Printing Thousands of Variable Bitmaps with the Raptor or Domino-K600 Replacing a Kodak
We replaced a Kodak inkjet with a K600. We want to print thousands of bitmaps with the Raptor or K600 which we will prepare but the inkjet allows only 200 variable bitmaps per box.
How do I get around this?
With the new mode described herein, you can mix boxes in the layout as barcodes with variable bitmaps. In principle, you could deliver the whole image in a variable bitmap. This alternative is faster and cheaper than the PDF2BMP offered by GTUS although also attractive because of the PDF workflow, you choose!
This works from version 7.40P1H.
Save all bitmaps in a folder in the GT-Controller
First of all, you need to prepare the thousands of bitmaps you want to print and save them in a folder, here we took folder D:/EditorGT/data/bitmaps/ BogotaVariable.set.BMP but you can name it what you want, just be consistent. The bitmaps need to be monochrome and the size match the inkjet’s resolution.
Map drive N: in the Raptor or K600 to exactly this folder
You go to the inkjet, enter as Expert (remember to disable the write filter) and map as N: the place where you put your thousands of bitmaps in the GT controller.
You should see it as following in Windows explorer. If you don’t see them, it will not print them because it will try to load them from N:/
Note: have the inkjet reconnect at logon, switch off the EWF when mapping N:/
Data Setup
In your data file, you have to have the name of the file you to print somewhere. I called it Bitmap1.
You see that every record has a bitmap name, those bitmaps have to be in N:
Layout Setup
Here comes the trick, select a variable bitmap, place it where you want it in the label and declare the first variable as “named.bmp”. If “named.bmp” is not present, you can declare upto 100 variable bitmaps here.
Please note that the field is Bitmap1, we also declared a bitmap 0001.bmp but just to see how it looks in the label.
Also, you can only print “Original size” because we do not resize these barcodes, same with orientation. That is, you have to make the bitmap the way you want to print it. The reason is that we do not want to resize/rotate thousands or millions of bitmaps in the controller because that would take too long, you can do that much better off-line.
The inkjet prints normally 600 (vertical) x 600 (horizontal – movement of paper) dpi, thus, if you print to print a square of 1” sides, you need 600 pixels times 600 pixels. If you are printing 600 x 300 dpi and you to print a square, you will need to make the square 600 pixels vertical but only 300 pixels horizontal.
Check what goes on in the inkjet
You can go to Configuration down to Service Tools and put “Write Test Bitmap” ON. That will save the bitmaps that the inkjet prints in D:/temp and you can see what happens.
Of course, during normal production, have this function OFF because it will only make you slower.