Receipt Printer Setup
Horizon receipt printers have three points of setup: a. b. c. Windows printer setup. Horizon receipt printer options in circulation. Circ Slip setup in the table editor
Windows 2000/XP printer setup
Go to Start -> Settings -> Printers to get to the Windows printer dialog box below:
To install the printer, click the “add new printer” option and follow the instructions. Uncheck the “Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play Printer” box. When prompted to do so, choose local machine, not networked printer. Choose the port. For parallel printers, choose “lpt1”, for serial printers choose “com1” or “com2”. The following cable types will help determine parallel and serial type printers.
Parallel printer cable
Serial printer cable
The parallel printer cable plugs into the printer port on the PC and the serial cable plugs into one of the com ports on the PC. Com ports may be either 25 pin ports as shown in the illustration above or a smaller 9 pin port. When asked to choose a printer, choose “generic” for the manufacturer, and “generic/text only” for printers. If the printer has already been installed, it will probably work as it is. If a different printer driver than generic/text only has been installed and there is trouble formatting the receipts, change the driver to generic/text only and try again. We have had the best luck with the “generic/text only” driver. After the printer is installed, click on the printer once with the mouse pointer to select it, go to the File menu at the top of the window, click, choose „Server Properties‟ to get to the following window: Note the Advanced tab gives the driver that is installed and provides a button (New Driver) which will allow you to change the driver.
The Device Setting tab provides the opportunity to choose the forms used by the printer. For the receipt printer it will always be a continuous form listed as Cont. Feed-No Break Forms are created by going to the general tab of the window at left and creating the form.
Click the Create a New Form and fill in the measurements below: Print a name in the Form Description box Then save the form.
The above window can also be used to create the forms for notices. The only change is the dimensions that are put in the measurements. Also note that the width of the receipt printer forms varies. If 3.00 in is to narrow, modify the form accordingly.
Horizon receipt printer options in circulation:
Note: If you are unable to choose “Change Receipt Options” (it is grayed out), contact the Automation Department at Lincoln Trail and ask to have Receipt Printing ability enabled for your Horizon user ID and for any other Horizon users that will need the ability to print slips and receipts when logged into Horizon.
This window is found in the Circulation module under: Tools -> ChangeReceipt Options. You will need to have the CKO window open to see this option. Every printer has what are called escape codes that control how the printer works. For example, there is a code that tells the printer to advance the paper one line. Another code that advances the paper several lines known as a form feed. Another code would start underline printing or italic printing and so on. Not all printers use the same codes for the same functions. Therefore we need a way to send the proper codes to each printer and so we have this set up window for each workstation that uses a receipt printer. The information that is placed in the windows at the left are specific to the printer attached to the work station. In the circ slip setup we entered a field type for a linefeed. When Horizon encounters that code during the printing of the circ slip, it comes to this setup to find the proper code to cause the printer to advance the paper one line. The following are the most common settings for Receipt Options: 1. Check the box at the very top labeled: Allow Printing of Slips and Receipts. 2. Look at the receipts labeled “Print Automatically.” Check any of the receipts there that the library wants to print automatically. An example of one that is used often is the Hold Slip. The Due Date Slip is not used often. It will print one receipt for every book that is checked out. It is designed to be printed and inserted into each book as a due date slip. More often libraries are interested in the group check out receipt. It is printed after all the books are checked out and the operator presses the F11 key. 3. Next check the appropriate port. The most common setting is LPT1. Check Windows Printing Only if the printing is being done on a networked printer instead of a local printer. 4. Leave the Prefix Escape Sequence empty. 5. Put /10 for the Line Feed Escape Sequence. /10 is by far the most common entry for this option. On some printers the /10 only advances the paper one line and does not do a carriage return. On those printers put /10/13 in this area. The /10 does a linefeed, and /13 does the carriage return. Always try /10 first. If neither of the escape sequences work, you will have to get a manual for the printer to determine the escape sequence for line feed. I have noticed that the newer printer manuals do not have the escape sequences printed. We may have to go to support for the manufacturer to get those codes. If you do that, be sure and share with everyone what those codes for that manufacturer and model. BTW, some printers made by the same manufacturer have different codes.
6. Put /12 for the Form Feed Escape Sequence. This one is not very critical because I recommend using several line feeds instead of a form feed. One library had two different printers only one of which had form feed capabilities. Receipts were set up using the code for form feed and only one would work. By using a series of line feeds, both were made to work fine. 7. The two most common entries for Cut Paper Escape Sequence are: /27/105 and /27/109 Again if neither of these work we have to get our hands on a manual or contact the manufacturer. This field only applies to those printers that have a paper cutter. 8. The Replacement Character should be left as it is. If the printer is asked to print a character it has no code for, it will substitute DF, which will print a small back square where the character would have been. The printer codes are listed in the manuals as hexadecimal numbers. Hexadecimal numbers have a base of 16 instead of decimal numbers, which we are familiar with, which have a base of 10. The codes in horizon are decimal number equivalents of the hexadecimal codes that the printer uses.
Circ Slip setup in the table editor:
Note: The Table Editor can only be accessed by LTLS Automation Staff. If you wish to customize your circ slips, please contact someone on the Automation Staff and be prepared to describe the changes you desire. Customization usually requires some experimenting.
The illustration to the left shows the fourteen different circulation slips from the “circ_slip” table. The most commonly used circulation slip is number 3, “ckogrp”. This is the slip that is used to print a group of items checked out at a particular session. Each slip used, needs to be set up for every location in the library system. See the attached example of the lines for the “ckogrp” slip for location main. Similar setup would be required for each of the other locations that are using the checkout
receipt. There are three sections for each circulation slip: Header, Body, and Footer. The header prints once for each receipt, the body will repeat for each title printed on the receipt and the footer will print once for each receipt. This illustration is from the table editor and represents one line on the attached
example of the lines for the “ckogrp” slip. The codes button for Field Type will give the field types that are available for the slips. Columns from item table, borrower table and location table can be used on circ slips by choosing field type “ltable” for location table, “btable” for borrower table, and “itable” for item table and then adding the column name in the column box. The field type “linfeed” is used to indicate a line feed. When Horizon comes to the “linfeed” field type, it sends the code to the printer that will cause it to advance the paper one line. Another field type is “frmcut”, which will issue the command to cut the paper for printers that have a cutter. The field type “frmfeed” will issue the command to do a form feed. I recommend not using “frmfeed” but instead using 6 to ten line feeds at the end of the circ slip setup. Experiment with the number of form feed required to move the paper up to the point that it can be torn off or cut by the cutter at the proper spot. The field type literal will print on the receipt the information in the label box. On the footer the library may want to include literal fields with the library phone number and hours etc.