               File BAR_INFO.TXT for PreSort Pro 2.4

               PRINTING BARCODE ON SPECIAL PRINTERS 
                     WITH NATIVE POSTNET FONTS
                     Using DeksTop Mailer 2.4
                             08/11/94

PreSort Pro 2.4 can be used to easily print Postnet 
barcode on virtually any printer which has a Windows printer 
driver.  This is described in Chapter 11 of the manual.
The file PRT_INFO.TXT provides additional information on
using direct impression printers (such as Datatech, Rena,
and Bryce), plus general information about printer drivers.

Many specialized printers that are popular for quickly printing 
labels or printing directly on a mail pieces do not yet have
a Windows printer driver supplied by the manufacturer, but 
do have a native (built-in) capability for printing Postnet 
barcode.

The following information pertains to this type of printer.

To print barcode on a printer which does not have a Windows 
driver but does have a native Postnet font:

   1.  Install the appropriate printer driver from the 
       PreSort Pro diskette.
	
   2.  If your printer is one of the models listed below, use 
       the appropriate {Bar} command in your template to select 
       the pre-defined barocde printer.

   3.  For other printers, configure the new printer using
       the procedures described later, and then use an 
       appropriate {Bar} command in your template to 
       print barcode.

These steps are described in detail below.

             Installing the Special Printer Driver
             -------------------------------------

To install the printer driver:

   1.  If you have not already done so, install Mailer 2.4.

   2.  From the "Main" window of the Program Manager, double 
       click on the "Control Panel" icon.  

   3.  In the Control Panel window, double click on the 
       "Printers" icon.

   4.  In the dialog box, choose the Add button.

   5.  In the list of printer names, select "Install Unlisted 
       or Updated Printer" and choose the Install button.

   6.  In the box, type the path where you installed Mailer 2.4 
       (normally C:\PSP) and choose OK.  

   7.  From the list of printers, choose the appropriate entry.  
       If your printer is not there, choose "Standard / Text Only",
       and then pick OK.  The driver will be installed.

   8.  If your printer is not connected to port LPT1, choose 
       the Connect button to make the appropriate changes and 
       press OK.

   9.  If your printer is a wide-carriage printer, choose the 
       Setup button and put a check in the Wide Carriage 
       checkbox.  Then choose OK.

   10. Choose the Close button and exit from the Control 
       Panel.

            Selecting a Pre-Defined Barcode Printer
            ---------------------------------------

To select the appropriate option on the {Bar} command:

   1.  If you are not familiar with the {Bar} command, 
       templates and forms, please review the documentation 
       in the manual first.

   2.  For the printers below to print normal Delivery Point 
       Postnet barcode for records with full ZIP+4, use the 
       {Bar} command shown.  If your printer is not listed, 
       follow the directions in "Configuring A New Printer", 
       below.

   Printer                       Command in Template
   -------                       -------------------
   Dataproducts                  {Bar,D,P=Dataproducts LB}

   Mannesmann-Tally, for 4-up    {Bar,D,P=M-T 4-Up} and
   Cheshire labels only          CHESHIRE.FRM only, barcode at top
                                 line of address ONLY

   Mannesmann-Tally, for         {Bar,D,P=M-T 661/691}
   all other forms

   Genicom                       {Bar,D,P=Genicom}

   Printronix                    {Bar,D,P=Printronix}

Before printing, you should:

   1.  Use the front panel controls of your printer to 
       select the following options:

       10 c.p.i (characters per inch) fixed-width font
       6 lines per inch
       Print head at power on position, top of form

       Unlike other Windows drivers, the Standard Text / Only 
       driver does not (by default) send any control characters 
       to initialize your printer, so whatever the current mode
       is selected for your printer will be used.  You can
       customize the printer driver if you wish to send
       an initialization string to the printer at the start
       of printing.  To find out how to do this, use
       the Control Panel to bring up the driver Setup dialog 
       box as described previously, and then choose the Help
       button.

   2.  From the PreSort Pro program, use the Choose 
       Printer command to verify that you have selected the
       appropriate printer (typically Standard / Text Only).

   3.  Use Mailer's Print / Choose Font command to select
       the printer font called "Roman 10 cpi".  This will
       print using whatever font you selected in step 1.
       The drivers supplied with Mailer do not support
       graphics or TrueType fonts.

                   Configuring a New Printer
                   -------------------------

For other printers not listed above, you can configure Mailer to 
print barcode using the Standard / Text Only driver, provided:

   1.  The printer has a native (built-in) Postnet capability;
   2.  Postnet mode is triggered by some control code (escape 
       sequence);
   3.  The printer prints the appropriate bars for each digit 
       as received;
   4.  The printer is restored to normal (non-barcode) mode by 
       some control code (which does not have any other effect).

Control codes are found in the printer manual.

Several steps and some experimentation will be necessary to 
configure a new printer, as described below.

First, you will need to specify the "trigger" characters that
start and end Postnet barcode mode in your printer, using the
Barcode command in your template, in the form below:

   {Bar,5,F=Y,S="<string1>",E="<string2>"}

where <string1> specifies the characters to turn on Postnet 
mode and <string2> is the string to end Postnet mode.  The
string may contain normal printable characters or control
code sequences in one of these two forms:

   \nnn      where nnn is EXACTLY three numeric digits
   \xnn      where nn is EXACTLY two hexadecimal digits

the numeric value of the character in these forms must be between
1 and 255 decimal (01 and FF hex).

