How to print chinese characters using WritePrinter API on Zebra Printer

[Flying Kite]

Hi All,
I want to know how to print chinese characters on Zebra Printer, following code working fine with English string, but it's not working for Chinese string. It shows ASCII characters instead of Chinese characters, on my machine I installed language pack and currently set language as Chinese PRC but still it's not working.

Option Explicit
 
Private Type DOCINFO
  pDocName As String
  pOutputFile As String
  pDatatype As String
End Type
 
Private Declare Function ClosePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
    hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EndDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
    hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EndPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
    hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function OpenPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias _
    "OpenPrinterA" (ByVal pPrinterName As String, phPrinter As Long, _
    ByVal pDefault As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function StartDocPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" Alias _
    "StartDocPrinterA" (ByVal hPrinter As Long, ByVal Level As Long, _
    pDocInfo As DOCINFO) As Long
Private Declare Function StartPagePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
    hPrinter As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function WritePrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
    hPrinter As Long, pBuf As Any, ByVal cdBuf As Long, _
    pcWritten As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function AbortPrinter Lib "winspool.drv" (ByVal _
    hPrinter As Long) As Long
 
 
Private Declare Function GetThreadLocale Lib "kernel32" () As Long
 
Public Function GetLCID(tStr As String) As Long
    '
    GetLCID = GetThreadLocale()
    '
    If GetLCID = 1033 Then '1033 for English (US) Locale ID
        '
        GetLCID = 0
        '
    ElseIf GetLCID = 2052 Then ' 2052 for Chinese (PRC) Locale ID
        '
        GetLCID = Len(tStr)
        '
    End If
    '
End Function
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    '
    PrintLotIDLabel "AB1234-56A", "", 1, True
    '
End Sub
 
Public Function PrintLotIDLabel(strLotId As String, strAdditionalText As String, intNumCopies As Integer, booRandomBarCode) As String
 
Dim lhPrinter As Long
Dim lReturn As Long
Dim lpcWritten As Long
Dim lDoc As Long
Dim MyDocInfo As DOCINFO
Dim i As Integer
Dim X As Printer
Dim booPrinterFound As Boolean
Dim strRandomBarCode As String
Dim strID As String
Dim strBarcodeText As String
Dim strData As String
 
  PrintLotIDLabel = ""
 
  If booRandomBarCode Then
    Randomize
    strRandomBarCode = ""
    For i = 1 To 10
      strRandomBarCode = strRandomBarCode & Chr(Int((90 - 65 + 1) * Rnd) + 65)
    Next i
  End If
 
  booPrinterFound = False
  For Each X In Printers
    If (InStr(UCase(X.DeviceName), "ZEBRA") > 0) And (InStr(UCase(X.DeviceName), "300") > 0) Then
      Set Printer = X
      booPrinterFound = True
      Exit For
    End If
  Next
 
  If Not booPrinterFound Then
    PrintLotIDLabel = "This PC has no printer with both 'Zebra' and '300' in the name.  Labels will not print."
    Exit Function
  End If
 
  strLotId = UCase(strLotId)
  strID = Left(strLotId & " ", 10)
  strAdditionalText = Right(Space(20) & strAdditionalText, 21)
 
  lReturn = OpenPrinter(Printer.DeviceName, lhPrinter, 0)
  MyDocInfo.pDocName = strLotId & " - BarCodeLabel"
  MyDocInfo.pOutputFile = vbNullString
  MyDocInfo.pDatatype = vbNullString
 
  If booRandomBarCode Then
    strLotId = strRandomBarCode
'********************************************************************************************
'here if we assign chinese string to "strID variable" then it will shows ASCII characters
'and it's working fine with english string
 
    strID = "Verification Label - Scan Me"
 
'********************************************************************************************
    '
  End If
 
  For i = 1 To intNumCopies
    lDoc = StartDocPrinter(lhPrinter, 1, MyDocInfo)
    Call StartPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
 
    strData = "^XA" & vbCrLf
    strData = strData & "^FO20,15^ATN^FD" & strID & "^FS" & vbCrLf
    strData = strData & "^FO255,20^ARN^FD" & strAdditionalText & "^FS" & vbCrLf
    strData = strData & "^FO35,60^BY3,2.5,95^B3N,N,,N,N^FD" & strLotId & "^FS" & vbCrLf
    strData = strData & "^XZ" & vbCrLf
    '
    lReturn = WritePrinter(lhPrinter, ByVal strData, Len(strData) + GetLCID(strID), lpcWritten)
    lReturn = EndPagePrinter(lhPrinter)
    lReturn = EndDocPrinter(lhPrinter)
  Next i
 
  lReturn = ClosePrinter(lhPrinter)
 
  If booRandomBarCode Then PrintLotIDLabel = strRandomBarCode
 
End Function
 
 

[Dököll]

Greetings, Flying Kite!

Its likely you searched here prior, if you did not give that a while while you wait. Also, I would suggests writing the characters locall first, like on the form, then print to printer:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...th+vb6&spell=1

[twjnorth]

I am currently working on the same only printing from Oracle BI Publisher.

You need to convert and upload a truetype font of chinese characters into the printer using the ZDownload printer utility first (free download from the Zebra website).

The chinese font i uploaded needed about 3MB of memory.

Once you have this, look at the ZPLII programming reference for the ^CI command. This sets the character set. Something line ^CI28 will do multibyte chinese and it uses the font mappings loaded into memory to print the correct characters.

Hope that helps.