to enlarge the
internal character set by some factor.
When printing from the internal character sets (we’ll call that “ASCII printing” here for
convenience), characters are sent to the printer and the corresponding characters from the
character set are printed. This has both advantages and disadvantages. The biggest
advantage is that the host need only send one character per printed character. So if 40
characters are being printed on a line, for example, only 40 bytes of data (plus any overhead
for formatting, indenting, etc.) need be transmitted over the interface. In other words, you can
print a lot of text and need send only a little data. The downside is a lack of flexibility. In
today’s Windows
®
world, we are all used to printing exactly what we see on our computer
screens, in the same font, size, etc. as we see it. But with ASCII printing, what will be printed
will be based on the printer’s internal character set.
The other type of printing we’ll call “Graphic printing”. This is what happens when you print to
an ink jet or laser printer from your PC. The information displayed on the screen is sent to a