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Bar Tender The Bar Code Printing Utility Version 1.45 March 1, 1990 by Kevin Vigor Copyright (c) 1989-1990 All Rights Reserved Users' Guide rev 1.3 TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 2 Contents of this manual ----------------------- Introduction General Information pg 3 Features pg 3 Requirements pg 3 Compatibility pg 3 Registration Information pg 4 How to contact the Author pg 6 Using Bar Tender Installing Code pg 7 Setting Parameters pg 8 Printing pg 14 Things to Consider (hints & caveats) pg 15 Appendix A: Utility programs pg 16 Appendix B: Selecting your bar code type pg 17 Appendix C: Bar code specifications. pg 19 TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 3 Introduction General Information The Bar Tender system is intended to allow you to print bar codes from within any application. It is a memory-resident system featuring ten different bar codes types, using from 17 - 30 K of memory. Features of the Bar Tender system o Small size. The system is carefully written to preserve as much of your precious memory as possible. o Speed. Bar codes are generated as fast as any commercial system I have yet discovered, and regular printing is not slowed appreciably (even on large word processing documents) by the presence of the program. o Full featured control panel. The Bar Tender control panel is a program to control the type of bar code, it's size and placement, etc. from a menu driven screen with full help available at every point. o Flexibility. You can print ten different bar codes in heights from 1/10" to 1" on eight different printer types. Bar codes can be printed up to six across on a page. Bar Tender can be used with your present word processing, spreadsheet, database, or any other system which produces printed output, requiring no change in your work habits. Requirements Bar Tender v1.45 requires an IBM PC or 100% compatible with DOS 3.0 or better, 30K of free memory, and one of the supported printers. Compatibility Bar Tender is a memory resident program (TSR), and such programs are renowned for the conflicts they can create. This system is well behaved. It has been tested with Side-Kick, and runs on LanTastic, Novell, APX and NX/386 networks. However, it is impossible to test every possible combination of TSR's, and it is possible conflicts might arise. If you are having problems using Bar Tender and you have other TSR programs loaded, particularly those that control the printer, try running Bar Tender as your only TSR. If the system works, try altering the order in which you load your TSR's, or see if you can do without the conflicting program. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 4 Registration Information Bar Tender is distributed as User-Supported software. You are free to copy and distribute this software freely, however, if you find it of use to you, you must register your copy. Registering your copy of the software helps the author continue to provide professional-quality software at very reasonable prices. The Basic Registration is $20.00 and grants you license to use the product freely. It also entitles you to support from the author and free upgrades. A diskette with the latest version is available for an extra $5.00. All materials are shipped on 5.25-inch floppy diskettes, unless you request otherwise. Non-U.S. orders need to include $5.00 extra to cover additional shipping and handling charges. Checks and money orders must be drawn on a U.S. bank. Please send all payments payable in U.S. Dollars. Utah residents must add 6.25% for state sales tax. Print the registration form, REGISTER.DOC, or include on a piece of paper your name, address and phone number, and send it along with your payment to: Kevin Vigor 129 South 700 East #4 Salt Lake City, Utah, 84102 If by chance, you don't have the REGISTER.DOC file, a copy of the registration form is included on the next page. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 5 BAR TENDER REGISTRATION FORM NAME: __________________________________________________ COMPANY: __________________________________________________ ADDRESS: __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ CITY: __________________________________________________ STATE: ________________________ ZIP CODE: _____________ PHONE: __________________________________________________ E-MAIL ADDRESS: ___________________________________________ WHERE DID YOU RECEIVE BAR TENDER? _________________________ ____________________________________________________________ COMMENTS: _________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Basic Registration @ $20.00 $__________ Update Floppy Disk Service @ $5.00 $__________ Circle one: 