| 摘要 |
A printer has a computer system which stores and uses multiple application programs. The printer may be a label printer which includes a printing mechanism, and a computer for controlling the printer mechanism and the advancement of label stock for the printer mechanism to print labels on the label stock. Coupled to the printer may be a barcode scanner controllable by the computer. The system includes a memory accessible by the computer which stores a plurality of application programs. Each of the application programs contains instructions which are executable by the computer to operate the printer. An application program can be selected by a user, or a host computer interfaced to the printer, or automatically by the printer, for execution by the computer. Utility files are also stored in the memory separate from the application programs which may include data and programs utilized by the selected application program. Such utility files include programs for barcode decoding, barcode encoding, and character rendering. The barcode decoding program utilizes Direct Memory Access (DMA) of the computer to capture values of a timer in the computer upon each transition in a scan data signal from the barcode scanner. The captured values are stored and then decoded to provide barcode data representing one or two-dimensional barcodes. The character rendering program provides for scaling of characters, defined in font files, to desired sizes. A graphical user interface may be used on the host computer interfaced to the printer to select various parameters of printer operation.
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