Re: Question on printing from System i to "UPS" thermal printer

It's been a long time since I let UPS provide a printing solution for me (I use a 3rd party solution right now) but when we did use UPS's solution, they were using Eltron printers.

You'll need to buy (or write) software that lets you design labels that can be converted to Eltron's printer language, and then printed on the printer. I believe T.L. Ashford's Barcode400 is one such software package (www.barcode400.com). We use TL Ashford with Datamax printers, and it works nicely there, so I'd expect Eltron to be similar.

The other factor is determining how it must be connected to the System i. I believe UPS sends them connected to a PC, so I guess you could have i5/OS send the spooled data to the PC, and have the PC relay it to the printer. OR, you might look into getting a print server and eliminating the PC (that's what I'd do). But, whatever connectivity you choose, I'd check with T.L. Ashford (or whatever software you end up with) and make sure that they support that configuration.

Of course, if you plan to write your own software, you can do whatever you want :) But, be aware that you'll have to code the output in Eltron's printer language, you probably won't be able to send a standard report from an ordinary program. (at least, that's been my experience with thermal printers -- IBM doesn't give you a host print transform or anything like that.)


Chuck Lewis wrote:

What is involved in printing from the System i to a Thermal of the
variety used by UPS ?