5.25" disk 3.5" disk Shipping outside U.S. @ $5.00 $__________ (Payments MUST be in U.S. Dollars/U.S. Bank) SUBTOTAL: $__________ Utah Residents Add 6.25% State Sales Tax ($20 = $1.25 | $25 = $1.56) $__________ Quantity x __________ 1.45 TOTAL: $__________ Remit to: Kevin Vigor 129 South 700 East #4 Salt Lake City, Utah, 84102 TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 6 How to Contact the Author I can be reached in several ways: o US Mail: at the address above o CompuServe #72500,3705: CompuServe response may be erratic. I log on fairly regularly, but do not expect overnight response. o BBS: A Million Miles Away (801) 965-9534, Salt Lake's premier PC-Board. Note that this is *not* a support board. Don't expect extra access as a user, and don't hassle the sysop! o Phone (801) 363-1656. Please use this as a last resort or in emergencies only! And remember the time difference. Preference will be given to registered users. This is not true of the other methods of access. Bug reports are welcome and will be rewarded with an upgrade (or at the very least an explanation of why the bug cannot be immediately fixed!). Note that there is a difference between a bug report and a wish list! TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 7 Using Bar Tender ---------------- Okay, now that the formalities are over... To use Bar-One you must do three things. 1. Install the memory-resident code. 2. Set the parameters for your printer type, code placement, etc. 3. Print your bar codes. Installing Code --------------- Installing the code is done by running one of the several .COM files that come with this package. Each file supports a different type of bar code: UA_BAR.COM: UPC-A Bar Code UE_BAR.COM: UPC-E Bar Code 39_BAR.COM: 3 of 9 Bar Code X39_BAR.COM: Extended 3 of 9 Bar Code E8_BAR.COM: EAN/JAN-8 Bar Code E12_BAR.COM: EAN/JAN-12 Bar Code 25_BAR.COM: Interleaved 2 of 5 Bar Code 128_BAR.COM: Code 128 Bar Code CDB_BAR.COM: CodaBar Bar Code ZIP_BAR.COM: Zip Code Bar Code BAR.COM: All of the above. The BAR.COM file is a general purpose file that will allow you to print all of the supported bar code types. It does, however, use more memory than the single-bar types, and should only be used when necessary. Each bar code type is used for a different purpose and may require different data to be encoded. If you are not immediately certain of the type of code you require, please consult Appendix B, which will offer help in selecting the best bar code type for your application. When you have selected your bar code type, run the file. E.G., if you wanted UPC-A bar codes, you would enter the following at a DOS prompt: C:>ua_bar [RETURN] The system should respond "Bar Tender [xxx] version successfully installed!", and return you to the DOS prompt. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 8 Setting Parameters ------------------ Setting your parameters can be done three ways: when installing the resident code, when printing, and from the Control Panel. The Control Panel. ----------------- The Control Panel serves as a good introduction to the system's various parameters. Bring up the control panel by entering CP at a dos prompt, as below: C:>cp [RETURN] The main system screen will appear as below: ------------Current Settings------------- | Data Marker: ~ | | Printer Type: HP Laser (300 dpi)| | Margin: 0 | | Height: 4 | | Overstrike: 1 | | Bar Code Type: Ex. 3 of 9 | | Checksum generation disabled. | | Text printing enabled | | System is active. | | Density: Medium | | Space Stripping: Both | | Forms Across Page: 1 | | Form Width: 20 | | * Code Orientation: Horizontal | | * Position Saving: OFF | ----------------------------------------- This is a list of all the Bar Tender basic settings. They are each described below. Note that the values shown above are the system defaults. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 9 o Data Marker: This is a "word" of one to five characters in length. It is used for marking the data you want bar-coded, as will be explained under Step 3. o Printer Type: This must be set to your printer's emulation. If your exact printer is not listed, check your printer manual to see if it can emulate one of those listed. o Margin: This controls how far from the left margin you want the bar codes printed. It is measured in characters, or points on a PostScript printer. o Height: The height of the bar code, in tenths of an inch. o Overstrike: This is used on dot-matrix printers to control how many times the printer will go over the bar code. The more times, the darker and better it will be, but the slower printing will be. This will usually be one, unless you are having trouble scanning the bar codes you print. Users of laser printers