Datamax 7A300007 Rev. 2 manual Introduction, Datamax-O’Neil Printer Command Language ExPCL

Introduction

This manual is intended to be used by software developers and system integrators with the purpose of developing applications that can print output results using Datamax-O’Neil wide range of mobile thermal printers. This section of the manual describes the various printer models, their main technical specifications and the communication interfaces available for each model. For specific information about the operation of each printer refer to the User’s Guide.

Printer Models and Supported Features

The Datamax-O’Neil series of thermal printers offer a wide variety of solutions for printing applications. Communication interfaces and supporting flexible paper widths are shown in the table below. For additional information, please refer to the printer’s User Guide.

Model	Max Paper	Max. Print	Max Print	Sensors			Communication Interfaces
	Width	Width	Dots		RS-232	USB	BT	IrDA	WiFi	MCR	SCR
APEX2	2.28”/58m	1.89”/48mm	384	Front Black	Std	NA	Std	Opt	Opt	Opt	Opt
	m			Mark
APEX3	3.15”/80m	2.83”/72mm	576	Front Black	Std	NA	Std	Opt	Opt	Opt	Opt
	m			Mark
ANDES3	3.15”/80m	2.83”/72mm	576	Front & Back	Std	Std	Opt*	Std	Opt*	Opt*	Opt*
	m			Black Mark
APEX4	4.35”/110.6	4.09”/104m	832	Front Black	Opt	Std	Std	Opt	Opt	Opt	Opt
	mm	m		Mark

Std = Standard

NA = Not Available

Opt = Optional

Datamax-O’Neil Printer Command Language (ExPCL)

This section describes the control codes and escape sequences comprising Datamax-O’Neil Printer Command Language (ExPCL).

Control characters defined as the set of characters encoding from 0x00 to .0x1F (ASCII values between 0 to 31)

The ExPCL defines commands that start with the ESC (Hexadecimal 1B or Decimal 27) character and then are followed for the command and the parameters. The general structure of the commands can be defined as follows:

	ESC <Command> <Param1, Param2, ....,Param n>
Where:	Character Hexadecimal 1B or Decimal 27
ESC
Command	One or more ASCII characters that define a unique Datamax-O’Neil
	Printer Command Language
Param1	Input parameters for the command. The commands that accept just one
	parameter will be defined as “n” while commands with more than one
	parameter will be defined as “n1”, “n2”, etc.

Note that spaces are not part of the commands and the parameters are indicated as items typed in italics. For instance, the command ESC k n is used to select the character size of the resident fonts in the printers. The parameter n indicates the font type to choose with possible values between o and 9.

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