Printing Labels 

Use

You want to print labels (for example, shipping labels or barcode labels) on a special printer. Release 4.6A allows you to create labels using an external design program and to print them from within a SAPscript form.

Prerequisites

Nearly all special label printers on the market use individual control languages, for which no printer drivers exist in the SAP Standard. To be able to address these label printers from within the R/3 system nevertheless, you use an external program to define the entire layout.

Activities

  1. Create the label using a design program: Define the entire layout of the label, including the fields you later want to fill from within the R/3 system.
  2. Download the print file: Export the data using the printer commands of the design program. The printer commands must be in ASCII format, that is, you can use only printable characters plus carriage return, line feed, and, maybe, form feed. In addition, the file must not comprise more than 80 characters per line; otherwise unwanted line feeds may occur during upload. There must be no binary control characters (for example, escape).
  3. Upload the print file into the SAPscript form: Upload the print file into a SAPscript standard text. However, you use this standard text as "intermediate storage" only. Then copy the text into a SAPscript form. In the form, enter variables of the print program (program symbols) in those places where you want variable data to appear in the label. At runtime, the system fills these variables with the current field values from the application program.
  4. Adapt the form: For most label printers you must adapt the form; for example, you must enlarge the MAIN window to maximum page size and delete all other windows. In addition, the MAIN window should contain only one single text element: the imported print file.
  5. Create an output device: Define an output device for label printing. As device type use either ASCIIPRI or one of the special device types for label printers.

The subsequent topics tell you how to create labels for the individual printer types and how to print them from within SAPscript.