Supplemental Information for the Japanese Font

This information explains how to print the scalable Japanese font. All other printer operations are iden-tical to those presented in the User’s Guide. It is assumed that the user is already familiar with generalprinter operation presented in that manual, the Zebra Programming Language (ZPL), and the ASCII-based ZPL command structure as presented in theZPL II Programming Guide. These instructions arebased on the ability to send 8-bit values to the printer.

Note: If your font is on a font card, the card must be inserted into the memory cardinterface. Follow the installation instructions supplied with the font card.

If your font is on an EPROM, the chip must be plugged into the appropriate ICsocket. Follow the installation instructions supplied with the EPROM.

If your font is supplied on disk or created from ZTools, the font must be down-loaded to the printer. An encoding table must also be downloaded. This tablecan be created with ZTools or supplied with ZTools for standard encodings.

The Japanese Language

Kanji is the official (non-phonetic) Japanese written language encompassing thousands of ideographs.An ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. A Kanji character may be a singleimage or a composition of several images.

Today’s written Japanese language embraces two basic components: Kana (phonetic characters) andKanji (ideographs). Due to the size and complexity of the Japanese language, and its need to continu-ously evolve to express new ideas, a system of written phonetic representation was coupled with ideo-graphs to form a complete written language.

Kana is a syllabary representing a phonetic alphabet for the complete Japanese language. This syllabaryis comprised of two phoneme subsets:

• Katakana: Angular characters representing foreign names and words.• Hiragana: Rounded characters representing all native Japanese phonemes.

The addition of the Kana enabled Japanese to adapt and express foreign terms (using Katakana) and pro-vide clearer expression of ideas in Japanese (using Hiragana).

Traditional Kanji is read in columns from top to bottom and from left to right; modern Western Culturesand modern Kana is read in rows from left to right and top to bottom.

JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard)

There is a subset of Japanese known as JIS that was developed in an effort to define a suitable efficientcommunication standard for industrial commerce. The JIS subset contains approximately 7,000 of themost important “Chinese-style” symbols deemed essential for conveying standard and technical informa-tion.

JIS is a 16-bit encoding method that requires two bytes of data to produce each character or symbol.Since the TrueType fonts are typically internally coded in Unicode, a conversion table is needed. TheJIS-to-Unicode conversion table is stored in JIS.DAT.

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Shift-JIS

Another common encoding for Japanese data is Shift-JIS. It is an 8-bit encoding method that uses one-or two-byte sequences to produce a character or symbol. When the first data byte value is in the hexrange 20 to 7F or A0 to DF, it represents a one-byte character. SeeSingle-Byte Shift-JIS Character Set.Otherwise, the data byte is the first byte of a two-byte sequence. The value of both the first and secondbyte determine the character that is printed. SeeJIS- and Shift-JIS-to-Decimal Conversion Charts.

Communications

To print the Japanese font, set the printer to 8 data bits (see the User’s Guide for more information).

Changing the Control Instruction Prefix Character

ZPL normally uses the tilde (~) character as the prefix for control instructions that cause an immediateaction to be taken by the printer. The default value for the Control Prefix, the tilde character, is 7E hexor 126 decimal. Since this value (7EH/126 decimal) is also used in the printing of some Japanese char-acters, the Control Prefix charactermustbe changed.

We suggest that the Data Link Escape (DLE) character (10H/16 decimal) be used for the Control Prefixcharacter. This value is not used to print Japanese characters and is always equivalent to the ControlPrefix character. The change can be made from either the front panel (refer to the User’s Guide) or withthe Change Tilde ZPL instruction (see the ZPL II Programming Guide).

Changing the Format Instruction Prefix Character

ZPL normally uses the carat (^) character as the prefix for format instructions that define the label for-mat. The default value for the Format Prefix, the carat character, is 5E hex or 094 decimal. Since thisvalue (5EH/094 decimal) is also used in the printing of some Japanese characters, the Format Prefixcharactermustbe changed.

We suggest that the Record Separator (RS) character (1EH/030 decimal) be used for the Format Prefixcharacter. This value is not used to print Japanese characters and is always equivalent to the Format Pre-fix character. The change can be made from either the front panel (refer to the User’s Guide) or with theChange Tilde ZPL instruction (see the ZPL II Programming Guide).

ZPL Instructions Specific for the Japanese Font

One new ZPL instruction has been added to support the Japanese font, and some existing instructionshave been modified.

Supplemental Information for the Japanese Font

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^CI (Change International Character Set)

The ^CI command has been modified to support 16-bit encoded fonts.

