Unit 1: Introduction
SATO GL4xxe SBPL Programming Reference Page 1-3
PRINT AREA CALCULATION
Many print applications may not require labels that fill the entire printable area of the printer.
Therefore it is important to understand how to calculate print size so that the printed image does
not exceed the label size.
There are two axis to consider when calculating for print position; horizontal and vertical. The
horizontal axis is lateral positioning parallel with the print head and is measured from the right
side of the media to the left. The vertical axis is the label length from the front to its rear.
This juncture point of the horizontal and vertical axis is referred to as the Base Reference Point
(or zero point) and all measurement is incremental along those axis’ from there. The allowable
ranges for these references is dependent on the particular printer to accommodate different print
widths and resolutions.
A1 COMMAND
The A1 command is the preferred method of configuring the printer for media size. If using media
smaller than the print head width, use this command to specify the media size and adjust the
start position corresponding to that. The backing paper must be included in media size
considerations. This command would be as follows:
<A1>aaaaabbbb
a = Height of Label
b = Width of Label
A3 COMMAND
Before beginning to send code, one must perform some simple calculations to determine print
positioning. Firstly, determine the print resolution and maximum print width of the printer. This
information is provided in the Technical Data unit of the Operator Manual and Service Manuals.
The print resolution of the print head has a direct bearing on the “dots per inch” (DPI) of print
density. The corresponding formula for a 203 Resolution print head on a printer with 4.1
Maximum Print Width would be:
Resolution (DPI) x Maximum Printable Width (Linear Inches) =
Maximum Printable Width (Linear Dots)
203 (DPI) x 4.1 (Linear Inches) = 832 (Linear Dots)
Once this is done, one must calculate the label width in linear dots. That formula would be as
follows for a 2 inch wide label:
Resolution (DPI) x Label Width (Linear Inches) =
Label Width (Linear Dots)
203 (DPI) x 2.0 (Linear Inches) = 406 (Linear Dots)
NOTE: The valid ranges for each of the above may be found in the product
manuals.
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