Mr. Van Loon,
> I have been asked about the possibility of printing some stick-on bar
> code labels from a Linux system.
No problem, though I wouldn't call this a real-time application.
> Does anyone know anything about bar code printing with Linux or who
> might be a supplier of bar code printers?
Zebra, Eltron, Blaster, etc. One outlet (I know nothing about them,
just found them in a three second web search) is www.barcode.com. (I really
had to stretch to come up with *that* URL).
> Are bar code printers typically a serial (RS-232 / RS-422)
> interface or
> parallel port?
Many support either, some support both. I prefer parallel for speed
reasons, you might prefer serial for RTLinux reasons.
> Do bar code printers require anything special in a driver /
> rtl process?
Generally not. You can generally define what a label should look
like to the printer by sending it a series of commands. Then printing a
label is as simple as sending it a string of information for that label, and
away it prints.
They are *not* basic dot-matrix printers. They require some very
specific programming, which is outlined in the manual that comes with the
printer. The good news is, they already know how to produce the barcode
part of the label for most standard industrial codes.
Regards,
Steve
P.S. I am not really sure why I posted this to the RTLinux list, but I
thought someone else might be interested.
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