Printing to a dot matrix printer in draft mode - PHP - php

Question

I have a PHP web application which an option of generating invoices. The Problem is i need to print the invoices using the dot matrix printer in draft mode. I have tries, but it prints like a normal printer with bigger fonts. simply it prints in the format as same in the page.
I need to print like receipts. Do I need to format anything with the PHP?

Answer 1

Well, I think you need to print in raw mode.
I do not claim I have completely solved this issue but here are my tries.
Firstly, there should be a "generic / text only" driver on the system where the dot matrix printer is connected to, probably in port LPT1.
Secondly, you should send ESCP commands to the printer and not use the build in processes of php to print.
You could for example create an array of 135 * 66 characters, where 135 is the usual page width in characters and 66 the usual number of printing lines (on a 24 pin dot matrix printer with a 8-1/2" x 12" paper size). You should be careful to fill the array with characters and not with strings, lie this:
$GRAND_ARRAY = array();
$maxCharactersPerLine = 135;
$maxLines = 66;
//initialize the array with spaces and the last column of \r\n
for($i=0; $i<$maxLines; $i++){
$pos = $i*$maxCharactersPerLine + ($maxCharactersPerLine-1) + $i + 1;
$value = "\r\n";
$this->printChars($GRAND_ARRAY, $pos, $value);
}
//make an array that fits every one character of the page
//plus a column for the "next line" character
$totalCells = $maxCharactersPerLine * $maxLines + $maxLines - 1;
//what you want to print
$value = "name:"; //here is a string with 5 characters
//where you want to print it on the page
//$line = 2
//$column = 5
//consider that array starts at 0 and not 1
//$pos = ($column - 1) * $maxCharactersPerLine + $line + $column - 2;
$pos = 275; //position is 5th character in line 2
//do not just $GRAND_ARRAY[$pos] = $value because you should
//make sure that every array cell has only one character
$this->printChars($GRAND_ARRAY, $pos, $value, 1);
// also included a flag if you want to print only the $limit characters of $newstring
public function printChars(&$mainArray, $start, $newString, $limit=0){
$j = $start;
$charsArray = $this->mb_str_split($newString);
//$len = mb_strlen($newString, "UTF-8"); //can't remember why not this
$len = count($charsArray);
for($i=0; $i<$len; $i++){
if($limit > 0 && $limit < $i){
return;
}else{
$mainArray[$j] = $charsArray[$i];
$j = $j + 1;
}
}
}
//this I found here on s.o. i think.
public function mb_str_split( $string ) {
# Split at all position not after the start: ^
# and not before the end: $
return preg_split('/(?<!^)(?!$)/u', $string );
}
After creating the array I used qz-print plugin (https://code.google.com/p/jzebra/) that includes javascript functions and a java applet in order to send this array to the "generic / text only" dot matrix printer in the client.
The javascript function I use is:
//just before that, I turn the array into string str.
function printESCP2(str, type, quality, pitch, line_spacing, topOffset, commands) {
if (notReady()) { return; }
qz.appendHex("x1Bx40"); //ESC # for reset settings
var j = commands.length;
for(var k=0;k<j;k++){
console.log(':'+commands[k]);
qz.appendHex(commands[k]);
}
if(topOffset){
if(topOffset > 0){
alert("topOffset: "+topOffset);
for(var k=0; k<topOffset; k++){
qz.appendHex("x0D"); //CR for carriage return
qz.appendHex("x0A"); //LF for line feed
}
}
}
if(quality == <?php echo SettingsPrinter::FONT_QUALITY_LQ; ?>){
alert("font quality: LQ");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx78x31"); // ESC x 1 for LQ (31=1)
}else{
alert("font quality: draft");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx78x30"); // ESC x 0 for Draft (30=0)
}
if(line_spacing == <?php echo SettingsPrinter::PRINTER_LINE_SPACING_NARROW; ?>){
//alert("line spacing: narrow (1/8)");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx30"); //ESC 0 for line spacing minimum (1/8)
}else{
//alert("line spacing: normal (1/6)");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx32"); //ESC 2 for line spacing normal (1/6)
}
switch(pitch){
case '<?php echo SettingsPrinter::FONT_PITCH_10; ?>':
alert("pitch: 10");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx50"); //ESC P for pitch 10 cpi
break;
case '<?php echo SettingsPrinter::FONT_PITCH_12; ?>':
alert("pitch: 12");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx4D"); //ESC M for pitch 12 cpi
break;
case '<?php echo SettingsPrinter::FONT_PITCH_15; ?>':
alert("pitch: 15");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx67"); // ESC g for pitch 15 cpi
break;
case '<?php echo SettingsPrinter::FONT_PITCH_17; ?>':
alert("pitch: 17");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx50"); //ESC P for pitch 10 cpi
qz.appendHex("x0F"); // SI for condensed resulting in pitch 17 cpi
break;
case '<?php echo SettingsPrinter::FONT_PITCH_20; ?>':
alert("pitch: 20");
qz.appendHex("x1Bx4D"); //ESC M for pitch 12 cpi
qz.appendHex("x0F"); // SI for condensed resulting in pitch 20 cpi
break;
default:
alert("pitch unknown -- not set");
break;
}
qz.append(str);
qz.appendHex("x0D"); //CR for carriage return
qz.appendHex("x1Bx40"); //ESC # for reset settings
window["qzDoneAppending"] = function() {
// Tell the apple to print.
qz.print();
// Remove any reference to this function
window['qzDoneAppending'] = null;
};
}
One can actually create the array of characters-to-print as a two dimension array and ommit the last column of \r\n as I think this is not well accepted by all dot matrix printers. In that case one should do
//for each line of the array
qz.append($line); //line-1 turned into string, line-2 etc
qz.appendHex("x0D"); //CR for carriage return after each line
One problem that I came across is that if the user chose 17CPI then every character holds less space in the paper. This means that you cannot depend on one space characters to spread your data across the entire page in this case.
If anyone thinks they can contribute to this they are most welcome.