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Barcode Soft Font Generator - User Manual
Introduction
While most laser printers do not include any internal barcode fonts, printers which are compatible
with Hewlett-Packard’s PCL-5 printer command language are capable of accepting downloaded
fonts. One or more barcode fonts can be stored in the printer’s memory and then used by embedding appropriate control sequences in the printer data stream. Downloaded barcode fonts offer a
number of advantages:
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The cost per printer is lower than hardware solutions, especially in large systems
Much faster than downloading barcode graphic images, smaller impact on network traffic
Barcodes can be printed from virtually any operating system
The barcodes are more precise than TrueType or other scaleable fonts
The generator can create barcodes of almost any size
This software creates font files that can be downloaded to almost any printer which supports the
PCL-5 standard. The Barcode Soft Font Generator creates many of the popular types of barcodes:
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Code 39 (also known as Code 3 of 9)
Code 128
UPC-A
EAN-13
Interleaved 2 of 5
Postnet
Planet Code
The basic steps for creating and using a font are:
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Generate a barcode font with the desired characteristics; store on disk
Download the font to the printer
Add font selection command to the print data
Send the data to the printer
The barcode fonts created by the generator do not include readable text below the bars. Printing
the readable text using a separate PCL instruction gives the programmer the flexibility of using any
typeface or size; positioning the text as desired; and inserting formatting characters or spaces to
enhance readability of the text.
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