Does POS printer just support Epson printers? (related to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/mt426652)
How to send a document directly to the printer without showing Print Dialog?
ESC/POS is a command system created by Epson used across a wide range of POS printer systems, aimed at avoiding incompatible command sets by providing universal applicability. Most modern printers support ESC/POS.
So, for your first question, I think the answer is no. This POS printer API can be used for all the printers which support ESC/POS. Please refer to Epson ESC/POS with formatting.
For your second question, using POS printer API, you can print without a Print Dialog.
But I assume, what you want is Windows.Graphics.Printing namespace. For this printing in a UWP app, the Print Preview UI must be shown to guide user complete the printing operation.
You can refer to the official POS printer sample and Printing sample.
Update 2/1/2016:
using POS printer API, you can print without a Print Dialog.
#Seb, this is my personal conclusion, the official document of POS printer doesn't mention anything about a UI dialog.
But in the short sample in the document and official sample, when we print with a pos device, we create a print job at first, then call the PrintLine(string) method with the content which we want to print, at last, we execute it/them with ExecuteAsync method, this method
Runs the print job on the receipt printer station asynchronously.
In this process, we don't show any dialog unlike in the normal printing. In the normal printing, when we want to print a document from our app, we call ShowPrintUIAsync() method, this method will show a dialog to provide guidance for users to help them complete a printing-related oricess.
#Hamed, this Pos printer API can't support those device without ESC/POS, I'm not sure if it possible to send commands to your printer and get response from it through serial port, I think you may read the develop document of your printer.
Related
I am generating ZPL labels in a C# windows service. The service is simple in srtucture... it uses the System.IO.FileSystemWatcher to detect when a new file is created by our ERP, it then parses the file, gets a chunk of data from SQL about thie job and formats this into validated ZPL.
It then uses the StreamWriter and TcpClient classes to create a connection to a Zebra label printer and sends the ZPL to port 9100. This is a technique we have used in the past without issue.
We use exclusively Zebra GK420D printers.
Here is the weird bit. Sometimes, when the job is sent to the printer, the LED just flashes - no label is printed. If you look at the configuration page in the web interface for that printer, it reports it is busy processing a job. the job appears in the job log absolutely fine, but the printer is seized up. You can't print a config label (as you would usually by holding down the feed button for a few seconds). You can reboot the printer, resubmit the job, and it will print... but this is not guaranteed. Frequently it will just flash again. You can send the same ZPL to another printer and it will print fine.
The ZPL being produced is around 4000 - 4500 bytes long. We have validated the ZPL using online tools to reproduce the label we want to print, and they all appear to be fine.
Has anyone seen anything like this before? It is baffling us here...
Check the firmware on the printer to make sure it's the most current. It sounds like you're doing the right things, even with the pause. I know if you send more data than it has available the printer will stall until it's power cycled.
I want to print a pdf file with selected printer name via Ghostscript.NET. This application is actually a wrapper of CefSharp browser. When user click on a download button, it download and print out with selected printer directly.
You can see the screenshot above, I pass the printer name thru URL query string. Also, I have set the option -dNOPAUSE & -dNOPROMPT. But why it still come out a print window, and the default selected printer is not what I have set?
Any idea what's going wrong here?
EDIT: Mar 4, 2016 11:31am
For ghostscript in command line, it will be like
"C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.18\bin\gswin32c.exe"^
-empty^
-dPrinted^
-dBATCH^
-dNOPAUSE^
-dNOPROMPT^
-sFONTPATH=C:\Windows\Fonts^
-dNOSAFER^
-dNumCopies=1^
-sDEVICE=mswinpr2^
-sOutputFile="%printer%Brother MFC-295CN Printer"^
-f C:\Users\Dell\AppData\Local\Temp\file-tmp.pdf
but then it still show the print prompt.
Add -dQueryUser=3 to your command line to print directly to the default printer using that printer's default settings.
If the printer you are printing ot is not the Windows default printer, (on this system) then you must specify the printer in the print dialog. This is because there are 2 disconnected entities.
1) The printer you send the data to.
2) The creation of data in the correct format.
