[TriLUG] barcode printers on Linux

[Alan Porter]

> 1.  printer that prints barcodes onto stickers.

I used to work for a company that sold barcode inventory management
systems (to poultry processing plants ... insert jokes here).  We used
special barcode printers from Intermec and Symbol that treated barcodes
as if they were just some special font.  The application did not need to
know that it was printing a barcode.  It was just intermixed with the rest
of the text on the barcode.

The serial data that I sent to the printer looked like this:
L
W
D11
1e2205300120065C&G[BARCODE]
102200000030055[HUMANREADABLE]
162200001840060[LABELWEIGHT]         X
402200002050050[PACKDATE-M]
102200000700065THIS BOX WAS CAREFULLY PACKED AND INSPECTED BY [USER]
1X2200001650020L401001
122300001300025[DESCRIPTION1OF2]
122300000950025[DESCRIPTION2OF2]
1X2200000850020L401001
112300002250245NET
122300001850245[UNITS]
1X2100001800055B225075001001
112300002150300BEST BEFORE
12230000185030[OFFSET1]
154200002850065[PRODUCT]
1X2100002750055L225070
161100003750025[USERDEF01]
122100003600025[USERDEF02]
1Y1100002500300USDA
E

I would replace the [BARCODE] tag with the actual text that is encoded in the
barcode.  And I would replace the [HUMANREADABLE] tag with the same thing,
sometimes with some nice dashes inserted to make it easy to read.  If I recall
right, the 2nd column was the "font".  Font "e" is a UCC-128 barcode font.  
There were of course others, like the familiar UPC, etc.

These printers were made to print and print and print and print... on sticker
labels, and FAST.  It might not be what you're looking for, but it sure saved
us a lot of effort in trying to print readable barcodes on various printers.
There are some tricks you have to do to make sure that the printer's DPI
does not skew the bar code pattern.


Alan Porter
porter at trilug.org