POS for .Net print formatting - can't use escape character (char)27

Question

I figured out how to print basic text to our POS printer, but I can't figure out how to get the escape characters to work (for bold, text alignment, etc). For now I'm just testing with the Microsoft PosPrinter Simulator.

Here's what I'm trying

_printer.PrintNormal(PrinterStation.Receipt, (char)27 + "|bC" + printText + (char)13 + (char)10);

I'd expect that to print my printText in bold followed by a line break. When I take out (char)27 + "|bC" then it works fine.

The documentation for the escape codes is here

The error I get is

A first chance exception of type 'System.FormatException' occurred in Microsoft.PointOfService.ControlBase.dll Input string was not in a correct format.

I tried a bunch of variations but can't seem to wrap my head around it.

Edit. Here's the stack trace..

   at System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal)
   at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)
   at System.Int32.Parse(String s, IFormatProvider provider)
   at Microsoft.PointOfService.DeviceSimulators.PosPrinterSimulatorWindow.ProcessEscapes(String str)
   at Microsoft.PointOfService.DeviceSimulators.PosPrinterSimulatorWindow.DisplayText(String str)
   at Microsoft.PointOfService.DeviceSimulators.PosPrinterSimulator.PrintNormalImpl(PrinterStation station, PrinterState printerState, String data)
   at Microsoft.PointOfService.BaseServiceObjects.PosPrinterBase.OutputRequestHandler(OutputRequest Request)
   at Microsoft.PointOfService.Internal.PosCommonInternal.ProcessOutputRequest(OutputRequest request, Boolean asyncOperation)
   at Microsoft.PointOfService.BaseServiceObjects.PosPrinterBase.ProcessRequest(PrintOperation operation)
   at Microsoft.PointOfService.BaseServiceObjects.PosPrinterBase.PrintNormal(PrinterStation station, String data)
   at MyProjectNamespace) in MyFile.cs:line 74

Answer 1

Hi just found out this answer and this works for me. try this one.

string Bold = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(new byte[] { 27, (byte)'|', (byte)'b', (byte)'C' });

or You can simply declare this:

 string ESC = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(new byte[] {27});

then use it in your format or text like this:

ESC + "|cA" -- this is for center. ESC + "|bC" -- for bold.

ESC + "|bC" + "hello world" -- this will bold the string.

Answer 2

For me it worked to escape the string like this:

_printer.PrintNormal(PrinterStation.Receipt, "\x1B|bCYour Bold line\r\n");

Maybe you can still use it in the future.

Answer 3

From my testing I think the printer simulator will not accept the ESC character.

I create the text to send to the printer using a number of constant substitutes like:

      string escAlignCenter = String.Format("{0}|cA", ((char)27));
      string escAlignRight = String.Format("{0}|rA", ((char)27));
      string escBoldOn = String.Format("{0}|bC", ((char)27));
      string escNewLine = String.Format("{0}|1lF", ((char)27));
      string escPaperCut = String.Format("{0}|75P", ((char)27));
      string escReset = String.Format("{0}|N", ((char)27));
      string escUnderlineOn = String.Format("{0}|uC", ((char)27));

so I might send the following to the printer:

String.Format("{0}Hellow world!", escAlignCenter)"

To avoid getting the error when using the printer simulator I need to do the following

      if(useSimulator)
      {
        string xxx = String.Format("{0}", ((char)27));
        string testString = testPrint.ToString();
        testString = testString.Replace(xxx, "\\");
        logger.Debug("text to print is [{0}]", testString);
        posPrinter.PrintNormal(PrinterStation.Receipt, testString); 
      }
      else
        posPrinter.PrintNormal(PrinterStation.Receipt, testPrint.ToString());

That removes the error however the text printed to the simulator includes all the ESC formatting.

Answer 4

I ended up determining how many characters could be printed per line and created some alignment functions. At this point I think there is nothing built-in to POS for .Net.

Still can't figure out bold, italics, etc. formatting.

Answer 5

Did you check if your printer supports Bold, Italic etc? i.e.

if (_printer.CapRecBold)
   // printer supports bold

if (_printer.CapRecItalic)
   // printer supports italic

Answer 6

Androidz answer is correct. Also you can do some thing like below.

Assume you want to print bold.

string text = "ESC|bC" + "BOLD Text";
// Now replace ESC as below.
string textToPrint = text.Replace("ESC", ((char)27).ToString());

That's it.

Answer 7

This string worked for me "\u001B"