The mswinpr2 device uses the Windows print system to take the rendered output from Ghostscript and convert it into whatever the printer understands (PostScript, HP-PCL, Epson ESC/P etc, etc). It then sends that data to the named printer. NB this is why the driver for that printer must be available locally.
However, the mswinpr2 device doesn't know which printer device driver corresponds to a given named printer of the form "%printer%Name", you have to tell it that. If the named printer is the windows default printer then you can use -dQueryUser=3 to say so, otherwise you need to present the printer dialog so that the user can select the correct printer and that's what mswinpr2 uses to create the data that it then sends to the printer.
I believe that its perfectly possible to get this wrong! If you select a PostScript printer in the printer dialog, but then set -sOuputFile=%printer%HP-PCL printer" the combination will send output formatted as PostScript to a printer which expects PCL, the result in that case will be reams of garbage printout.
You need to exercise caution with the use of this device, which is why the default behaviour is to make you select the printer from the list of available printers.
I'm working on c#.net application that already use serial port to print ticket with text and a little image as logo by thermal printer.
Now i need to migrate the implementation to allow application to print through Parallel Port because the hardware is changed...
For serial port (COM1...COMN) i used ESC/POS command..
is it possible continue to use ESC/POS and redirect the print to parrallel?..
exist documentation?..
i found many doc to print text only .
what i have to do to print image?
thanks
.NET abstracts printing from the printer, so the code is the same regardless of whether the printer is serial, on the network, connected via parallel port, or connected via bluetooth. To print an image, you would use the DrawImage method of the Graphics object--more detail can be found on MSDN.
Whether the printer is on parallel port or serial port is a function of how the printer is defined in Windows, and is not important to .NET.
However, if you are resorting to sending raw escape sequences and bypassing the use of a printer driver (such as referenced by ESC/POS), then you are making a whole world of extra work for yourself, and you'll need to refer to the printer's technical documentation for how to do what you ask.
I've been working on a desktop application built using .NET Framework 4.5 and C# as language. Requirement is that a printer will be connected on serial port, port settings will be provided by user through the application like port number, baud rate etc. etc.
When user hits a print button, it should directly print to the printer without showing a print dialogue.
I've never done printing from desktop application and i've no idea how to achieve this.
Should i have to code specific to driver of that printer?
Or is there any generic way to send print instructions to printer connected to serial port?
I can send normal string to serial port, but what if i need to do some formatting like drawing a table, how can i make a serial port printer printing a formatted table and values inside it ... for example a bill.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Amit
You will want to send ESC/POS commands. This will control the font, line height, etc. as well as the actual text being transmitted.
http://pyramidacceptors.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ESC_POS_Protocol_Commands_REV_B.pdf
Another userful SO question: How to use esc/pos command with c#?
Also, no need to reinvent the wheel. Check Github for a library: https://github.com/yukimizake/ThermalDotNet
As far as generating tables and other such non-text, you'll want to read up on the command set supported by your target printer. If you're printing a bill, it sounds like you are targeting a thermal printer. Image/non-text support will vary from model to model.
I have made an desktop application using C# to make ID card .And i am required to add functionality of printing an ID card .Basically i just make an image in a win form which will be eventually printed using.
But as i have no printer,i can't test my code to see if it prints something.
Is there any emulator or software that emulates a printer in windows,so that i cant test my application?
This is a sample what i need to print.It wiil be in a win form.
And another thing. How can i maintain size of the id card while printing. Say id card size should be in 2inch * 3.5inch. How can i make sure it will print same size?
You can use the Microsoft XPS printer driver that ships with Windows (since Vista, but available for Windows XP)
The XPS Document Writer allows you to create .xps files using any
program that you can print from in Windows. Print to the XPS Document
Writer when you want to create, send, and share or publish documents
that you do not want other people to modify, or when you want to print
a document or display it online exactly as it appears on your screen.
It's also a good idea to create an XPS document for files that contain
graphics or illustrations that might otherwise display differently in
print than online or on computers with different monitors.
Once you click OK, you're prompted for the file path to save it to.
Try print to PDF file to check that Your application works. For example You can use "PDF Creator" under Windows OS's. It is the easiest way.