Print text with printer language rather than as an image/ Printing text as image is slow
Hi,
I'm trying to print labels for a 18 labels per minute, mixed SKU print and apply on demand system on a Markem Imaje 2200 thermal label printer and applicator, however the process from "clicking print" to the label being printed is too slow. The actual print speed of the label is very fast.
I think the issue is the text and barcode are being sent to the printer as an image, rather than using the native printer language. The printer uses the LabelPoint command language. There are no actual images on the label.
If I print to a file, I can see the LabelPoint commands for loading the image and printing the label.
I have used these printers before in high speed applications. You design the label format and send that to the printer as a macro, then just call the macro and send the variables. Alternatively you can just send the full label format in the LabelPoint language and it is very fast.
The connection to the printer is ethernet, so that shouldn't be the constraint.
The customer is trying to use TFORMer from Tec-IT with the Seagull Scientific windows printer driver.
Every label is unique and the cartons are mixed SKU approaching the printer.
Is my assumption correct that it's the image causing the process to be slow?
Is there a way to force the driver to send the label format using the command language functions, rather than an image?
Printing the same label format to other printers is fast.
Am I on the right track, or way off?!
Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks,
Alistair
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It sounds like this is one of two things, the first of which could be that the software can not communicate with the printer and driver correctly and so can not reference the on board fonts. Alternatively it could be the font they are using for the text objects and for this you could try checking that they are using one of the inbuilt Markem fonts like Markem Univers for example.
If not then this would mean that the majority of the label commands are being sent down as graphics to the device as you are seeing.
If it is the fonts and then they are able to change to match the label requirements, then all well and good, but if it software issue communicating with the driver then there would be no way round this other than using software that will reference the on board fonts, such as BarTender does.
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Hi Peter,
Thanks for your reply. We've done some further testing and eliminated the graphics as the cause of the delay.
We used BarTender with the Markem Imaje 2200 driver and created a label format with a single text field with the Markem Univers font. There was still a 3 second delay printing this. When we change the output to print to a file, the .prn file contains the LabelPoint commands as expected. By this is mean I can see the command to print the "Sample text".
When we use Arial, it sends the text as an image.
Sending the same label format to an Argox or TSC desktop printer, there is negligible delay. Therefore the delay is somewhere between the driver and the printer.Unless you've got any other suggestions, my next step is to determine if the delay is getting the bytes to the printer, or the printer processing the commands.
Do you have any thoughts based on this new information?Thanks,
Alistair
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The issue is the file size when the label is sent as an image file. I just created an output file with the Markem commands and a "Sample Text" field and that was 167 bytes of data, whilst the same label with the text in Arial was 1.4Kb. The more data that is being sent then the longer the print job takes be sent to the printer.
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Yes, that was my theory too. However, even just a "Sample Text" in the Markem Font was still delayed on the MI 2200 printer.
I'm fairly sure the issue is in the printer, but the driver is also common so I need to eliminate it as the cause.
I might try Wireshark next. There is a three second delay, so I should be able to see the packets being sent to the printer, then the delay. If the issue was in the driver, I'd see the delay, then the packets.
This is the output of the .prn file, being sent over ethernet:
<xpml><page quantity='0' pitch='104.1 mm'></xpml>!Y9 1
!Y68 -1
!D T M
!Y16 1
!Z
<xpml></page></xpml><xpml><page quantity='1' pitch='104.1 mm'></xpml>!L M "SS-MACRO-0"
!Y162 0
!Y35 1252
!F S S 505 562 L 12 12 94021 "Sample Text"
!L
!C
!C
!M "SS-MACRO-0"
!P1
<xpml></page></xpml>!L M "SS-MACRO-0"
!L0
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