Cash Register Printer Programming

I have never programmed for a point of sale printer..
i have made a program now all i need is to actually print to these printers (same printers as found at convenient stores)


1. do these printers follow a standard protocal? (if i programm for one will i have to program for different brand names or do they ship with drivers for windows)

2. what else should i watch out for..

any details or info you guys could give would be appreciated it

thanks.

Most of those printers are NOT supported by 32 bit drivers.
You can sometimes print to them via winspool or more often directly using the MSComm control. They are largely dot matrix
printers, some use heat technology. It's like print to an Epson MX-80, if that rings a bell. They all understand ascii 12 for formfeed, ascii 10 & 13 for linefeed/carriage return.

What we did for printers like this was to simply send straight ascii out the LPT or COM port using the escape api and winspool.

You may have noticed that when you add a printer windows asks if you want to print in DOS mode. If you enable DOS printing, you can use winspool (via the Escape api) or MSComm.

By the way, a lot of POS software is 16 bit Windows, ie, DOS.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kovan

I have never programmed for a point of sale printer..
i have made a program now all i need is to actually print to these printers (same printers as found at convenient stores)


1. do these printers follow a standard protocal? (if i programm for one will i have to program for different brand names or do they ship with drivers for windows)

2. what else should i watch out for..

any details or info you guys could give would be appreciated it

thanks.

---

I'm using an Epson Receipt printer en use the following code:

VB Code:

'Module modPrint
Option Explicit
 
Public Const PAGE_READONLY = &H2
Public Const SECTION_MAP_READ = &H4
Public Const FILE_MAP_READ = SECTION_MAP_READ
Public Const SIZE_BMIH = 40     'sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER)
Public Const SIZE_BMIFH = 14    'sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER)
Public Const OFF_BMOFFSET = 10    'offset to bmOffset
Public Const GENERIC_READ = &H80000000
Public Const FILE_SHARE_READ = &H1
Public Const OPEN_EXISTING = 3
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = &H80
Public Const DIB_RGB_COLORS = 0 '  color table in RGBs
Public Const SRCCOPY = &HCC0020 ' (DWORD) dest = source
Public Const PIXELS = 3
Public Const TWIPS = 1
Public Const WHITE = &HFFFFFF
Public Const NVIMAGE1_HEIGHT = 80
Public Const NVIMAGE2_HEIGHT = 80
Public Const NVIMAGE3_HEIGHT = 80
Public Const VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT = 2
 
'Constants for DEVMODE
Public Const CCHDEVICENAME = 32
Public Const CCHFORMNAME = 32
Public Const NULLPTR = 0&
Public Const DM_COLOR = &H800&
 
'Constants for PaperSource Setting
Public Const DM_MODIFY = 8
Public Const DM_IN_BUFFER = DM_MODIFY
Public Const DM_COPY = 2
Public Const DM_OUT_BUFFER = DM_COPY
Public Const DM_DEFAULTSOURCE = &H200
 
'Constants for DeviceCapabilities Getting
Public Const DC_BINS = 6
Public Const DC_BINNAMES = 12
Public Const DMBIN_USER = 256               '  device specific bins start here
 
'Constants for Create Font
Public Const LOGPIXELSY = 90
Public Const FW_NORMAL = 400
Public Const FW_DONTCARE = 0
Public Const DEFAULT_CHARSET = 1
Public Const OUT_DEFAULT_PRECIS = 0
Public Const CLIP_DEFAULT_PRECIS = 0
Public Const DEFAULT_QUALITY = 0
Public Const VERTRES = 10
 
'OS Version
Public iIsNT As Integer
Public Const VER_ISNT = 2
 
'Public Papameter
Public Const ENTR_TM_DRIVER = "EPSON TM"
Public Const ENTR_BA_DRIVER = "EPSON BA"
Public Const ENTR_EU_DRIVER = "EPSON EU"
Public Const ENTR_DM_DRIVER = "EPSON DM"
Public Const ENTR_RP_DRIVER = "EPSON RP"
 
'Font Lists
Public Const LF_FACESIZE = 32
Public Const LF_FULLFACESIZE = 64
 
' ntmFlags field flag
Public Const NTM_REGULAR = &H40&
Public Const NTM_BOLD = &H20&
Public Const NTM_ITALIC = &H1&
 
'  tmPitchAndFamily flag
Public Const TMPF_FIXED_PITCH = &H1
Public Const TMPF_VECTOR = &H2
Public Const TMPF_DEVICE = &H8
Public Const TMPF_TRUETYPE = &H4
 