can ignore this parameter. o Bar Code Type: The current bar code type. You can only alter this if you used BAR.COM, not one of the bar-code specific files. A full explanation of the various bar code types is given in appendix A. o Checksum Generation. Some bar code types (UPC-A & E, 3 of 9) have an optional checksum. If this option is "enabled", Bar Tender will automatically generate the checksum for you. This will decrease the chance of bad bar codes being read wrongly, but several readers cannot understand this. If your reader cannot handle checksums, they will appear as an extra character on the end of the bar code. o Text Printing: If this option is "enabled", Bar Tender will print the bar code's value under the code. If it is "disabled", it will print only the bar code. o System: if the system is active, it is watching what you print for bar codes. If it is inactive, it will not print bar code, but is still in memory, waiting to be made active again. o Density: This affects how wide the bar codes are. The wider they are, the better they will read; however, they will take up more space and take longer to print. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 10 o Space Stripping: This option allows Bar Tender to automatically remove spaces at the beginning and end of your bar codes. LEADING will remove spaces before the code, TRAILING will remove those after the code, BOTH will (obviously) remove both, and NONE will leave all spaces in. o Forms across page: This controls how many bar codes will appear on the same horizontal line. You may print up to six across the page (for three-across labels, etc.). o Form Width: This is only used when printing more than one across the page. This parameter is the width in characters (or points on a PostScript printer) of each label. o Code Orientation: This parameter is only used with laser printers. If set to Vertical, the codes will be printed "sideways". Horizontal is the default, and the only mode that will work with dot-matrix printers. o Position Saving: This parameter is only used with laser printers. When set to ON, the system will restore the old printer position after printing the bar codes. In other words, anything you print immediately following the bar code will start at the same position as the bar code did. This can be very helpful in formatting output, particularly with vertical bar codes. When set to OFF (which is the only option available to dot-matrix printers), any printing following the bar code will start below and to the right of the code. These are the basic parameters for controlling Bar Tender. From the control panel, they may all be altered simply by picking from menus and typing in values. Remember that help is always available by pressing the F1 key at any point while in the Control Panel. The last two options are for laser printers only, and provide advanced formatting features. If you wish to use these features with your dot matrix printer, I would recommend the use of a product like GoScript from LaserGo Inc, which will emulate a PostScript printer. I have found this product, while slow and memory hungry, to be extremely useful in getting output I never imagined possible out of my weary Epson. (end of unsolicited plug!). If you wish to go this route, you will also need a utility like PRN2DSK (commonly available on BBS's) to save the printed output to a disk file so it can be run through GoScript. Be sure to run PRN2DSK (or any similar utility) *before* installing Bar Tender. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 11 The Control Panel also allows you to remove Bar Tender from memory, by choosing the UnInstall option from the main menu. This will free up the memory taken by Bar Tender and return you to DOS. Command Line Options -------------------- You may set any of these parameters when starting up Bar Tender using command line arguments to the .COM file you use to install the program. The possible options are listed below: -P#: Selects the printer type, where # is a number from the following list: 0 = PostScript 1 = Epson 2 = IBM ProPrinter 3 = HP LaserJet at 150 dpi 4 = HP LaserJet at 300 dpi 5 = Epson 24 pin 6 = Toshiba 24 pin 7 = Okidata MicroLine -Dxxxx: Sets the Data Marker to xxxxx. -H##: Sets the bar code height to ## tenths of an inch. -T[+|-]:Sets text printing ON (+) or OFF (-). -C[+|-]:Sets checksum generation ON (+) of OFF (-). -O#: Sets Overstrike to #. -M##: Sets Margin to ##. * -B#: Sets the bar code type, where # is a number from the following list: 0 = UPC-A 1 = UPC-E 2 = EAN/JAN-12 3 = EAN/JAN-8 4 = 3 of 9 5 = Extended 3 of 9 6 = Interleaved 2 of 5 7 = Code 128 8 = CodaBar 9 = Zip + 4 TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 12 -N#: Sets the