Manual for Zebra printers
Zebra ZQ630 Product information
Limitations
- Calibration - if you use RFIDCalibration(recommended to use everytime printing media is changed) the printer will feed 2 tags. You can still use them if you open the printer and reroll tags back manually.
- barcodeRotation - when setting barcodeRotation, keep in mind that HRI(human readable interpretation) is "outside" of printed box. For example: when you set barcodeRotation = 180 and print barcode at location (100,50), barcode will be upside down and point (100,50) will be upper-left corner of barcode but HRI will be upwards from coordinate 50.
- Printing location - it is not recommended to print at first and last 3mm of width and height of tag.
Font size arithmetics - fontHeight, fontWidth
Bitmap font size for Zebra label printers
Internal bitmapped fonts can be magnified from 1 to 10 times their normal (default) size. The magnification factor is in whole numbers. Therefore, if the normal size of a bitmapped font is 9 dots high and 5 dots wide, a magnification factor of 3 would produce a character of 27 dots high and 15 dots wide. Height and width can be magnified independently.
Scalable font size for Zebra label printers
Scalable font size needs to be provided in dots, not points. So if you'd like the printer to print particular point size of text, you have to calculate the size in dots by converting the standard 72 dpi to the printer's actual printhead resolution.
(Point size) x (Dots per inch of Printer)
Dots = -----------------------------------------
72
- For printers using a 6 dot/mm printhead the “dots per inch of printer” value is 152.4
- For printers using a 8 dot/mm printhead the “dots per inch of printer” value is 203.2 (Zebra ZQ630)
- For printers using a 8 dot/mm printhead the “dots per inch of printer” value is 203.2
- For printers using a 8 dot/mm printhead the “dots per inch of printer” value is 203.2
The actual height and width of the character in dots will vary, depending on the font style and the particular character. Therefore, some characters will be smaller and some will be larger than the actual dot size requested. The baselines for all scalable fonts are calculated against the dot size of the cell. The baseline is 3/4 down from the top of the cell. For example, if the size of the cell is 80 dots, the baseline will be 60 dots (3/4) down from the top of the cell.
printableArea
To set the right printable area, you need to calculate width and height in dots.
printableWidth [dots] = width [inches] * printerResolution [dpi]
printableHeight [dots] = height [inches] * printerResolution [dpi]
Zebra ZQ630 has printer resolution 203dpi, if you have tag that is 3.94 inches wide, it has printableWidth of 800dots.
RawCommand
You can use ZebraDesigner to design label for your needs and then you can send created ZPL command through Gonector_RawCommand() function to printer.
You can also use Labelary to check result of your ZPL command online.
Connecting the Zebra ZQ630 printer
There are 2 posible ways how to connect to Zebra Printer: Bluetooth LE (recommended) and Bluetooth Clasic
Bluetooth LE (recommended)
To successfully connect to Zebra ZQ630 to Gonector via Bluetooth LE please follow instructions below.
- If previously paired on iOS device, run Gonector_Connect(device_name) otherwise continue bellow
- Press and keep pressed FEED button(next to ON/OFF button) for at least 5 seconds until Bluetooth icon starst blinking on upper left corner of Zebra printer display
- Call Gonector_Get("devices") or Gonector_Get("devices" ; "ZebraPrinter") plugin function to get device_name(Serial Number) of your printer
- Call Gonector_Connect(device_name) to connect to your printer
- Pairing dialog should apear on your iOS device and Zebra printer -> accept on both devices
- Done
Bluetooth Classic
To successfully connect to Zebra ZQ630 to Gonector via Bluetooth Classic please follow instructions below.
- If previously paired, go to system Settings->Bluetooth and unpair ZQ630
- Press and keep pressed FEED button(next to ON/OFF button) for at least 5 seconds until Bluetooth icon starst blinking on upper left corner of Zebra printer display
- Zebra printer device should appear available for pairing named as it's Serial Number
- Pair your iOS device with Zebra Printer in Setting->Bluetooth
- Pairing dialog should apear on your iOS device and Zebra printer -> accept on both devices
- Call Gonector_Get("devices") or Gonector_Get("devices" ; "ZebraPrinter") plugin function to get device_name(Serial Number) of your printer
- Call Gonector_Connect(device_name) to connect to your printer
- Done
Solving issues with Zebra printer
- Device is paired with iOS, but function Gonector_Get("devices") does not return device:
Zebra printers use special protocol for communication, which has to be specified in your app. Into the .plist file of the project in Xcode, add new Row with the value "Supported external accessory protocol" and add the Strings:
Apple App Store Requirements
If you are connecting Zebra Printer via Bluetooth Classic (MFI) and you added "com.zebra.rawport" to "Supported external accessory protocol", you will have to register the app with Zebra in order to obtain MFi Authorization before you can submit you app to the AppStore
You can do so through the Zebra website. Zebra will provide you with an identification number (PPID) that you have to include in review notes when submitting your app