On 08/16/2012 06:53 PM, John F. Eldredge wrote:
Howard White <[email protected]> wrote:
Thanks to all that came to our August meeting.
We recently changed the way a customer generates labels on a Zebra
printer. We moved away from the proprietary ZPL arrangement because
we
wanted to pull data directly from our database rather than having to
rebuild a ZPL label format. No we didn't write a program to generate
the ZPL. We have an process that builds PDF files that we then print
in
all manner of places, now including labels. This arrangement is great
when the prints (of any kind) are unique one to the next.
Our problem is with the customer that prints 100 or 300 of the same
label. (yeah, I know, there is a point at which having the labels
printed by a print shop is cheaper.) Because we are now driving this
print from our server, one at a time, the print process takes forever.
If the printer is paused, the prints queue up such that when the
printer
is resumed, a stack print out quickly.
Any thoughts on how to tune a network printer's "inter-record gap?"
Howard
At this point, I am somewhat confused. You are complaining that it takes a
long time to generate and print 300 labels, but you are also complaining that,
if the printer is paused, the print jobs queue up, and then come out in rapid
succession once the printer is put back on line. So, you are asking how to
make the generation of the labels take even longer, so that there won't be a
queue of print jobs waiting? Your goals contradict each other.
So it goes when one tries to explain an involved situation. Thank you
for stating your confusion because it may spur others to clarity.
If we set up the print job and let it run, the printer in question (a
Zebra ZM400 btw) methodically prints a label, pauses, prints another
label, pauses and so on. What got our hopes up was somewhere in these
sequences, the printer was paused and a queue of work coming from the
server built up. The printer then printed labels at continuous rate
until, presumably, the queue was exhausted. We'd like the printer to
print in the continuous fashion all the time.
What confounds us all the further is that said customer also has an
older Zebra Z6MPlus that prints labels without pause. Same print job,
same driver on the linux server, yada, yada, yada. We were having
problems with skipped or dropped labels that I hope I cured today by
upgrading to the latest firmware. If we didn't have two printers for a
point of comparison, we wouldn't know to ask questions.
Thanks for allowing me to write this out. I may go back and look at the
driver at the linux end again. I've come into this situation in the
middle. It's worth a double check.
Howard
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"NLUG" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en