density, where # is a number from the following list: 0 = High 1 = Medium 2 = Low. -V[+|-]:Sets the Code Orientation to Vertical (+) or Horizontal (-). (Laser printer only) -Z[+|-]:Sets Position Saving ON (+) or OFF (-). (Laser printer only) -S#: Sets the Stripping, where # is a number from the following list: 0 = NONE 1 = LEADING 2 = TRAILING 3 = BOTH -A#: Sets the number of Forms Across the page to #. -W##: Sets the form width to ##. For example, to start up Bar Tender with UPC-A bar codes, height 5 tenths of an inch, margin 20, 2 forms across the page, and a form width of 35, you would enter the following at the DOS prompt: C:>ua_bar -H5 -M20 -A2 -W35 Be careful with the laser printer options. If you set position saving to ON, and are using a dot matrix printer, you will get junk when you try to print. Bar Tender tries to prevent this, but it is possible to fool the system thus: C:>bar -Z+ -P1 The options are scanned left to right, so when the Z+ option (position saving on) is processed, Bar Tender is still using the default HP LaserJet printer, and will allow this command. The next command, however, changes the printer to an Epson, which cannot support position saving. This will confuse the system horribly. As a general rule, when using command line options, set the printer type with the very first option to prevent this sort of error. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 13 Once you have worked out the parameters you need for a particular application, you may want to create a batch file to call Bar Tender with the desired parameters. Print Time Options ------------------ You may change several of Bar Tender's settings while printing. These commands use the same format as the command line options, but start with \ instead of -. For instance, to change to margin setting to 30 while printing, you would send a bar code starting with \M30 to the printer. Bar Tender will detect that you wish to change the margin and will do so IMMEDIATELY. Commands may be strung together, and you may follow the commands with the data for a bar code. For instance, \M30\H3\D0Hi will print a bar code of "Hi", with margin 30, 3/10" high, and high density. Command line options that use a +- to turn an option on or off should be replaced with a 1 for + and a 0 for -. For example, the command line option to set text printing off is -T- ; the corresponding print time option is \T0. If you wish to send a backslash as the first character, you must send two, the second cancelling out the effect of the first. For example, to encode \Hi/, you should actually send \\Hi/ to be encoded. Commands must be the first thing in a bar code to take effect; if you encode Hi\M40There, you will get one bar code, not two, and the margin parameter will not be altered. The data marker, number of forms across the page, form width, orientation and position saving mode cannot be changed while printing. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 14 Printing -------- Now that you have Bar Tender installed and ready to go, you are ready to print. This is the easiest step. Simply surround the data you want encoded by the data marker, and use whatever application you like to print it! For instance, if you are in WordPerfect (tm), and your data marker was BAR!, you could type the following: BAR!123BAR! When you print this, it will appear as a bar code of "123". It's that simple, folks! Always be careful to send the closing data marker. If you send only one, Bar Tender will keep waiting for an end marker, and storing everything you print, until it runs out of memory, at which point your computer will most likely lock up solidly. If you try to encode data that cannot be encoded with the current bar code type (see appendix C for bar code specifications), the code will simply be ignored. There is no way of detecting this sort of error. If this keeps happening to you, consult appendix C to get samples of the data each code type accepts. Note that normal text (not between markers) should always print correctly. If normal text will not print, you have a more serious problem and should probably reboot after saving your current work. When you are printing multiple bar codes across a page, you must still send each code separately. You cannot lump them together. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 15 Some Things to Consider ----------------------- Be careful with your selection of data marker. The system defaults to a single tilde (~), which is fine for simple applications. A program like WordPerfect (tm), however, will send hordes of characters to the printer while initalizing it, and is very likely to send a tilde or two, which will confuse Bar Tender horribly. When using *any* program that produces any sort of fancy output from your printer (special fonts, graphics, etc.), *set the data marker to a longer "word"!