Datamax iclass 4308 and 4212
I have a client with both of these printers. The 4308 prints a bold font highly readable and good looking. The 4308 less so, it looks grainy and under temperature.. I have selected the same font on both machines.
I cannot seem to get the temperature to change in the printer settings.. I can select between 8 and 30 and no difference if I go to 1 I get a blank label fed out. I guess the setting is coming from the label, but can find no where to change it. Speed changes also had no effect.
Any ideas
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By default, the Seagull drivers will use the front panel settings of the printer but it is often beneficial or necessary to make these specific to a label format and so if the setting in the driver/label is enabled then the printer will use the settings in the label format itself.
To find/adjust this setting open the label in BarTender Designer and from the File>Print screen click on the Document Properties button and then choose the Options tab. The image below is from the driver for one of the new models but these settings are the same and if the "Send with Job" button is ticked then the slider will govern the print temperature and if the "Use Printer Settings" is unticked then the driver will also send out the print speed to use too.
The two green toggles on the top of the printhead also control the head pressure setting and if these have been adjusted (you may need to do this if you are using thicker card stock to print on etc.) then this could effect overall print quality. If you compare the dial position of the working printer with the defective one,then taht should give you a rough idea where the toggles should be set if you are using the same type of labels on both.
One other thing you could try is create an output file of the label from the working printer and then send it to the defective one and see how it prints. The size/position of the text and other label objects will be incorrect due to the dpi difference but the file will contain the driver setting information of the working unit and so you could see if the issue/fault is with the hardware or software. To do this:
For the working printer:
- Open the label in BarTender Designer and on the File > Print screen click the Print to File option
- Use the pint button to print a label as normal and when prompted you will be asked where and what to call the output file
- Give the file a simple name such as "test" and save it somewhere you can easily browse to.
- A label will not be printed and do not save the label when prompted or else the print to fiel will be enabled next time you try to print.
For the defective printer
- Open a label that is linked to this device in BarTender and on the File > Print screen click on Printer Properties button
- Choose the Tools tab and then the Send File to Printer option from the Action dropdown menu
- Browse to the file saved above and click Open, I think it is. and this will send the saved label command with all the print settings for the working driver to the faulty unit.
One final option could be an issue with the printhead itself if a number of the pixels have failed. To see this clearly, one simple way would be to create a brand new label in BarTender with a line that goes all the way across it and then adjust the properties of the lie to make it thicker. When you print this new label if you can clearly see vertical lines of print missing from the black image then that should demonstrate the printhead has failed.
I hope this helps
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Thanks for your guidelines.
I will return to the client to try some of these. The slider temp I tried but if i went to 1 I got no print above 8 it was the same.. I did not try every 1.. I will create a prn and try modifying the heat there as well ..
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You could always try printing directly from the printer itself. If you cycle the power of the unit and (without sending a label to it from the PC), press the Test button and you should be able to scroll through a number of different test labels and try to print those (the print quality label is probably the best one to use as the image includes text barcodes and images across the full width of the printer).
Having cycled the power the test labels will print at whatever Darkness/Heat is set in the Front Panel of the printer (the default is 10 and can be adjusted in the Menu > Print Control options. Once you send a label to the printer then this setting maybe overridden if the "Send with Job" is ticked for the temperature..
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