Developer Portal | OTF fonts on Link-OS printers

Submitted by John Priest on Mon, 04/22/2019 - 09:34

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The ZPL Programming Guide indicates the printers support OTF fonts by simply changing the file name extension to .TTF. I have not been able to get OTF fonts to work by any means. Any thoughts/ideas/tips/etc. please?

Thank You,

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:42

Dmitry Prokhorov

Hello John,Could you please

Hello John,

Could you please to share more details on your attempts? What is a model of your printer? How you get fonts downloaded to printer?

Have you checked your printer firmware version? Does it has a support for OTF/TTF fonts?

On a page 159 of ZPL manual in description of ~DY ZPL command you can see a following note:

https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra/manuals/printers/common/programming/zpl-zbi2-pm-en.pdf#page=159

.TTE and .OTF are only supported in firmware versions V60.14.x, V50.14.x, or later.

Also you may use Zebra Setup Utilities to download Fonts to a printer.

Dmitry Prokhorov

Software Engineer, Kutir Mobility

Posted on behalf of Zebra Technologies

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:42

(Reply to #2) #2

John Priest

Hi Dimitri:I’ve tried loading

Hi Dimitri:

I’ve tried loading OTF fonts on a ZD420 v84.20.15Z. The customer is using ZT610. The method to install the fonts would be the same for either but nothing I’ve tried works.

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:43

(Reply to #3) #3

Dmitry Prokhorov

Hello John,What exactly do

Hello John,

What exactly do you mean as "nothing I’ve tried works"?

How exactly it doesn't work? What are steps you performed to make it work?

Could you please to share a photo of printed labels.

Dmitry Prokhorov

Software Engineer, Kutir Mobility

Posted on behalf of Zebra Technologies

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:42

(Reply to #4) #4

John Priest

Hi Dmitry. I don’t know how I

Hi Dmitry. I don’t know how I could be more clear. If there’s a specific test you’d like me to do, just ask and I will. If you’re able to print an OTF font on the printer please let me know how.

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:43

(Reply to #5) #5

Anonymous (not verified)

Hi John,This is how the OTF

Hi John,

This is how the OTF fonts work for me.

1. Download the free Montserrat OTF font, as example, from https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/list/popular

2. Unzip the file and rename the MontserratAlternates-Black.otf to MontserratAlternates-Black.ttf, for example.

3. Download the ZebraNet Bridge Enterprise.

4. Click Tools->Font Wizard, and use the Font Wizard to download the MontserratAlternates-Black.ttf to the E: drive on a QLn320 printer, for example.

5. Please note the filename of the font file is trancated to MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF.

6. Use the following ZPL to verify if the font is installed correctly.

^XA
^A3N,20,20,E:MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF
^FO10,10
^FDZebra Printer Fonts^FS
^A3N,10,10
^F010,150
^FDThis uses E:MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF^FS
^XZ

The above procedure works for me. Hope this helps.

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:42

(Reply to #6) #6

John Priest

Thanks much Steven. I

Thanks much Steven. I actually tried this procedure with the customer’s OTF font but it didn’t print. I’ll try it again with the font you used…

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:42

(Reply to #7) #7

John Priest

Well you gave me hope Steven

Well you gave me hope Steven but what printed is the default font A. That is exactly what happened when I tried this with the customer’s font so I changed the A2N to A@ as follows:

This works:

^XA

^A@,20,20,E:TT0003M_.TTF

^FO10,10

^{FDZebra Printer Fonts}FS

^A@,20,20

^FO10,30

^{FDThis uses E:TT0003M_.TTF}FS

^XZ

This prints a blank label:

^XA

^A@,20,20,E: MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF

^FO10,10

^{FDZebra Printer Fonts}FS

^A@,20,20

^FO10,30

^{FDThis uses E: MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF}FS

^XZ

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:42

(Reply to #8) #8

John Priest

I’ve got this figured out now

I’ve got this figured out now. The printer does not support OTF fonts. There are online tools available to convert OTF to TTF. A TTF font can be loaded onto the printer with an FTP put or by using one of Zebra’s font tools. To use the TTF font, the following two examples produce the same output:

^XA

^CW2,E:SANS_BOLD.TTF

^A2N,20,20

^FO10,30

^{FDZebra Printer Fonts}FS

^A2N,20,20

^FO010,50

^{FDThis uses E:SANS_BOLD.TTF}FS

^XZ

^XA

^A@,20,20, E:SANS_BOLD.TTF

^FO10,30

^{FDZebra Printer Fonts}FS

^A@,20,20

^FO010,50

^{FDThis uses E:SANS_BOLD.TTF}FS

^XZ

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:43

(Reply to #9) #9

Dmitry Prokhorov

Hello John and Steven,Since

Hello John and Steven,

Since your last response to me I performed a lot of experiments and I have to confirm you are right about it. It doesn't work in a way it was documented.

TLDR: It is able to print labels using pre-installed Z:0.TTF font and unable to print same labels using downloaded OTF fonts that were renamed to TTF before downloading. Also there are some issues with fonts downloading tools.

I used my ZQ320 for all tests:

For my experiments I used two OTF fonts:

1) Montserrat-Regular.otf https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/montserrat renamed to Montsera.ttf

2) Pecita.otf https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/pecita renamed to Pecita.ttf

Also I have them installed as Windows fonts.

