User Tools

Site Tools


sato_lm408_labels_samples

This is an old revision of the document!


SATO LM408 Label Printers

Windward Software

UPDATE

The following issue has been fixed by SATO, so this workaround should no longer be necessary. You can now design labels for the SATO printers using the System Five Label Designer. If you are unable to do so, you can still use the workaround on this wiki to correct the issue, or create a code based label if you choose to do so.

Problem

We recommend that all the SATO printers use code based labels because these labels once set up are far more dependable, and print much faster because the printer is rendering the label rather than Windows rendering it and sending the rendered image to the printer. Also these printers can be a bit tricky to set up so that they can receive the Windows rendered image, or what is commonly known as a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) label. This is the type of labels that are printed from the Windward Label Designer.

If you absolutely must print WYSIWYG labes using the sato printer, you will have to contact Windward Support, or Sato for assistance in doing this. The main issue that must be fixed is to turn off the thermal transfer setting. This is turned on by default in the printer, even though there isn't a thermal transfer ribbon installed in the printer. So the printer will error out right away when you try to send a rendered print job to it. Simply turning off thermal transfer in the Windows driver will not fix the issue. It must be turned off in the printer itself, to fix it. There is a utility in the Windows Printer driver that will allow you to do this. See: http://wiki.wws5.com/doku.php?id=sato_lm408_troubleshooting

Explanation

Please Note:

All of the fields you are using on your labels must not contain any special characters. Some of these special characters are commas, Percent signs %, open and closing brackets () or {} or [], greater than and less than signs <>, pipes |, colons :, semicolons ;, and single or double quotes “ or '. All these symbols mean specific things within a code based label, so having them in your part numbers, descriptions, and comment fields will cause issues with printing your code based labels.

To try and clarify why this is so important, here is an example of a code based label for the Sato label printers:

<STX>
<ESC>A<ESC>AR<ESC>#E2<ESC>CS4<ESC>Z
<ESC>A
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0580<ESC>V05<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<PART,-1>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0580<ESC>V35<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<DESCRIPTION,28>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0610<ESC>V73<ESC>B3020500<Barcode,-1>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0610<ESC>V121<ESC>$A,24,24,0<ESC>$=<Barcode,-1>
<ESC>Q1
<ESC>Z
<ETX>

The code used for the LM408 does vary slightly from the SATO CG408TT-RS. So you can not use the CG408TT-RS codes. It will throw the printer into an error. You will need to refer to the “e_Pro_Programming_D_SAI_EN.pdf” for this printer.

The '8' in printer model 'CG408' or 'LM408' refers to a printer that prints 8 dots per mm, or 203 dots per inch. Therefore a measurement of 50 dots rounds out to be 1/4 inch, etc.

e_pro_programming_d_sai_en.pdf

Printing Barcode vs. Barcode Numbers

There has also been some confusion regarding Barcode text lines and actual Barcodes. The System Five field <barcode> is the same, but the information to print the barcode number, or the barcode are completely different. For printing just the barcode number on a label, you will need to tell the printer what font you want to print as well as the size, orientation, and position on the label.

But for a barcode, you need to supply different information, such as the barcode type (3of9, 128, or UPC), the height and width of the barcode, and the position on the label.

So please carefully read the information in the examples below.

Label Samples

These two samples are slight variations of each-other Both are 1.5” x .75“ labels

Sample 1 - Code 128
<STX>
<ESC>A<ESC>AR<ESC>#E2<ESC>CS4<ESC>Z
<ESC>A
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0600<ESC>V00<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<PART,-1>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0600<ESC>V30<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<DESCRIPTION,20>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0600<ESC>V70<ESC>BG01050<BARCODE,-1>
<ESC>Q1
<ESC>Z
<ETX>
Sample 2 - UPC-A
<STX>
<ESC>A<ESC>AR<ESC>#E2<ESC>CS4<ESC>Z
<ESC>A
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0600<ESC>V00<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<PART,-1>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0600<ESC>V30<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<DESCRIPTION,20>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0600<ESC>V70<ESC>B3020500<BARCODE,-1>
<ESC>Q1
<ESC>Z
<ETX>
Sample 3 - Variation of UPC-A
<STX> 
<ESC>A<ESC>AR<ESC>#E2<ESC>CS4<ESC>Z
<ESC>A
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0580<ESC>V05<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<PART,-1>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0580<ESC>V35<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<DESCRIPTION,28>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0610<ESC>V73<ESC>B3020500<BARCODE,-1>
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0610<ESC>V121<ESC>$A,24,24,0<ESC>$=<BARCODE,-1>
<ESC>Q1
<ESC>Z
<ETX>

