Re: Re: [MLUG] printing barcodes

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2006, Jonathan King wrote:

> On 11/18/06, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> > Very nice.  I will also have to check into this:
> >
> > http://www.ashberg.de/php-barcode/
> >
> > I think we will be using mostly PHP with MySQL, so a PHP method for 
> > generating an image on the fly seems reasonable.  I'm just not sure how 
> > people should be printing these things for use on lab specimens. 
> > We'll want something fairly automatic and error proof.
>
> So the one thing that *is* probably very worthwhile are these little 
> barcode/text printers that will generate labels for things on the scale 
> of (say) 1.5 ul tubes. My guess is that you can find one that will let 
> you talk to it fairly directly, kinda like the interfaces you can get to 
> thermocyclers and such.

Thanks, Jon.  I see this as a fairly important piece of the system I am 
writing about today.  The best thing would be for the barcode to simply 
appear, printed, when the user clicks on a certain button on a web page. 
It seems like that might be achievable, but right now I can see how to 
produce the image in the browser window, not how to send the correct data 
to the printer.  That might be a trivial problem for someone who 
understands these printers better than I do.  (Maybe this could be done by 
creating a certain type of file on the fly, like a .bar file, say, and 
this would then "display" in a program on the user end which would 
automatically print the barcode.)  Anyway, if anyone on this list has made 
this kind of thing work, and you have a sec, let me know about it.

It looks like barcode printers sell for about $400, or more (even much 
more if you want), and then we have to buy cartridges and labels.  My 
guess is that the price is high because these things usually see a ton of 
action -- thousands of labels per day sometimes.  We only need to print 
something like 10 per day, max, but it will be nice to have the 
reliability that these machines must offer.

Thanks again, to all of you.  This MLUG list is fantastic!

Mike

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