Unable to Print Labels on a Host-Based Label Printer

Resolving The Problem

This document discusses an issue with printing labels from an IBM System i to a Host-based or Windows-only label printer.

This document was last updated on 14 April 2010.

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The only supported method for printing barcodes from the IBM System i is to use the BARCODE (Bar Code) DDS keyword when generating an *AFPDS or *IPDS spooled file. However, the resulting *AFPDS or *IPDS spooled file can only be printed on an IPDS-capable printer, such as an InfoPrint 1532 IPDS laser printer, an InfoPrint 6500 IPDS line matrix printer, or an InfoPrint 6700 IPDS thermal label printer. If the BARCODE DDS keyword is used to generate an *AFPDS spooled file, the resulting spooled file can also be printed on a PCL-capable or PPDS-capable ASCII laser printer when using the AFPDS to ASCII Transform code within Host Print Transform (HPT). There is no support within Host Print Transform (HPT) for printing *IPDS spooled files.

Several in-house and third-party applications such as T.L. Ashford Barcode 400 and CYBRA’s MarkMagic/400 bar code label software, among many others, are able to print to certain label printers that use a text-based markup language by placing the text-based printer commands in an *SCS spooled file and then using a PC5250 printer session, Remote Output Queue (RMTOUTQ), or *LAN 3812 SNMP device description with Host Print Transform (HPT) to convert the text in the spooled file to plain ASCII text. This is typically done using either the system-supplied QWPDEFAULT *WSCST object in library QSYS, or using a *WSCST object provided by the third-party software vendor or printer manufacturer.

Most notable examples of label printers that use a text-based language are Zebra and Zebra-compatible printers that support either ZPL or ZPL II (Zebra Printer Language, Eltron and Eltron-compatible printers that support EPL1 or EPL2 (Eltron Printer Language), and printers that support CPCL1 or CPCL2 (Comtec Printer Control Language).

A number of printer manufacturers are now marketing Host-based or Windows-only label printers, such as the Dymo LabelWriter line. These are neither IPDS-capable label printers or ASCII label printers that use a text-based language for printing labels. They are intended to only print labels generated on a Windows XP or Vista PC, or perhaps a Mac running Mac OS X or a PC running Linux, using their proprietary labeling software.

In this case of a Host-based or Windows-only label printer, it will not work to generate an *AFPDS spooled file that uses the BARCODE (Bar Code) DDS keyword, and it will not work to generate an *SCS spooled file containing a text-based printer language that just gets converted to plain ASCII text. The only thing that might work for these printers would be to generate labels on the Windows PC, Mac or Linux PC using the proprietary labeling software, or a Windows application such as Microsoft Word or Excel, and use ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity) to grab individual fields from the data base residing on an IBM System i using iSeries Access for Windows.