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ZPL2 Programming Basics Manual zplbasics.pdf 

ZPL2 Programming Full Manual zserieszpl2.pdf 

The Citizen CL-S700 right out of the box supports both Zebra ZPL2 code based labels, and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) labels. When the driver is installed it creates a driver called Citizen CL-700Z. This is the standard Zebra Emulation. As an option it can print Datamax code based labels as well, and it will automatically switch if Datamax code is sent to it. However when the Datamax code is sent to it, its front panel display will display a message asking whether or not you want to switch to the Datamax emulation, and If you say yes it will create a new Windows driver for this emulation called Citizen CL-700. After switching emulations, you must power cycle the printer to complete the change. You will also have to re-send the print job to the Datamax driver. 

While testing we also noted that the Datamax code based labels printed about 3 times slower than the Zebra ZPL2 code and the WYSIWYG labels, so I would also stick with the Zebra ZPL2 code labels if code based labels are required. 

Durring testing, the printer functioned very well directly out of the System Five Label Designer, so I do not see any problems with using the System Five Label Designer as the main design software, as it grants you many more options than code based labels. The only issue would be if you need to print very small labels (smaller than 2“ x 1” labels), the barcodes created from the System Five Label Designer may not be able to print a barcode small enough to fit that label, but the ZPL2 code has the ability to print smaller barcodes. But also be warned that some barcode scanners may have some difficulty reading very small barcodes. 

We only tested this printer using the USB interface, Mainly because most computers now do not have a serial or parallel interface to connect it to. 

The end user should not have any difficulty installing the label media or the thermal transfer ribbon if they follow the instructions in the Quick Start Guide. Likewise the driver installation is also fairly straight forward if you have the driver installation CD handy. This is also covered in the Quick Start Guide. 

There has also been some confusion regarding Barcode text lines and actual Barcodes. The System Five field <barcode> is the same, but the information to print the barcode number, or the barcode are completely different. For printing just the barcode number on a label, you will need to tell the printer what font you want to print as well as the size, orientation, and position on the label. 

But for a barcode, you need to supply different information, such as the barcode type (3of9, 128, or UPC), the height and width of the barcode, and the position on the label. 

So please carefully read the information in the example below. 

^XA 
^LH0,0 
^FO50,25^CFD,36,20^FD<COMPANY.NAME, -1>^FS 
^FO50,85^CFA,36,15^FD<DESCRIPTION, -1>^FS 
^FO50,145^CFA,36,15^FD<PART, -1>^FS 
^FO425,205^CFD,72,30^FD<PRICE.0>^FS 
^FO50,200^BY2,2.0^BCN,085,Y,N,N,N^FD<BARCODE, -1>^FS 
^XZ

Created by Steve Wind Sept 14 2012