Write a label to a brother QL-550 printer using C#

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ShadyG

26 posts

Geek

# 129465 17-Sep-2013 08:45

I'm trying to rig up a very cheap point of sale system for a friend, using a Brother QL-550 label printer to print the label for each stock item. The label will contain a description of the item, a retail price, and a barcode defining the item in a sqlserver database. I'm trying to use C# to do this, but I'm having no joy whatsoever.

Has anyone had any experience in using this label printer via C# (Or VB.net), and can anyone give me any pointers on how to do it.

I've tried using the Brother SDK that came with it, but frankly that was worse than useless. I can write to the printer, but not the information I want, in the format I need.

Any help would be gratefully accepted!

CYaBro

3142 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

# 896788 17-Sep-2013 10:32

I have no idea about coding etc but from the applications I've seen most of them say to use the Dymo label printers as they use XML format for the labels which is easy to create.

ShadyG

26 posts

Geek

# 896817 17-Sep-2013 11:12

Unfortunately, my mate has already got a QL-550, and he wants to use that.

reven

3440 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 896823 17-Sep-2013 11:20

can you print a bitmap to it? if so you could render it yourself in the format you want then just get the printer to print that.

ShadyG

26 posts

Geek

# 896829 17-Sep-2013 11:30

I've just cracked it. The secret is in graphics, but not a bitmap, a Graphics object.

As always, the answer is usually in a few lines of code:

string sText = string.Empty;
//int iX = 10;
//int iY = 5;

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Font drawFont = new Font("Arial", 10);
switch (i)
{
case 1:
sText = "Recycled Junk Company";
e.Graphics.DrawString(sText, drawFont, Brushes.Black, 10, 5);
break;
case 2:
sText = "Article Name";
e.Graphics.DrawString(sText, drawFont, Brushes.Black, 10, 25);
break;
case 3:
sText = "Cost $100.00";
e.Graphics.DrawString(sText, drawFont, Brushes.Black, 10, 45);
break;
case 4:
drawFont = new Font("Free 3 of 9 Extended", 18);
sText = "20130917001";
e.Graphics.DrawString(sText, drawFont, Brushes.Black, 10, 75);
break;
}
}

I knew it would be something like that, I've read explanations on Google that run into hundreds of lines of code, and the developers manual from Brother need a PhD in ancient Abyssinian to use.

Any body wants to know how to address a label printer from C# - talk to me.