Specifications

Chapter 1— Introduction to IPL Commands

4 IPL Programmer’s Reference Manual

Note: When the printer is in XON/XOFF mode, you can send data and

print multiple labels without using the <ETX> character.

• The <STX> and <ETX> commands mark the beginning and end of a

message. The semicolon (;) is the command terminator. All commands

in Program mode or Test and Service mode must end with this

terminator except the last command in a string. Commands in Print

mode do not require the semicolon command terminator.

For example, a simple IPL command string looks like this:

Using Control Characters in IPL Command Strings

Formats that you design with IPL commands require you to enter ASCII

control characters in your command strings. To create ASCII control

characters, either:

• enter a control code

• type the printable command characters.

Many word processing programs have the ability to represent ASCII

control characters such as <ETX> by entering a control code. For example,

to enter the hexadecimal equivalent of the ASCII character <ETX> on

your computer, you would type the control code 03. For help finding the

hexadecimal equivalent of a control character, consult the full ASCII table

in Appendix A.

If it is difficult for you to edit or transmit IPL command files that contain

ASCII control characters, you can use printable control characters instead.

A printable control character (or “readable character”) is a text string,

enclosed in angle brackets, that represents an ASCII control character. For

example, instead of entering a control code for the ASCII start of text

character, you can type these five readable characters:

<STX>

To determine the readable character for each ASCII control character, see

the full ASCII table in Appendix A. Simply enclose the text string in the

ASCII column in angle brackets to create the readable character.

The printer automatically detects whether you are using ASCII control

characters or readable characters by the start of text (<STX>) character,

which marks the beginning of an IPL command message. All characters in

a message must be in the same form (ASCII control character or readable

characters) as the start of text character. For example, if you begin a

message with the readable characters <STX>, the printer executes only the

readable characters in the message and throws away any ASCII control

characters in the message.