Microcom 322M - Manual (Page 83)

Chapter 9 Bar Codes
322M Operator’s Manual
79
9.1.19 PDF-417, TCI 46
The Portable Data File 417 or PDF-417 is a two-dimensional stacked symbology that is
capable of encoding the entire ASCII character set, 2710 digits, and up to 1108 bytes in a
single bar code. The requirements for generating a PDF-417 symbology are the text data,
placement information, size configuration, rotation, aspect ratio, and Error Correcting Code
or ECC. The character count (CC) parameter only has to be set to one character that will
be used as a placeholder and not printed. The PDF-417 format command (^D77) is used to
load the data as well as formatting instructions for the bar code and is placed on the first line
of the format.
The following format is used to generate a PDF-417 bar code:
^D77<CR>
:Text Data^[
Number_of_Rows<CR>
Number_of_Columns<CR>
Rotation<CR>
ECC_Percent<CR>
ECC_Level<CR>
Aspect_Ratio<CR>
This format is then followed by the placement instructions and text placeholder.
:Text Data^[
This parameter is where the desired data is placed and must be terminated with the “^[“
control code. The text data may include carriage returns and other control codes.
Number_of_Rows<CR>
This parameter specifies the number of rows used for rendering the PDF-417 symbology.
The PDF-417 symbology may have as few as 3 or as many as 90 rows with a default setting
of 90. A carriage return character must be used to terminate this field.
Number_of_Columns<CR>
This parameter specifies the number of columns used for rendering the PDF-417
symbology. The PDF-417 symbology may have 1 to 30 columns with a default setting of 30.
A carriage return character must be used to terminate this field.
Rotation<CR>
This parameter controls the rotation of the rendered PDF-417 symbology in 90-degree
increments. The valid arguments for this parameter would be 0, 90, 180 or 270 with the
default being set to 0. A carriage return character must be used to terminate this field.
ECC_Percent<CR>
The ECC_Percent parameter is used to set the percentage of overall data dedicated to the
Error Correction Control (ECC) of the PDF-417 symbology. This parameter has to be set to
0 if the ECC# method is desired. The default ECC% is set to 0. A carriage return character
must be used to terminate this field.