Explanation of Lines

This is a breakdown of Sample 3
<STX>
  • (tells the printer to get ready to receive information)
<ESC>A<ESC>AR<ESC>#E2<ESC>CS4<ESC>Z
  • (<ESC>A - start of label)
  • (<ESC>AR - standard print area)
  • (<ESC>#E2 - print darkness - 1:Light, 2:Medium light, 3:Normal, 4:Medium Dark, and 5:Dark)
  • (<ESC>CS4 - print speed in inches/second)
  • (<ESC>Z - tells the printer to stop printing)
<ESC>A
  • (start of label)
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0580<ESC>V05<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<PART,-1>
  • (%0 is the rotation of the information 0=normal, 1=90 degrees, 2=180 degrees(upside down), and 3=270 degrees)
  • (<ESC>H0580 tells the printer what horizontal position to start printing at)
  • (<ESC>V05 tells the printer what vertical position to start printing at)
  • (<ESC>$ is a vector font type - A is Helvetica Bold (proportional spacing))
  • (24 is the font width in dots @ 203 dots per inch (8 dots per mm))
  • (41 is the font height in dots @ 203 dots per inch (8 dots per mm))
  • (0 is the font variation - 0: Standard, 1: Standard open (outlined), 2: Gray (mesh) pattern 1, 3: Gray (mesh) pattern 2, 4: Gray (mesh) pattern 3, 5: Standard open, shadow 1, 6: Standard open, shadow 2, 7: Standard mirror image, 8: Italic, 9 Italic open, shadow
  • (<ESC>$=<PART,-1> - This is the System Five field used to display the part number. -1 tells it to print the entire number)
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0580<ESC>V35<ESC>$A,24,41,0<ESC>$=<DESCRIPTION,28>
  • (%0 is the rotation of the information 0=normal, 1=90 degrees, 2=180 degrees(upside down), and 3=270 degrees)
  • (<ESC>H0580 tells the printer what horizontal position to start printing at)
  • (<ESC>V35 tells the printer what vertical position to start printing at)
  • (<ESC>$ is a vector font type)
  • (A is Helvetica Bold (proportional spacing))
  • (24 is the font width in dots @ 203 dots per inch (8 dots per mm))
  • (41 is the font height in dots @ 203 dots per inch (8 dots per mm))
  • (0 is the font variation - 0: Standard, 1: Standard open (outlined), 2: Gray (mesh) pattern 1, 3: Gray (mesh) pattern 2, 4: Gray (mesh) pattern 3, 5: Standard open, shadow 1, 6: Standard open, shadow 2, 7: Standard mirror image, 8: Italic, 9 Italic open, shadow
  • (<ESC>$=<DESCRIPTION,28> - This is the System Five field used to display the description. The -1 means to print the entire description If you need to limit the number of characters, then just delete the - 1and enter the number of characters you want to print.)
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0610<ESC>V75<ESC>B3020500<BARCODE,-1>
  • (%0 is the rotation of the information 0=normal, 1=90 degrees, 2=180 degrees(upside down), and 3=270 degrees)
  • (%0 is actually optional. By default none of the lines would be rotated.
  • (<ESC>H0610 tells the printer what horizontal position to start printing at)
  • (<ESC>V75 tells the printer what vertical position to start printing at)
  • (B3 Prints a UPC-A Barcode. 02 is the narrow bar width in dots, and 050 is the barcode height in dots @ 203 dots per inch (8 dots per mm))
  • (<BARCODE,-1> This is the System Five field used to display the barcode. The -1 means to print the entire barcode)
<ESC>%0<ESC>H0610<ESC>V121<ESC>$A,24,24,0<ESC>$=<BARCODE,-1>
  • (%0 is the rotation of the information 0=normal, 1=90 degrees, 2=180 degrees(upside down), and 3=270 degrees)
  • (<ESC>H0610 tells the printer what horizontal position to start printing at)
  • (<ESC>V121 tells the printer what vertical position to start printing at)
  • (<ESC>$ is a vector font type - A is Helvetica Bold (proportional spacing))
  • (24 is the font width in dots @ 203 dots per inch (8 dots per mm))
  • (24 is the font height in dots @ 203 dots per inch (8 dots per mm))
  • (0 is the font variation - 0: Standard, 1: Standard open (outlined), 2: Gray (mesh) pattern 1, 3: Gray (mesh) pattern 2, 4: Gray (mesh) pattern 3, 5: Standard open, shadow 1, 6: Standard open, shadow 2, 7: Standard mirror image, 8: Italic, 9 Italic open, shadow
  • (<ESC>$=<BARCODE,-1> - This is the System Five field used to display the barcode number. -1 tells it to print the entire number)
<ESC>Q1
  • (tells the printer to only print 1 label. If you want the printer to always print 2 or more at a time you can change the number to the number required.
<ESC>Z
  • (tells the printer to stop printing)
<ETX>
  • (tells the printer that this is the end of the print job)

Windows Driver Setup

You also must set up the label stocks in the Windows driver. Especially if you will be using multiple label sizes. However, re-calibrating the printer does not appear to be necessary after changing the label stocks.


Created by Steve Wind June 7 2012

Updated May 27 2013

myWindward

sato_lm408_labels_samples.1477956820.txt.gz · Last modified: 2016/10/31 16:33 (8 years ago) by swind