Specifications

Chapter 1— Introduction to IPL Commands

IPL Programmer’s Reference Manual 7

Sending a String of Commands Through an Application

You can send a string of IPL commands through a PC communications

application, a terminal emulation application, or a host terminal. See the

application’s documentation for instructions.

The disadvantage of sending a string of commands is that you must retype

the entire command string if you make an error while entering the

commands. It is easier to retype a command if you keep the command

strings short; therefore, you should design your label formats as

combinations of several short command strings rather than one very long

string.

To illustrate this idea, consider the next examples, which show two ways to

send a bar code label format to the printer. Example 1 uses several short

command strings to define the format. Example 2 combines all of the

commands into a single string.

Example 1

Example 2

<STX><ESC>P;E3;F3;H0;o81,100;f0;c0;d0,16;h1;w1;H1;o81,120;

f0;c0;d0,16;h1;w1;H2;o81,150;f0;c2;d0,14;h1;w1;H3;o81,190;

f0;c2;d0,16;h1;w1;B4;o81,0;f0;c0,1;h50;w1;d0,11;i0;p@;

R<ETX>

In Example 1, each line begins with the start of text character <STX> and

finishes with the end of text character <ETX>. If you make a mistake, you

need to retype only the line with the mistake. In Example 2, if you made a

mistake anywhere in the string, you must retype the entire format.

Example 1 takes slightly longer to download, but is much easier to read

and debug.

Switching Between Print Mode and Program Mode

Print mode and Program mode are two different operating modes of the

printer. Before you download information to the printer, make sure that

you are in the correct mode:

• Use Program mode to define formats, pages, fonts, and characters.

• Use Print mode to print labels, to download data, or to download

configuration commands to the printer.