TEC Thermal Printer

erm... it only comes with parallel port :'(

I have no problems with accessing the parallel port, but I was just lazy to do a wrapper around all the functions... and thus, wondering if anyone has already done it ;-)

Do you know if the printer is OPOS compatible? (OPOS is one of the so called "standard" forms of commnuication for peripheral devices).
If it is I can point you to a link with an OPOS SDK that is easy to implement in Delphi.

Nope, unfortunately it doesn't support OPOS... good try though, I appreciate it.

Well, since you have the escape codes. you can use this code by Joe Hecht. It has been used
to send HP PCL escape codes directly to a printer. The file you print must have the escape
codes embedded in it.

Printing a file directly to a printer in Win32, code by Joe Hecht.
{Note that you have to include WinSpool in the uses clause}
 
procedure PrintFile(const sFileName: string);
const
  BufSize = 16384;
type
  TDoc_Info_1 = record
    pDocName: pChar;
    pOutputFile: pChar;
    pDataType: pChar;
  end;
var
  Count, BytesWritten: integer;
  hPrinter: THandle;
  Device : array[0..255] of char;
  Driver : array[0..255] of char;
  Port : array[0..255] of char;
  hDeviceMode: THandle;
  DocInfo: TDoc_Info_1;
  f: file;
  Buffer: Pointer;
begin
  Printer.PrinterIndex := -1;
  Printer.GetPrinter(Device, Driver, Port, hDeviceMode);
  if not WinSpool.OpenPrinter(@Device, hPrinter, nil) then exit;
  DocInfo.pDocName := 'MyDocument';
  DocInfo.pOutputFile := nil;
  DocInfo.pDatatype := 'RAW';
  if StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, @DocInfo) = 0 then
  begin
    WinSpool.ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
    exit;
  end;
  if not StartPagePrinter(hPrinter) then
  begin
    EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
    WinSpool.ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
    exit;
  end;
  Assign(f, sFileName);
  Reset(f, 1);
  GetMem(Buffer, BufSize);
  while not eof(f) do
  begin
    Blockread(f, Buffer^, BufSize, Count);
    if Count > 0 then
    begin
      if not WritePrinter(hPrinter, Buffer, Count, BytesWritten) then
      begin
        EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
        EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
        WinSpool.ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
        FreeMem(Buffer, BufSize);
        exit;
      end;
    end;
  end;
  FreeMem(Buffer, BufSize);
  EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
  WinSpool.ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
end;
 
*************************************
 procedure WriteRawStringToPrinter(PrinterName: String; S: String);
 var
   Handle: THandle;
   N: DWORD;
   DocInfo1: TDocInfo1;
 begin
 if not OpenPrinter(PChar(PrinterName), Handle, nil) then
   begin
   ShowMessage('error ' + IntToStr(GetLastError));
   Exit;
   end;
 with DocInfo do
   begin
   pDocName := PChar('test doc');
   pOutputFile := nil;
   pDataType := 'RAW';
   end;
 StartDocPrinter(Handle, 1, ocInfo);
 StartPagePrinter(Handle);
 WritePrinter(Handle, PChar(S), Length(S), N);
 EndPagePrinter(Handle);
 EndDocPrinter(Handle);
 ClosePrinter(Handle);
 end;
 
The PrinterName parameter must be the name of the printer as it is
installed. For example, if the name of the printer
is "HP LaserJet 5MP" then that is what you should pass.

Hey, DragonSlayer,
What model barcode printer?

Here is a post that may also help you:
{
From: "Toni Martir" <toni@NOSPAMpala.com>
Subject: Re: Controlling of print process on dot-matrix printer
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 00:05:57 +0100
Groups: borland.public.delphi.reporting-charting
}
To write to lpt1 is a bad idea, it blocs any other process and does not work
if the printer is already procesing a doc, and does not work for a remote
printer, use the print queue instead to send raw data, see bellow.

Or let the reporting engine do all the work for you:

http://reportman.sourceforge.net
http://reportman.sourceforge.net/doc/dotmatrix.html

Anyway here is the code you are looking for, this will send a text (with
escape codes if you want) to the printer queue of the current printer
(printerindex) bypassing the printer driver:

procedure SendControlCodeToPrinter(S: string);
var
 Handle, hDeviceMode: THandle;
 N: DWORD;
 DocInfo1: TDocInfo1;
 Device, Driver, Port: array[0..255] of char;
 PrinterName: string;
 buf:pchar;
 lbuf:integer;
begin
 Printer.GetPrinter(Device, Driver, Port, hDeviceMode);
 PrinterName := Format('%s', [Device]);
 if not OpenPrinter(PChar(PrinterName), Handle, nil) then
   RaiseLastOSError;
 try
  with DocInfo1 do
  begin
   pDocName := 'Control';
   pOutputFile := nil;
   pDataType := 'RAW';
  end;
  StartDocPrinter(Handle, 1, @DocInfo1);
  try
   lbuf:=length(s);
   buf:=Allocmem(lbuf+2);
   try
    copymemory(buf,Pchar(s),lbuf);
    if not WritePrinter(Handle, buf, lbuf, N) then
     RaiseLastOSError;
   finally
    freemem(buf);
   end;
  finally
   EndDocPrinter(Handle);
  end;
 finally
  ClosePrinter(Handle);
 end;
end;

Hi Eddie,

Actually I have all the list of Esc codes for the printer... as I mentioned earlier, the list is quite huge (200+ pages of Esc codes) and I do not have time to code them all in.

I know how to access the printer and send escape codes, but again as I said, I might not have time to code them all in. The Printer is TEC B-572.

I will leave this Q on for another 2-3 days, because by then, I would've finished creating the encapsulation of the ESC codes myself... :'(