The format for the ^CI instruction is:

^CIx

where

^CI = Change International Character Set

x = 0 USA1 (Default)1 USA22 UK3 Holland4 Denmark/Norway5 Sweden/Finland6 Germany7 France8 France29 Italy10 Spain11 Miscellaneous12 Japan (ASCII with Yen sign)13 Modified Code Page 85014 16-bit encoded scalable fonts*15 Shift-JIS for Japanese fonts**16 EUC-JIS for Japanese scalable fonts***17 Unicode18 Reserved19 Reserved20 Reserved

* The encoding is controlled by the conversion table (*.DAT). The table generated by ZTools is the TrueType font’s internalencoding (Unicode).

** Shift-JIS encoding converts Shift-JIS to JIS and then looks up the JIS conversion in JIS.DAT. This table must be presentfor Shift-JIS to function.

*** EUC-JIS encoding converts EUC-JIS to JIS and then looks up the JIS conversion in JIS.DAT. This table must be presentfor EUC-JIS to function.

Field Rotation

The ^FP command has been added to support the printing of vertically stacked fonts. This command ro-tates the font field without rotating the characters within the field.

The format for the ^FP instruction is:

^FP,a,b

where

^FP = Field Parameters

a = Direction

Default value:H (Horizontal)

Other value:V (Vertical)

b = Additional intercharacter gap (specified in dots)

Default value:0

Range:0 to 9999

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Memory Pool for Creating Japanese Characters

The ^CO command has also been modified for Japanese support. This command now supports a thirdparameter.

The format for the ^CO instruction is:

^CO,a,b,c

where

^CO = Cache On

a = Buffer On

Default value:Y (Yes)

Other value:N (No)

b = Buffer Size in Kilobytes

Default value:40K

Range:0 to 9999

c = Buffer Type

Default value:0 (Cache buffer)

Other value:1 (Internal scaling buffer)

Note: Microsoft’s TrueType Japanese font requires an internal working buffer that is muchlarger than normal. Since not all fonts require this large buffer size (most do not), it is a memoryconfiguration option. Printing with Microsoft’s font from Windows will reduce the memory poolavailable for labels, graphics, fonts, and formats.

JIS and Shift-JIS Encoding Tables

The printer supports TrueType Japanese fonts that have Unicode encoding. ZTools will convert the True-Type font into an unbound TrueType format required by the printer. The printer also needs an encodingtable to convert JIS and Shift-JIS to the internal Unicode encoding. This table is provided with the fonton the font card. The table will appear as JIS.DAT in a directory label printed by the ZPL commands:

^XA^WD*:*.*^XZ

ZTools will keep the natural character encoding if the internal symbol set is selected. The JIS.DAT ta-ble for JIS to Unicode translation is provided as a separate file.

^SE (Select Encoding)

The ^SE command has been created to select the encoding table. Some languages support several encod-ings, which can all be present on a font card. The ^SE command selects the desired ZPL encoding. Alltables convert to the internal encoding of the font.

The format for the ^SE command is:

^SEa

where

^SE = Select Encoding

a = Name of the Encoding Table

Example:

^SEB:UNICODE.DAT

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JIS- and Shift-JIS-to-Decimal Conversion Chart

The following pages contain a JIS and Shift-JIS-to-decimal conversion chart. If you know the JIS orShift-JIS values for a Kanji character, this chart will allow you to locate the actual Kanji character.

Each Kanji character in the chart has four sets of numbers associated with it. The numbers are read asfollows:

The fourth set of numbers shows the JIS values. To locate the character with a JIS value of 52H 50H(shown in the above example) in the sample portion of the chart shown below:

• Find the row labeled “52 5_” in the left-hand column of the chart.• Move across the chart to the column with the number “0" at the top.

Note: The charts are in JIS order.

To print the 52 51 hex character, do the following:

^XA^CI14^A1,100,100^FH_^FD_52_51^FS^XZ

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Single-Byte Shift-JIS Character Set

The following page shows the single-byte Shift-JIS character set. It is laid out in Shift-JIS order. Shift-JIS values 30 hex to 7E hex produce characters identical to the ASCII values with the exception of the“\” which has been replaced by the YEN symbol. Therefore, sending an A in the field data statement(i.e., ^FDA^FS) will produce an A on the label. Shift-JIS values A0 to DF hex produce the appropriateKataKana character. All single-byte scalable Shift-JIS characters print at half the size of the double-byte characters.

To print the B8 hex character, do the following:

^XA^CI15^A1,100,100^FH_^FD_B8^FS^XZ

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