Bitmap printing performance with Zebra printer

Question

I am trying to print a (fairly big) bitmap (827x1166) on a Zebra Technologies ZTC 140XiIIIPlus-200dpi with ZPL.

While printing of the bitmaps actually works, performance is quite bad. It takes more than a second (probably more than 1.5 seconds) until the print starts.

The network trace shows that more than a second is spend sending the 71 KB (via TCP 9100 WLAN - LAN) PNG. 343 ms are used waiting for the first ACK alone.

  ~DYR:xxx.PNG,p,p,35769,103,<hex png>
  ^XA
  ^PW827
  ^LH0,0
  ^LL1166
  ^FO0,0
  ^XGR:xxx.PNG,1,1
  ^XZ

Sending the image as GRF (increasing the data size to 250 KB) does not change that.

Any ideas?

Maybe the printer is doing some mumbojumbo trying to process the data and convert it or something. have you looked at the documentation: zebra.com/content/dam/zebra/manuals/printers/common/programming/… ... I'm not sure but for DY (p154) it states that the format should be B for bitmap. Also 35769B is not 71000B. Have you posted the wrong code by chance? — FalcoGer
The PNG is 36 KB. It is trasmitted as hex, therefore it has 71 KB. — Ruediger Jungbeck
Yes, you are quite right. Still a bitmap should be transmitted with the respective bitmap flags, no? — FalcoGer
Yes. According to ZPL docs it is f=p (PNG image) and x=p (stored as compressed PNG) — Ruediger Jungbeck

Ruediger Jungbeck Ruediger Jungbeck · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-10T15:57:36

Tests with newer printer models (eg Zebra ZT 410) have shown that there is no delay before printing starts. We have als switched to LPR protcol (to allow multiple computers to use the same printer).

Bitmap printing performance with Zebra printer

1 Answers