Methods of printing special characters in ZPL2 without installing a font pack.

Goals:  

Provide examples with explanations on printing special characters.

Facts or Affected Items: 

ZPL2 Printers, ^FH and ^CI commands, Code Page 850, ZPL2 Programmers Manual

Changes:

N/A

Details

There are several ways to print characters in the upper 128 range of Code Page 850. Below are a few examples.

These examples should print the lower case "a" with a circumflex: (â)

^FH (Field Hex) allows you to send the hexadecimal value for any character in the Code Page 850 set. 

Format: ^FHa

Parameters:

a = hexadecimal indicator
Accepted Values: any characters except current format and control prefix (^ and ~ by default).
Default Value: _ (underscore) Typical values are _ or \

Example:

^XA
^FO20,20^A0N,50,50^FH_^FD_83^FS
^XZ

^CI (Change International Font) allows you to substitute characters from different character sets and  re-map characters from one code page with x.10 firmware or higher.

For X.8 or higher firmware using the ^CI command to change the character set to Latin 2:

Format: ^CIa

Parameters:

a = Desired Character Set

Example:

^XA
^FO20,70^CI8^A0N,50,50^FD[^FS
^XZ

For X.10 or higher using ^CI command to substitute a character Hex value 131 for a character Hex value 97

Format: ^CIa,s1,d1,s2,d2,...

Parameters:

a = Desired Character Set
s1 = source 1 (character position to be remapped)
d1 = destination 1 (new position for the character referred to in s1)
s2 = source 2 (character position to be remapped)
d2 = destination 2 (new position for the character referred to in s1)
... = continuation of pattern (up to 156 source and destination pairs may be used).

^XA
^CI0,131,97
^FO20,120^A0N,50,50^FDa^FS
^XZ

Notice: Zebra Technologies Corporation makes no representations about the suitability of this documentation for any purpose. It is provided "as is", for your information only, without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Date Updated:  10/09/2010 08:52:26 AM