How to print QR Code using Commands with Zebra RW 420 thermal printer via USB in C#

Question

Before you go on and flag my question as a duplicate, believe me, its not. I have gone through virtually every solution provided here and I still can't get to get my app to work, so please will you just be nice and take some time to help me.

Scenario: I have a Zebra RW 420 thermal printer which I would like to use for printing vouchers with a QR Code on them. I am using C# and have followed all the help as given by Scott Chamberlain here and the code here for sending the commands to the printer. I have the EPL2 manual as well as the CPCL, and ZPL reference manuals with a whole lot of stuff on how to format my commands.

Problem: All the commands I am sending are either printing as plain text replicas of the commands or the printer just hangs with the small message icon showing on its display. I have tried sending the same commands using the Zebra Utilitis and still getting the same result as with my sample app. Below is the code snippets I have, please do advise me if there are any reference libraries I may require to get this to work.

private void btnPrint_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        string s = "! 0 200 200 500 1\nB QR 10 100 M 2 U 10\nMA,QR code ABC123\nENDQR\nFORM\nPRINT"; 

// Have also tried \\r\\n for the line feeds with the same result.

        // Allow the user to select a printer.
        PrintDialog pd = new PrintDialog();

        if ((bool)pd.ShowDialog())
        {
            var bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(s);
            // Send a printer-specific to the printer.
            RawPrinterHelper.SendBytesToPrinter(pd.PrintQueue.FullName, bytes, bytes.Length);
        }
    }

PrinterHelper class as modified by Scott here

public class RawPrinterHelper
{
    // Structure and API declarions:
    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
    public class DOCINFOA
    {
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] public string pDocName;
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] public string pOutputFile;
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] public string pDataType;
    }

    [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "OpenPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi,
        ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern bool OpenPrinter([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string szPrinter, out IntPtr hPrinter,
        IntPtr pd);

    [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "ClosePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true,
        CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern bool ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

    [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartDocPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi,
        ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern bool StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, Int32 level,
        [In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)] DOCINFOA di);

    [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndDocPrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true,
        CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern bool EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

    [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true,
        CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern bool StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

    [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true,
        CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern bool EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

    [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "WritePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true,
        CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    public static extern bool WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, byte[] pBytes, Int32 dwCount, out Int32 dwWritten);

    // SendBytesToPrinter()
    // When the function is given a printer name and an unmanaged array
    // of bytes, the function sends those bytes to the print queue.
    // Returns true on success, false on failure.
    public static bool SendBytesToPrinter(string szPrinterName, byte[] pBytes, Int32 dwCount)
    {
        Int32 dwError = 0, dwWritten = 0;
        IntPtr hPrinter = new IntPtr(0);
        DOCINFOA di = new DOCINFOA();
        bool bSuccess = false; // Assume failure unless you specifically succeed.

        di.pDocName = "Zebra Label";
        di.pDataType = "RAW";

        // Open the printer.
        if (OpenPrinter(szPrinterName.Normalize(), out hPrinter, IntPtr.Zero))
        {
            // Start a document.
            if (StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, di))
            {
                // Start a page.
                if (StartPagePrinter(hPrinter))
                {
                    // Write your bytes.
                    bSuccess = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, dwCount, out dwWritten);
                    EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
                }
                EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
            }
            ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
        }
        // If you did not succeed, GetLastError may give more information
        // about why not.
        if (bSuccess == false)
        {
            dwError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
            throw new Win32Exception(dwError);
        }
        return bSuccess;
    }

}

Answer 1

I did a lot of work on Zebra ZT230 and GX430t printers last year, and the thing I found out about them was using the ZPL instructions over TCP sockets via port 9100 was a LOT more reliable.

I know this is taking your conversation in a very different direction, but having tried the spool / Win32 approach I can tell you using sockets was a lot more reliable. Let me know if you need some sample code.

Answer 2

Wrote a kiosk application using a KR403 last year. I was able to successfully print and poll the status of the printer to see if there was a paper jam low paper etc via usb using the blog post below.

http://danielezanoli.blogspot.com/2010/06/usb-communications-with-zebra-printers.html

Using print spooler (Print only)

https://sharpzebra.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#src/Com.SharpZebra/Printing/RawPrinter.cs

I used the ZebraDesigner to do my initial layout. On the print screen inside the zebra designer there is a print to file option that will save your design as a txt file with ZPL in it. I then took that file broke it up into sections and created a helper class that uses a StringBuilder internally so I could focus on certain pieces of the zpl since it can be overwhelming to look at more than 1-2 lines.

var kioskTicketBuilder = new KioskTicketBuilder();
kioskTicketBuilder.SetPrinterDefaults();
kioskTicketBuilder.DisplayTicketHeader();
kioskTicketBuilder.DisplayInformationHeading(data.Name, data.todaysDate, data.ClientName, data.ClientCode);
kioskTicketBuilder.DisplayMoreStuff()
kioskTicketBuilder.DisplayBarcode(data.TrackingId);
kioskTicketBuilder.EndOfJob();
return kioskTicketBuilder.GetPrintJobToArray();

Also if you go to the the printer properties > Printing Defaults > Tools Tab There is an option to send a file of zpl to the printer or send individual commands. This is really good for testing your zpl seperate from your application.