[Lazarus] no driver and com printing [SOLVED]

[fikri zainul]

> Hi all,
> I have a printer (Epson TM U220D, plugged in COM1 port) and my OS
> Linux/Fedora10 I can't found the driver printer for this OS (only for SUSE
> and Ubuntu that Epson provided). (Using Generic/TextOnly driver, not
> working)
>
> So, I can't do printing process for my lazarus application.
>
> My first question is,
>
> [?] Do you know how to handle this situation? (Driver problem)

Yes, set it in cups properly, but DO NOT use Generic Text, use Raw printing
driver and set proper ESC/POS.
This is how I do that:
1.Prepare TStringList with commands and data to be printed.
  eg:
  MyPosList := TStringList.Create;
  MyPosList.Add(SEQUENCE_FOR_PRINTER_INITIALIZATION(read escposmanuals))
  MyPosList.Add('Hello world line 1');
  MyPosList.Add('Hello world line 2');
  MyPosList.Add('Hello world line 3');
  MyPosList.Add(SEQUENCE_FOR_CUTTER (if there's cutter));
  MyPosList.SaveToFile(YourTempFileOrWhatever);
  MyFunctionForPosPrinting(YourTempFileOrWhatever) (look below)

2.Save it to temp file eg. /tmp/myposprinter_XXXXX.txt
3.call cups to print it to desired pos printer (via
Libc.System()/TProcess/ExecuteProcess) -> lpr -PMYPOSPRINTER
/tmp/myposprinter_XXXXX.txt

I'm using ExecuteProcess()
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/executeprocess.html

4.Delete temp file.

>
>
> Temporary, I try to print via command line (Terminal/Dos command like) to
> the printer using command line 'cat textfile.log > /dev/ttyS0',
>
> and it's worked. Something printed.

DO NOT USE IT EVER. It's direct port printing and you can have troubles on
user machines with permissions, selinux etc etc.
Cups handles that fine.

>
> And the (second) question is,
>
> [?] How to apply this command (multiple lines sometimes) in Lazarus Code?
>
> (By pressing from a button maybe) Can you all give me some codes to
> execute?

1.Use ESC/POS docs (or any other docs for your pos printer, but I guess that
TMU220D is pure ESC/POS printer.
2.Do as I explained above.

zeljko

----------------------------------------------------
Thank you very much to Zeljko for your answers
----------------------------------------------------

Here what I do exactly:

PRINTER PART

1. Plug my serial TM-U220D printer to my Linux Fedora 10 computer
2. Add Printer using CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) by typing http://127.0.0.1:631 on address bar mozilla
3. Setting Device to Serial Port #1
4. Setting Baud rate to 9600 ( my friend recommended )
5. Setting Make/Manufacture by RAW (thanks to Zeljko, I'm using Generic text before but won't work)
6. Setting Model to Raw Queue

LAZARUS PART

1. Add Printer4Lazarus package
2. Add printers in Uses (Uses Printers)
3. Create method

procedure PrintRawString(const S:String);
var
  Written: Integer;
begin
    Printer.Write(S[1], Length(S), Written);
end;

2. Use the method

procedure TForm1.PrintItClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  Printer.Title := ‘My Title’;
  Printer.RawMode := True;
  Printer.BeginDoc;
  PrintRawString(‘Print This String’);
  Printer.EndDoc;
end;

3. We can add some ESC/p codes to string.

PrintRawString(Chr(27)+Chr(97)+Chr(1)+‘Print This String’);  //center alignment

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




That's All :)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lazarus-ide.org/pipermail/lazarus/attachments/20120220/58ee1427/attachment-0002.html>