First I attempted to print text block from ZebraDesigner using Pecita font. It was printed ok but with capturing ZPL output I discovered that ZebraDesigner get rendered it before sending to a printer and then have it sent as graphic field. It is using a ^GF command. So it isn't that was needed.

Next moment I attempted to download OTF fonts (renamed to TTF) to my printer using Zebra Fonts Downloader. I created a new card and selected a ZPL driver for my printer. When I selected Fonts->Add from menu it offered me two options:

Initially I selected "Download all characters" option and discovered that my fonts are not in the list of available fonts despite a fact they were successfully installed as Windows fonts:

Also there was no option to enter a name of font manually. So I decided to try option "Download selected characters" and next moment it showed me installed fonts among others. Also, for some reason it asked me about needed font size:

I selected Fonts->Download from menu and successfully downloaded them to my printer. I used ^WDE:*.* command to print all files on printer drive E: and discovered that fonts were converted to non-scaled fonts MON000.FNT and PEC000.FNT

Next moment I attempted to download fonts to printer using Printer Tools from Zebra Setup Utilities. For some reason an option to copy files to a printer is available for CPCL driver only. There is no such option for ZPL driver despite the fact ZPL language has respective commands. So I used CPCL driver to download needed OTF fonts to my printer without converting them to FNT fonts:

Also I successfully downloaded Pecita font to my printer using following ZPL command:

~DYE:PECITA01,A,T,862520,1,T,<BASE64 DATA GOES HERE..>

As result I have following fonts in my printer:

Then I attempted to print label. Using FNT fonts made of OTF ones it was able to print labels with following commands:

^XA
^CI28
^FO10,10
^A@N,10,15,E:MON000.FNT
^FB450,5,,
^FDThis text has been\&printed using the\&MON000.FNT font^FS
^XZ
^XA
^CI28
^FO10,10
^A@N,10,15,E:PEC000.FNT
^FB450,4,,
^FDThis text has been\&printed using the\&PEC000.FNT font^FS
^XZ

And it is totally unable to print the same labels using TTF fonts with following commands:

^XA
^CI28
^FO10,10
^A@N,10,15,E:MONTSERA.TTF
^FB450,5,,
^FDThis text has been\&printed using the\&MONTSERA.TTF font^FS
^XZ
^XA
^CI28
^FO10,10
^A@N,10,15,E:PECITA.TTF
^FB450,4,,
^FDThis text has been\&printed using the\&E:PECITA.TTF font^FS
^XZ

It printed them totally empty. I suggested there could be something wrong with a way I downloaded TTF fonts to printer in CPCL mode. So I decided to try a TTF font I have downloaded with ~DYE:PECITA01,A,T ZPL command:

^XA
^CI28
^FO10,10
^A@N,10,15,E:PECITA01.TTF
^FB450,4,,
^FDThis text has been\&printed using the\&E:PECITA01.TTF font^FS
^XZ

Resulted label was empty also.

However, I discovered it is able to print label using pre-installed Z:0.TTF font with following commands:

^XA
^CI28
^FO10,10
^A@N,60,45,Z:0.TTF
^FB450,4,,
^FDThis text has been\&printed using the\&Z:0.TTF font^FS
^XZ

Also, I have it tested with a following form of ZPL command: "^A3N,20,20,E:MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF". With ^A3 it is able to print a label but seems using a font that is associated with number 3 by default. It is definitely not the Pecita.ttf font:

^XA
^CI28
^FO10,10
^A3N,60,20,E:PECITA.TTF
^FB450,5,,
^FDThis text has been\&printed using the\&E:PECITA.TTF font^FS
^XZ

Dmitry Prokhorov

Software Engineer, Kutir Mobility

Posted on behalf of Zebra Technologies

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:43

(Reply to #10) #10

Anonymous (not verified)

Hi Dmitry, Thanks for the

Hi Dmitry,

Thanks for the thorough investigation and the very detailed explanation. I was misled when I saw the print from my “^A3N,20,20,E:MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF” statement. Now, I realize that the font printed out was not E:MONTSERRATALTERN.TTF font. It was the default font assigned to 3. So, I was wrong. The renaming of OTF to TTF doesn’t work. The documentation needs update.

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:43

(Reply to #11) #11

John Priest

Thanks Steven. There is no

Thanks Steven. There is no native font "3" so what you saw is the default font which is "A". I really appreciate you looking into this. How do we get the manual updated to reflect what we just learned?

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:43

(Reply to #12) #12

Dmitry Prokhorov

Hello John,Would like to add

Hello John,

Would like to add two cents more.. On a page 36 of release notes document for my printer firmware I able to see a following note:

https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra_new_ia/en-us/software-printer/firmware/en/release-notes/P1105470-002_LINK-OS_FW-…

ZPL Fonts: All standard ZPL fonts are available. Custom fonts must be True type (.ttf) only, Intellifont (.fnt) fonts are not supported.

Unsure it means OTF fonts are not supported but it could be the case. Also this note is for version V68.18.0Z of firmware and my firmware have version V81.20.10Z. No any mentions of OTF has been found in this document.

Dmitry Prokhorov

Software Engineer, Kutir Mobility

Posted on behalf of Zebra Technologies

Vote:

Tue, 05/14/2019 - 01:42

(Reply to #13) #13

John Priest

Thanks Dmitry. The ZPL manual

Thanks Dmitry. The ZPL manual needs to be updated so that the only reference it includes for OTF fonts is that they are not supported. It took me a lot of time to figure that out.

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OTF fonts on Link-OS printers