User`s guide

SATO CX400 / CX410 PN 9001106(B) Page 1-1
SECTION 1.
PROGRAMMING CONCEPTS
INTRODUCTION
This section presents the commands that are used with the SATO CX400 / CX410 printers to
produce labels with logos, bar codes and alphanumeric data. All of the SATO Programming
Language commands use the same syntax. All of the CX400 / CX410 commands are
compatible with their larger SATO industrial printer cousins. Exceptions include commands
that are dependent upon the print width and resolution of the printers. In these instances, the
allowable ranges are specified in the commands.
The following information is presented in this section:
• The SATO Programming Language
• Selecting Protocol Control Codes
• Using Basic
• The Print Area
• Command Codes
THE SATO PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
A programming language for a printer is a familiar concept to most programmers. It is a group
of commands that are designed to use the internal intelligence of the printer. The commands,
which are referred to as SATO Command Codes, contain non-printable ASCII characters
(such as <STX>, <ETX>, <ESC>) and printable characters. These commands must be
assembled into an organized block of code to be sent as one data stream to the printer, which in
turn interprets the command codes and generates the desired label output. The programmer is
free to use any programming language available to send the desired data to the printer.
The command codes used by the printers are based upon “Escape” (1B hexadecimal)
sequences. Typically there are four types of command sequences:
<ESC>{Command}
These commands generally tell the printer to perform a specific action, like “clear the
memory.”
<ESC>{Command} {Data}
Commands with this format tell the printer to perform a specific action which is dependent
upon the following data, like “print X labels”, where the value for X is contained in the data.
<ESC>{Command} {Parameter}
These commands set the operational parameters of the printer, like “set the print speed to 3.”
<ESC> {Command} {Parameter} {Data}