Sage 100

Has anyone had any success printing UPC codes from MAS? I have a UDF that stores the UPC code in CI_Item, I can even print the UPC code (formatted to look just like a UPC code) but the thing won't scan. I'm in the process of trying all of the Azalea fonts that come with workstation setup, but I wanted to check if anyone else had solved this already.

Is this on a thermal printer or laser?

And if thermal, what DPI is it?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought just Code 128 was included with workstation setup.

The customer will be printing these out on termal labels. I'm not sure what the DPI is - how can I determine that?

Could be a couple things - You have to create a formula in Crystal to print the code. Without the correct formula, it would print. The second is to verify that the field width is plenty wide.

If it will not scan then you have an issue in one of two areas. 1. The scanner is not setup to scan that type of bar code. Some are only setup to scan Code 39 and 128, by far the most popular. Other codes such as UPC have to be programmed into the scanner. 2. The bar code is not setup correctly. The formula might be incorrect or the font used is not correct. You might have a UPC Code formula but are using a Code128 font. 3. Some times the label is just not big enough, try increasing the size of the bar code.

If thermal DO NOT USE the Azalea font. Some thermals can handle it but my rule of thumb is not to use it. The printer treats the barcode as an image (where DPI comes in) and like a fax it might not be exactly what the barcode reader needs to read, although it looks all the same to us. I would usually setup the font in the printer driver. This allows for the font to be passed to the printer and the printer will draw the barcode.

Wow a lot of posting happened between the time I started to write and the time I posted.

Note that this is why I liked using Bartender which avoids situations like this.

@ToddMartin - if you don't use the Azalea font, are you purchasing another font? If so, which one? @JeffSchwenk - Are you saying that I need to create a formula in Crystal that just contains the UPC code?

No purchase of another font. It is done in the printer driver.Go to the driver and view the fonts. You would add a new font called Code128. Make all your settings there. Then go into the form and change the no printer setting to the thermal printer. You will see all the font you have on the printer listed. Choose the code128 you just created. Then you are done. This is also how you can speed up printing of the thermal label. Some thermals will pause. This pause is the download of the image to the thermal printer. Just as it downloaded the Barcode image it does the same thing for the fonts you use. If the font is native to the device it will not pause.

See my image of the printer properties. Click on Font | New barcode font.

Thanks everyone! I will give this a try and let you know what happens.

Except in your case it would be UPC font

I ran into a similar issue trying to generate barcoded receipt document in excel. Even though it looked like barcode it could not be scanned until the appropriate font was added to Excel.

@KateKrueger remember this? What was your solution? Did you use the C128 font or something else?

I believe I was able to get the C128 font to work, I just had to make sure it was added to the workstation and the printer and set as the Crystal font. I think that is what worked.

We had issues with it not scanning correctly unless the font size was set to 30.

Thanks - we'll see how it goes.

I agree with Therese - big is better. Also, make sure you size the field the proper width. You can always shrink it down once it starts scanning. I just looked at client form with SO # bar coded. Using Code 128VeryWide, the font size is 20 and the field width is 2.333 W X .33 H. It looks a little wide in designer but if your character width is variable (ci_Item) you should probably oversize it.