*. Otherwise things will become very confused... Likewise, be careful with the space stripping option. It is usually best to leave this option set to BOTH, unless you specifically need bar codes with spaces at the beginning and end. If you are using a commercial database or similar package, you may find that you can place markers on either side of a field. These fields are usually padded with spaces, and if you have space stripping turned off, you may end up with the largest bar codes you've ever seen, consisting mainly of spaces! Bar Tender will *not* work on a printer connected to your serial port. These are few and far between, but if you have one, sorry! I can't help you. Don't even ask. Aren't you glad you didn't have to pay to find this out? Bar Tender has been extensively beta-tested, but this is the first shareware release. Any serious project has bugs; if you find something you can't explain, please contact me! If it is a bug, I will do my very best to correct it, and will send you the update. Please do this rather than simply discarding the product! and... Thank you for selecting Bar Tender! TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 16 APPENDIX A Utility Programs ---------------- The BAR_OUT utility. BAR_OUT.COM is a small utility that will remove any version of Bar Tender from memory. The programmer's interface to Bar Tender, which allows such programs, is available to registered users at no extra charge. The INSTALL program. The INSTALL program which you used to set up this system is available as a shareware product. Contact the author by one of the methods given at the beginning of this document for details. (Sorry about the plug in the middle of your documentation, but I couldn't resist!). TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 17 APPENDIX B Selecting a Bar Code Type ------------------------- Bar Tender supports ten different bar code types. Each is used for a different purpose and may require certain types of input. If you enter invalid data for a particular bar- code type, Bar Tender will simply ignore the code. The most general purpose type is the Extended 3 of 9 code. This type can encode any ASCII character (any character you can type from the keyboard), and can handle any number of these characters up to 30. The standard 3 of 9 code is similar, but can only handle upper case letters. Unless you specifically need lower case letters or extended ASCII codes (and if you don't know what that means, you probably don't need them!), 3 of 9 is your best best for a general purpose code. The vast majority of bar code readers can read this code. For specific types of data, there are several other options: o Product Numbers. The UPC-A code is the most common code used for product numbers (this, and it's relative, the UPC-E, are the codes that you will see on super-market produce). The use of this code is regulated by the Universal Product Code Commission. It has very specific requirements for it's data (it must have 12 numeric characters. No other form of data can be encoded), and is thus not a general-purpose code. For international product numbers, a variant on the UPC code, the EAN/JAN code is used. This code has a country of origin code predefined. Like the UPC-A code, it can only handle 12 digit, numeric-only data. In order to use either of these codes for anything but in-house use, you must consult the Universal Product Code Commission. And unless you are stuck with readers that can only read these codes, I would suggest using another, more flexible code for in-house use. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 18 o Numeric Data If you wish to encode numeric-only data (no letters or punctuation), you have a couple of options. The Interleaved 2 of 5 code is by far the most efficient. It can handle any number of digits up to 30, and encodes them very efficiently, using very little space. However, this efficiency makes it harder to ensure that the code will be read correctly. 