Public Const ELF_VERSION = 0
Public Const ELF_CULTURE_LATIN = 0
 
'  EnumFonts mask
Public Const RASTER_FONTTYPE = &H1
Public Const DEVICE_FONTTYPE = &H2
Public Const TRUETYPE_FONTTYPE = &H4
 
'  RegOpenKeyEx
Public Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Public Const KEY_QUERY_VALUE = &H1
 
'  RegQueryValueEx
Public Const REG_SZ = 1                         ' Unicode nul terminated string
Public Const READ_CONTROL = &H20000
Public Const STANDARD_RIGHTS_READ = (READ_CONTROL)
Public Const KEY_ENUMERATE_SUB_KEYS = &H8
Public Const KEY_NOTIFY = &H10
Public Const SYNCHRONIZE = &H100000
Public Const STANDARD_RIGHTS_ALL = &H1F0000
Public Const KEY_SET_VALUE = &H2
Public Const KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY = &H4
Public Const KEY_CREATE_LINK = &H20
Public Const KEY_ALL_ACCESS = ((STANDARD_RIGHTS_ALL Or KEY_QUERY_VALUE Or KEY_SET_VALUE Or _
                KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY Or KEY_ENUMERATE_SUB_KEYS Or KEY_NOTIFY Or _
                KEY_CREATE_LINK) And (Not SYNCHRONIZE))
 
Public Const EX_CONTROL_FONT = "controlA"
Public Const EX_CONTROL_FILE = "\TMCTRLA.ini"
 
Public Type lstPrnFontTbl
    Name As String
    Size As Integer
End Type
 
Public lstPrnFont(253) As lstPrnFontTbl
Public FontColorFlag As Integer
Public TimerOverFlag As Integer
Public TitlePrint As Boolean
Public SelDriver As String
Public fntTitleName As String
 
'used with OpenPrinter command
Public Type DOC_INFO_1
        pDocName As String
        pOutputFile As String
        pDatatype As String
End Type
 
Type TEXTMETRIC
        tmHeight As Long
        tmAscent As Long
        tmDescent As Long
        tmInternalLeading As Long
        tmExternalLeading As Long
        tmAveCharWidth As Long
        tmMaxCharWidth As Long
        tmWeight As Long
        tmOverhang As Long
        tmDigitizedAspectX As Long
        tmDigitizedAspectY As Long
        tmFirstChar As Byte
        tmLastChar As Byte
        tmDefaultChar As Byte
        tmBreakChar As Byte
        tmItalic As Byte
        tmUnderlined As Byte
        tmStruckOut As Byte
        tmPitchAndFamily As Byte
        tmCharSet As Byte
End Type
 
Type BITMAPINFOHEADER '40 bytes
        biSize As Long
        biWidth As Long
        biHeight As Long
        biPlanes As Integer
        biBitCount As Integer
        biCompression As Long
        biSizeImage As Long
        biXPelsPerMeter As Long
        biYPelsPerMeter As Long
        biClrUsed As Long
        biClrImportant As Long
End Type
 
Type RGBQUAD
        rgbBlue As Byte
        rgbGreen As Byte
        rgbRed As Byte
        rgbReserved As Byte
End Type
 
Type BITMAPINFO
        bmiHeader As BITMAPINFOHEADER
        bmiColors(2) As RGBQUAD
End Type
 
Type DOCINFO
        cbSize As Long
        lpszDocName As String
        lpszOutput As String
End Type
 
Public Type OSVERSIONINFO
        dwOSVersionInfoSize As Long
        dwMajorVersion As Long
        dwMinorVersion As Long
        dwBuildNumber As Long
        dwPlatformId As Long
        szCSDVersion As String * 128      '  Maintenance string for PSS usage
End Type
 
Public Type DEVMODE
        dmDeviceName(1 To CCHDEVICENAME) As Byte
        dmSpecVersion As Integer
        dmDriverVersion As Integer
        dmSize As Integer
        dmDriverExtra As Integer
        dmFields As Long
        dmOrientation As Integer
        dmPaperSize As Integer
        dmPaperLength As Integer
        dmPaperWidth As Integer
        dmScale As Integer
        dmCopies As Integer
        dmDefaultSource As Integer
        dmPrintQuality As Integer
        dmColor As Integer
        dmDuplex As Integer
        dmYResolution As Integer
        dmTTOption As Integer
        dmCollate As Integer
        dmFormName(1 To CCHFORMNAME) As Byte
        dmUnusedPadding As Integer
        dmBitsPerPel As Integer
        dmPelsWidth As Long
        dmPelsHeight As Long
        dmDisplayFlags As Long
        dmDisplayFrequency As Long
End Type
 
