Print Operations
Media Sensing
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P1062653-002 Rev. A ZD500 Series™ Thermal Transfer Printer User’s Guide 1/16/2014
Media Sensing
The ZD500 Series™ printer media controls are set via a control panel setting or by sending
commands to the printer.
The printer’s media settings can be verified by printing a Printer Configuration label. See the
Test Printing with Configuration Report Printouts onpage 27 for more details.
The maximum distance that the automatic media type detection and sensing will check can be
reduced by using the ZPL Maximum Label Length command (^ML). It is recommended that
this distance be set to no less than two times the longest label being printed. If the largest label
being printed was a 4 by 6 inch label, then the maximum label (media) length detection
distance can be reduced from the default distance of 39 inches down to 12 inches.
Table 16 • Media Settings
Menu Item Setting
MEDIA TYPE SETTINGS Menu on page 52 for media sensing method
TEAR OFF SETTINGS Menu on page 52 for setting the media
position after printing or a feed action.
PRINT MODE SETTINGS Menu onpage 52 to set media handling after
printing or a feed action.
LABEL LENGTH MAX SETTINGS Menu on page 52 (see below for description).
POWER UP ACTION TOOLS Menu on page 56 to set what the media does on
power up.
HEAD CLOSE ACTION TOOLS Menu on page 56 to set what the media does when
the printer is closed.
MANUAL CALIBRATION Manual Calibration - Media onpage 75 for the procedure
to automatically adjust the printer for typical label media.
TOOLS Menu on page 56 to start the manual calibration
process.
SENSOR PROFILE Sensor Profile onpage 140 to observe and possibly
change media sensing for hard to calibrate media that for
example ‘has printing on the liner’ or ‘has pre-printe’
media‘ that can interfere with a manual calibration.