2 of 5 has a greater error rate than any other code in this system (though it is still far better than manual entry!). A more robust code is Codabar. This will be less efficient (the codes will be bigger), but has a better error rate and allows a few extra symbols apart from digits (- $ / . + A B C D). Both of these codes are considerably more efficient than the general purpose codes (3 of 9 and code 128), but are not supported by all bar code readers. Check your reader's documentation to see if it can handle these codes. o Zip Codes Zip codes are handled by the ZIP+4 code type. These are the strange sets of short vertical lines you see on the bottom of envelopes. This code type is only used by the Post Office, and has very specific requirements. I am not aware of any commercially available readers for the PC that can read these codes. o General Purpose I began this section with a discussion of general purpose bar codes, and recommended 3 of 9 or extended 3 of 9. However, you do have another option... Code 128. This will handle any ASCII character up to 30 at a time, like Extended 3 of 9. Code 128 is, however, more efficient than Extended 3 of 9 (the bar codes will be smaller). The only draw-backs to this code are that it is slightly more error-prone than Extended 3 of 9, and readers for this code are not as common as for the 3 of 9 family. TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 19 APPENDIX C Bar code specifications ----------------------- UPC-A ----- The UPC-A code encodes 12 digits. The first is the system number (defined by the Universal Product Code Commission), the next ten are the data, and the final digit is a checksum, which is best calculated automatically by Bar Tender. Example data: 10123456789 <-- Note only 11 digits. Bar Tender will supply the 12th, the checksum. UPC-E ----- The UPC-E code is a shortened version of the UPC-A code. It also takes 12 numeric characters, but requires that the system number and at least 5 of the ten data digits are zero. Example data: 01230000045 <-- 11 digits again, 6 of which must be zero, including the first digit. EAN/JAN-12 ---------- The EAN/JAN 12 code is related to the UPC-A code. It again takes 12 digits, but the first two are defined as the country code, and there is no checksum digit. Example data: 011234567890 EAN/JAN-8 --------- The EAN/JAN-8 code is a truly abbreviated form of the EAN/JAN-12. It encodes 8 digits, the first two of which are defined as the country code. Example data: 0112345 TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 20 3 of 9 ------ The 3 of 9 code is a general purpose code which can handle alpha-numeric data of any length up to 30 characters. Allowable characters for this code are 0-9, A-Z, -, ., *, $, /, +, %, and the space character. Note that letters must be upper-case; if you enter lower-case letters, they will automatically be converted to upper-case. Example data: INV-104A PART-25 <-- This is all one code. Extended 3 of 9 --------------- The extended 3 of 9 code is a general purpose code expanding on the 3 of 9 code. Codes will be double the size of the standard 3 of 9 code, but can contain any ASCII character (any character you can enter from the keyboard by normal means). The maximum length is 30 characters. Example data: Socket Wrench PN#1212 <-- This is all one code. Interleaved 2 of 5 ------------------ The interleaved 2 of 5 code is used for numeric data only. It is a general purpose code whose only restriction is that there must be an even number of characters in the data; however, if you enter an odd number,the system will automatically add a leading zero to the code. For general-purpose, numeric-only data, this is the most efficient code available. Example data: 987654321 Code 128 -------- Code 128 is a general purpose bar code that can handle any ASCII character (any character you can enter from the keyboard by normal means). It is an optimized code, meaning that it will attempt to make the bar-code as small as possible by using various compression techniques. Example data: Socket Wrench PN#1212 <-- This is all one code TVark Productions Bar Tender Users' Guide rev 1.3 Page 21 Codabar ------- Codabar is a general purpose bar-code used primarily for numeric data. It can, however, also encode the symbols - $ / . +, and A-D. You should use this code in preference to code 128 or 3 of 9 if you need to use only these extended characters; you should use 2 of 5 in preference to this code if you will be encoding only numeric data. Data can be of any length up to 30 characters. Example data: $129.95 Zip + 4 ------- The Zip + 4 code is a highly specialized code used by the post office for sorting letters. It can encode either 5 or 9 digits. This code must be placed on the lower right of envelopes or postcards to be mailed. The Post Office requires that the code be completely within an area between 5/8" and 4" from the right of the envelope, and between 3/16" and 7/16" from the bottom edge of the envelope. The left side of the code must be from 4" to 3 1/4" from the right hand side of the envelope, and you may not print anything else within an area from 4 1/2" from the right edge of the envelope and 5/8" from the bottom. The Post Office will provide you with information on the use of this code on request. Example data: 84102 841021234 <-- note: no hyphen or space!