Type LOGFONT
        lfHeight As Long
        lfWidth As Long
        lfEscapement As Long
        lfOrientation As Long
        lfWeight As Long
        lfItalic As Byte
        lfUnderline As Byte
        lfStrikeOut As Byte
        lfCharSet As Byte
        lfOutPrecision As Byte
        lfClipPrecision As Byte
        lfQuality As Byte
        lfPitchAndFamily As Byte
        lfFaceName(LF_FACESIZE) As Byte
End Type
 
Type NEWTEXTMETRIC
        tmHeight As Long
        tmAscent As Long
        tmDescent As Long
        tmInternalLeading As Long
        tmExternalLeading As Long
        tmAveCharWidth As Long
        tmMaxCharWidth As Long
        tmWeight As Long
        tmOverhang As Long
        tmDigitizedAspectX As Long
        tmDigitizedAspectY As Long
        tmFirstChar As Byte
        tmLastChar As Byte
        tmDefaultChar As Byte
        tmBreakChar As Byte
        tmItalic As Byte
        tmUnderlined As Byte
        tmStruckOut As Byte
        tmPitchAndFamily As Byte
        tmCharSet As Byte
        ntmFlags As Long
        ntmSizeEM As Long
        ntmCellHeight As Long
        ntmAveWidth As Long
End Type
 
Public Type wPRINTER_INFO_2
        pServerName As Long
        pPrinterName As Long
        pShareName As Long
        pPortName As Long
        pDriverName As Long
        pComment As Long
        pLocation As Long
        pDevMode As Long
        pSepFile As Long
        pPrintProcessor As Long
        pDatatype As Long
        pParameters As Long
        pSecurityDescriptor As Long
        Attributes As Long
        Priority As Long
        DefaultPriority As Long
        StartTime As Long
        UntilTime As Long
        Status As Long
        cJobs As Long
        AveragePPM As Long
End Type

VB Code:

Public Declare Function ClosePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function EndDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function EndPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function OpenPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "OpenPrinterA" (ByVal pPrinterName As String, phPrinter As Long, ByVal pDefault As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function StartDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "StartDocPrinterA" (ByVal hPrinter As Long, ByVal Level As Long, pDocInfo As DOC_INFO_1) As Long
Public Declare Function StartPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function WritePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal hPrinter As Long, pBuf As Any, ByVal cdBuf As Long, pcWritten As Long) As Long
Public Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
Public Declare Function CreateFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateFileA" (ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal dwShareMode As Long, lpSecurityAttributes As Any, ByVal dwCreationDisposition As Long, ByVal dwFlagsAndAttributes As Long, ByVal hTemplateFile As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function CreateFileMapping Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateFileMappingA" (ByVal hFile As Long, lpFileMappigAttributes As Any, ByVal flProtect As Long, ByVal dwMaximumSizeHigh As Long, ByVal dwMaximumSizeLow As Long, ByVal lpName As String) As Long
Public Declare Function MapViewOfFile Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hFileMappingObject As Long, ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal dwFileOffsetHigh As Long, ByVal dwFileOffsetLow As Long, ByVal dwNumberOfBytesToMap As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function StartDoc Lib "gdi32" Alias "StartDocA" (ByVal hdc As Long, lpdi As DOCINFO) As Long
Public Declare Function StartPage Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function EndPage Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function EndDoc Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function StretchDIBits Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal X As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal dx As Long, ByVal dy As Long, ByVal SrcX As Long, ByVal SrcY As Long, ByVal wSrcWidth As Long, ByVal wSrcHeight As Long, ByVal lpBits As Long, lpBitsInfo As Any, ByVal wUsage As Long, ByVal dwRop As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function UnmapViewOfFile Lib "kernel32" (lpBaseAddress As Any) As Long
Public Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Public Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (hpvDest As Any, hpvSource As Any, ByVal cbCopy As Long)
Public Declare Function GetTextMetrics Lib "gdi32" Alias "GetTextMetricsA" (ByVal hdc As Long, lpMetrics As TEXTMETRIC) As Long
Public Declare Function GetVersionEx Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetVersionExA" (lpVersionInformation As OSVERSIONINFO) As Long
Public Declare Function TextOut Lib "gdi32" Alias "TextOutA" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal X As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal nCount As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function DocumentProperties Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "DocumentPropertiesA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal hPrinter As Long, ByVal pDeviceName As String, pDevModeOutput As Any, pDevModeInput As Any, ByVal fMode As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function ResetDC Lib "gdi32" Alias "ResetDCA" (ByVal hdc As Long, lpInitData As Any) As Long
Public Declare Function CreateDC Lib "gdi32" Alias "CreateDCA" (ByVal lpDriverName As String, ByVal lpDeviceName As String, ByVal lpOutput As Long, ByVal lpInitData As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function DeleteDC Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function DeviceCapabilities Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "DeviceCapabilitiesA" (ByVal lpDeviceName As String, ByVal lpPort As String, ByVal iIndex As Long, lpOutput As Any, ByVal dev As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function CreateFont Lib "gdi32" Alias "CreateFontA" (ByVal H As Long, ByVal W As Long, ByVal E As Long, ByVal O As Long, ByVal W As Long, ByVal i As Long, ByVal u As Long, ByVal S As Long, ByVal C As Long, ByVal OP As Long, ByVal CP As Long, ByVal Q As Long, ByVal PAF As Long, ByVal F As String) As Long
Public Declare Function MulDiv Lib "kernel32" (ByVal nNumber As Long, ByVal nNumerator As Long, ByVal nDenominator As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function GetDeviceCaps Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SelectObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Declare Function EnumFontFamilies Lib "gdi32" Alias "EnumFontFamiliesA" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal lpszFamily As String, ByVal lpEnumFontFamProc As Long, LParam As Any) As Long
Declare Function GetPrivateProfileSection Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileSectionA" (ByVal lpAppName As String, lpReturnedString As Byte, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Declare Function GetPrintProcessorDirectory Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "GetPrintProcessorDirectoryA" (ByVal pName As String, ByVal pEnvironment As String, ByVal Level As Long, pPrintProcessorInfo As Byte, ByVal cdBuf As Long, pcbNeeded As Long) As Long
Declare Function SetTextColor Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal crColor As Long) As Long
Declare Function RegOpenKeyEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegOpenKeyExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String, ByVal ulOptions As Long, ByVal samDesired As Long, phkResult As Long) As Long
Declare Function RegQueryValueEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegQueryValueExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpValueName As String, ByVal lpReserved As Long, lpType As Long, lpData As Byte, lpcbData As Long) As Long
    ' Note that if you declare the lpData parameter as String, you must pass it By Value.
Declare Function RegCloseKey Lib "advapi32.dll" (ByVal hKey As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function GetPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias "GetPrinterA" (ByVal hPrinter As Long, ByVal Level As Long, ByRef pPrinter As Byte, ByVal cbBuf As Long, pcbNeeded As Long) As Long
Public Declare Sub MoveMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (ByRef hpvDest As Any, ByRef hpvSource As Any, ByVal cbCopy As Long)
Public Declare Function StringLen Lib "kernel32" Alias "lstrlenA" (ByVal lpString As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function StringCpy Lib "kernel32" Alias "lstrcpyA" (ByVal lpString1 As String, ByVal lpString2 As Long) As Long
    
