[ic] Linux label printers

[Jon]

> Andy's post about label printers reminded me to write this, but I
> didn't want to hijack his thread.
>
> I'm planning on switching from Windows and its USPS and FedEx shipping
> software to Linux and IC for my shipping workstation.  I'm hoping to
> use some of the tags posted to the list to be able to print USPS and
> FedEx shipping labels, but I'm having trouble finding a thermal label
> printer that will work in Linux.  Does anyone have a recommendation?
>
> Also, if anyone is interested in a Zebra LP 2844 that works great in
> Windows but I can't get to work in Linux, let me know.  A few rolls of
> labels too.
>
> - Grant
>

   If you really want to get rid of it I'll take it for sure, but that is
exactly what
I use for printing FedEx labels.  I have it connected via the serial port
and do
an open of file and printer, write file to printer and close.  The file is
a PNG
image returned from FedEx.  Here is the Perl code I have which I'm sure
can be improved upon

  open (PNG, $labelFile) or die "Could not open PNG file $!";
  open (ZEBRA, ">/dev/ttyS0") or die "Could not open serial port $!";
    my $line = '';
    $line = <PNG>;
    while ($line) {
    print ZEBRA $line;
      # This will send it to the Zebra printer print ZEBRA $line;
      $line = <PNG>;
    }

  close(PNG);
  close(ZEBRA);

Does anyone use this printer for printing USPS labels and if so what
format
of file do you write to the printer ?

Jon