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[Bug 1439895] Re: QL-500 prints past end of label

 

The driver uses "MediaType" to identify whether the printer is being fed
with continuous paper tape (MediaType="roll") or die-cut labels
(MediaType="labels"). If the MediaType field in the CUPS page header
(cups_page_header_t) is set to "Labels" (case insensitive match), then
the driver is configured to tell the printer to accept die-cut labels.

The MediaType fed from CUPS is always an empty string, so the driver
assumes continuous paper rolls.

Also, the Label Preamble (only sent to QL series printers, explained in
the QL series reference manual on undocprint.) is incorrectly coded:

* ESC i z (1B-69-7A) "Specify print information" byte n1 defines which fields in the command are valid. This is always set to zero (normal) or 0x40 (high quality printing). The printer is never told that the paper type (continuous/diecut), width or length are valid.
* ESC i z (1B-69-7A) "Specify print information" byte n2 defines whether the printer is loaded with continuous paper tape (0x0A) or die-cut labels (0x0B). The driver uses the values 0x00 (continuous) and 0x01 (diecut).
* A comment in the driver asks "  /* WHY DON'T WE SET MARGIN (ESC i d ...)? */" -- good question. The QL manual specifies that for die-cut labels, the margin must be set to zero. For continuous tape, apparently we should set 35 dots.

Perhaps fixing the MediaType reading (so the driver correctly gets the
MediaType from CUPS) and the label preamble might get this working
properly?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1439895

Title:
  QL-500 prints past end of label

Status in ptouch-driver package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  The QL-500 label printer prints past the end of the label in the
  vertical (direction of feed) direction. This means that when you print
  e.g. an address label and use the label cutter, several things happen:

  1) Because the printer has printed past the end of the label, the head is positioned part-way into the next label
  2) Because the head is positioned part-way into the next label, the optical alignment sensor cannot see the black alignment marks on the back of the labels. This causes the printer to flag an alignment error when you next try to print a label.

  The effect is you can only print one label at a time.

  There is a patch included which reduces the Y resolution of the QL-550
  printer to 275 dpi. It seems like it may be necessary to extend this
  to the QL-500 too.

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References