'Printer Font Table
Public lstPrnFontTbl() As String
Public lstDMDFontTbl() As String
Public Function EnumGetFontCount(lpNLF As LOGFONT, lpNTM As NEWTEXTMETRIC, ByVal FontType As Long, LParam As Integer) As Long
    LParam = LParam + 1
    EnumGetFontCount = 1
End Function
 
Public Function EnumGetFontName(lpNLF As LOGFONT, lpNTM As NEWTEXTMETRIC, ByVal FontType As Long, LParam As Integer) As Long
    Dim FaceName As String
    
    FaceName = StrConv(lpNLF.lfFaceName, vbUnicode)
    lstPrnFontTbl(LParam) = Left$(FaceName, InStr(FaceName, vbNullChar) - 1)
    
    LParam = LParam + 1
    EnumGetFontName = 1
End Function
 
Public Function EnumGetDMDFontName(lpNLF As LOGFONT, lpNTM As NEWTEXTMETRIC, ByVal FontType As Long, LParam As Integer) As Long
    Dim FaceName As String
    
    FaceName = StrConv(lpNLF.lfFaceName, vbUnicode)
    lstDMDFontTbl(LParam) = Left$(FaceName, InStr(FaceName, vbNullChar) - 1)
    
    LParam = LParam + 1
    EnumGetDMDFontName = 1
End Function
 
 
'Class or form
Private Sub PrintBon()
    Dim oPrinter As Printer
    
    For Each oPrinter In Printers
        If oPrinter.DeviceName = "KASSAPRINTER" Then 'The name of your POS printer.
            Set Printer = oPrinter
            GoTo GoPrint
            Exit Sub
        End If
    Next
    
    Exit Sub
 
GoPrint:
    
    Printer.Print
    Printer.CurrentY = 0
    Printer.ScaleMode = PIXELS
    
    Screen.MousePointer = 11
    Printer.Font.Name = "FontA11"
    Printer.Font.Size = 10
    
    Printer.Print "================================="
    Printer.Print "This is a Test.!"
    Printer.Print "================================="
   
    Printer.EndDoc
End Sub

thank you hassa046