Processing and thermal printer

Processing Electronics (Arduino, etc.)
11

If the only thing you will be printing is text to the receipt printer here is one possible solution. First, save the text you want to print to a text file (i.e. Myfile.txt). Then, use the launch command to open Windows Notepad.exe with the ‘/p’ option to automatically print the text file. See the code example below:

//Receipt Printer Test program
import processing.serial.*;                         //Use the serial library
import static javax.swing.JOptionPane.*;  //Use the option pane dialog box library


String TS_file="Timeslip.txt";                    //String variable for the Time Slip text file name
String Str1 = "";                                        //Working string variable
String Str2 = "";                                        //Working string variable
String Prt_Cmd = "";                                //String for holding print command
String File_Path = "C:/Users/Bill/Processing/6-Sandbox/receipt_printer_test/Timeslip.txt";
PrintWriter TS_output;                             //Create an output variable for writing to the Timeslip.txt file

void setup() {
  size(200,200);
  background(255);
  fill(0);
  text("Printer Test",90,100);
  Prt_Cmd = "notepad.exe /p " + File_Path;     //Build the time slip print command string
}

void draw() {
  Str1 = "PRINT REQUEST";
  Str2 = "Do you wish to print the timeslip text file?";
  int input = showConfirmDialog(null, Str2, Str1, YES_NO_OPTION);  //Prompt: 0=yes, 1=no
  if (input == 0) {                              //Did user respond with "YES"?
    Create_Timeslip();                     //Call subroutine to create timeslip text file
    println("Timeslip file created");   //Optional debug line to let you know file was created
    delay(100);
    launch(Prt_Cmd);                       //Launch Windows command to  print time slip
  }
  else {
    exit();                                           //Exit program if "NO" was selected
  }
  delay (100);
}

void Create_Timeslip() {                            //Create the Time Slip text file
  TS_output = createWriter(TS_file);         //Open Time Slip text file in the sketch directory
  TS_output.println("       DFW Winternationals");
  TS_output.println("     Snowmobile Drag Racing");
  TS_output.println("=================================");
  TS_output.println("       Date: 09/02/2018");
  TS_output.println("           Race# 04");
  TS_output.println(" -Lane 1-              -Lane 2-");
  TS_output.println("  00.276   React Time   00.271");
  TS_output.println("  03.781   60 Ft Time   03.632");
  TS_output.println("  27.641 Trap Speed MPH 36.320");
  TS_output.println("  07.934  Elapsed Time  07.725");
  TS_output.println("   - - -     Status     WINNER");
  TS_output.println("=================================");
  TS_output.println("   Thanks for racing with us");
  TS_output.println("        Bill V's Timers");
  TS_output.flush();                        //Writes any remaining data to the file
  TS_output.close();                        //Close the file
}
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