EXAMPLE:

Suppose you are using a JIFFY 101 printer.  The Jiffy 101
printer manual specified that PostNet barcode mode was
enabled by the three character sequence: ESC, [, K and disabled by
the the three character sequence ESC, [, e.  Using an ASCII table,
you find that the ESC character has a value of 27 decimal or 1B hex.
You would therefore use:

   {Bar,5,F=Y,S="\027[K",E="\027[e"}
      or
   {Bar,5,F=Y,S="\x1B[K",E="\x1B[e"}

Next, you need to consult your printer manual to find out the
following items, and add the indicated options to your
{Bar} command:

   Item                      Option if Yes   Option if No
   ----                      -------------   ------------
   Printer expects '-'       D=Y             D=N
      in ZIP+4?
   Printer expects 
      correction digit?      C=Y             C=N

If the printer manual says the printer can generate its own
correction digit (also known as a check digit) for the barcode 
if the application does not send it, specify C=N.  If the manual 
says the printer ignores the dash if sent but does not need it, 
specify D=N.

EXAMPLE:

The Jiffy 101 printer does not need a '-' in ZIP+4 and can
generate its own correction digit.

   {Bar,5,F=Y,S="\027[K",E="\027[e",D=N,C=N}

If you only plan to use 1-up labels, you are now done and
can make a test printing.  Be sure to verify that delivery
point barcode has 62 bars and 5-digit barcode has 32 bars.
Also, you may designate a shorthand version of the options
in your {Bar} command using the procedure described later.

If you plan to print barcoded Cheshire labels or any other
form with more than one label across, there's more work to 
do, as described in the next section.

               Adjusting for Barcode Position
               ------------------------------

If you print several labels side-by-side for your newly
configured printer, the barcodes for all columns except 
the first will not be properly positioned.  This is because 
the driver "thinks" that each character it receives
will advance the print head by 0.1 inches (at 10 characters
per inch).  In fact, the print head moves considerably 
farther than that when printing the 5 bars corresponding to
each digit.  Also, the driver does not know that that the 
characters used to trigger the begin-Postnet and end-Postnet
mode did not advance the print head.

To correct this, you specify an adjustment count option, which 
is the number of characters the driver needs to add to the 
position it thinks the print head is at in order to reach the 
actual print head position.  Different corrections are needed 
for 5-digit barcode and Delivery Point barcode. Here is how 
to compute the adjustment needed, with examples for the 
Jiffy 101 printer described above (assuming the Jiffy has a 
D.P. barcode 2.9 inches long and a 5-digit barcode 1.6 
inches long):

                                     D.P. Barcode    5-Digit Barcode
                                     ============    ===============
Actual barcode length in inches:        2.9               1.6
Multiply by 10 chars. per inch:        x 10              x 10
                                       -----             ----
  = length of barcode in chars.          29                16

Minus # control chars. send (3+3)       - 6               - 6
Minus # digits sent                    - 11               - 6
                                        ----             ----
  = Adjustment needed in chars.          12                 4

Note: if you specified D=Y or C=Y, you will need to subtract one
additional character for the dash and check digit from the results
above.

Now you can add options to the {Bar} command to make the needed
adjustments in the following form:

   J=<#>       specifies the adjustment count after D.P. barcode
   K=<#>       specifies the adjustment count after 5-digit barcode.

EXAMPLE:
 
   {Bar,5,F=Y,S="\027[K",E="\027[e",D=N,C=N,J=12,K=4}

Using this command in the template, the Jiffy 101 printer should
print barcode correctly for Cheshire labels.

Test your results by printing the sample test file BAR_TEST.MDF
using the CHESHIRE.FRM (assuming you have a wide carriage printer).
Use a template with the Bar command you created in the steps above.
The BAR_TEST.MDF file has a mix of records with delivery point 
barcode, 5-digit barcode, and no barcode (no ZIP code).

If a barcode in the second column starts too far to the right,
then you need to INCREASE the the adjustment for the kind of barcode
in the first column.  If it starts too far to the left, you
need to DECREASE the adjustment.

Verify that delivery point barcodes have 62 bars and 5-digit barcodes 
have 32 bars.  Be sure to check the barcode in the rightmost column.

When you are satisfied with the results, proceed to the next section.

       Making a Shorthand Version of Your {Bar} Options
       ------------------------------------------------

By now your {Bar} command options have become awkward.  You
can save the options permanently in the MAILER.INI file and
refer to the options using a shorthand method, for example:

   {Bar,5,P=Jiffy 101}

To save your {Bar} options for shorthand reference:

   1.  Using an ASCII text editor (such as Windows Notepad),
       open the MAILER.INI file in your Mailer directory.
       Locate the section that starts [Bar Printers].
   2.  Carefully add another line to this section in the form
          <printer name>=2
       where <printer name> is your desired shorthand name
       for your options, for example:
 
          [Bar Printers]
          Dataproducts LB=1
          M-T 661/691=2
          M-T 4-Up=2
          Genicom=2
          Printronix=2
          Jiffy 101=2

   3.  Now add a new section similar to the following example,
       specifying EXACTLY the same name as you just entered for
       the section name (in square brackets);

          [Jiffy 101]
          BarS="\027[K"
          BarE="\027[e"
          BarC=N
          BarD=N
          BarJ=12
          BarK=14

       The lines should be the same as the options in your Bar 
       command, but with "Bar" preceding the option letter.

   4.  Save the revised MAILER.INI file and exit from your 
       editor.

   5.  In your template, replace the options in the {Bar} 
       command with the EXACT shorthand name you specified
       in MAILER.INI, in the form P=<name>, for example:

          {Bar,5,P=Jiffy 101}

   6.  Retry your test.  The results should be the same as before.

You have now configured your new printer for barcode printing!

-------------------
Product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective trademark 
holders, and are used only for identification.

                         --- End ---




 




