Describes how Source Technologies' printer control language interfaces with Linux operating systems to streamline thermal printing networks.

1. New Standards for Enterprise Thermal Printer Management 5/31/12 1
Now You’re Speaking My Language: New
Standards for Enterprise Thermal Printer
Management
How PCL and open source tools offer flexibility for IT
administrators

2. New Standards for Enterprise Thermal Printer Management 5/31/12 2
Introduction
When Source Technologies set out to redesign its Performance Series thermal transfer printers for the
retail, hospitality, healthcare, distribution, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation, public service,
government and financial industries, it focused on improving overall print quality and end-user
experience.
The printers’ 300 dpi print heads and full-color, LCD touch displays have turned heads in the
marketplace since being introduced last year; but their greatest improvement lies not in what’s on the
outside, but in the ground-breaking application of standard printer languages and open-source software
development modules that give technology administrators freedom to define how the printers will
operate within their organizations.
Information technologists charged with managing and maintaining extensive printer networks within
global enterprises will appreciate the flexibility they now have at their fingertips to extend the value of
their printer networks to save employees time and money.
This whitepaper explains how printer control language (PCL) and Linux make that possible.
PCL Overview
Unlike most technology solutions, thermal printers have not used an open standard programming
language for communication and print control. Printer manufacturers developed their own proprietary
language because it was easy to develop, required a minimal investment to enter the market and there
were no incentives to standardize a printer language in the thermal printing industry.
Over the years, the lack of a standard printer language in the thermal printing industry has created
problems for system integrators by:
• keeping administrators locked into one printer manufacturer for their printing needs;
• preventing companies’ IT infrastructure from evolving due to slower advances in thermal
printing technology;
• requiring staff to learn many different proprietary languages;
• incurring higher costs to maintain existing applications;
• having no portability of label template libraries; and
• having limited or no support for international labels.
In 1984, Hewlett-Packard introduced printer control language (PCL) to provide an open, economical and
efficient language for application programs to control a range of printer features across a number of
printing devices.

3. New Standards for Enterprise Thermal Printer Management 5/31/12 3
PCL is a command based language using control sequences that are processed and interpreted in the
order they are received. At the consumer level, PCL data streams are generated by a print driver. PCL
output can also be easily generated by custom applications. Today, PCL is the “de facto industry
standard” printer language.
PCL commands follow consistent specifications to control common printer features: font and graphics
layout, label macro management, rendering, and label resolution. These commands operate
independently of the underlying hardware resolution specifications for the printer. By keeping operation
and resolution commands separate, administrators have the flexibility to create open-architecture
environments that maximize the printer’s technology and improve the end-user experience: saving
organizations both time and money.
In 2011, Source Technologies introduced the first “fully integrated” PCL5 thermal printer. There are
several advantages to using PCL on thermal printers:
Advantages of PCL5 on a thermal printer:
• PCL communicates with virtually all computer systems, which makes it the ideal language to
adopt in the thermal printing industry.
• PCL extends the functionality of thermal printers by offering an expansive menu of feature
commands not found in thermal printers. These commands open the way for the thermal
printing industry to develop new and exciting applications.
• PCL gives system administrators flexibility to customize and integrate thermal printing into a
variety of hosted environments.
• PCL allows for seamless integration of international language capabilities including Hebrew,
Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean1
.
Linux Overview
Along with incorporating PCL into its printers’ infrastructures, Source Technologies has remained
committed to using open-source development tools. Source Technologies chose Linux as the operating
system to drive their Workstation, Performance and High Performance Series thermal printer product
lines.
1
PCL supports text formatting for these languages however the fonts used must be added as an option or provided
by the User in TrueType format.

4. New Standards for Enterprise Thermal Printer Management 5/31/12 4
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system developed under the General Public License (GPL) model
of free and open-source software development and distribution. The defining component of Linux is the
Linux kernel, first released October 5, 1991.
Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for Intel x86-based personal computers. It has
since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system. It is a
leading operating system on servers and other “big iron” systems such as mainframe computers and
supercomputers. More than 90% of today's top 500 supercomputers run some variant of Linux,
including the 10 fastest. Linux also runs on embedded systems (devices where the operating system is
typically built into the firmware and highly tailored to the system); such as, mobile phones, tablet
computers, network routers, televisions, video game consoles, Android mobile devices and now thermal
printers.
Linux has established itself as a reliable and capable operating system that allows companies that want
to develop their own printer-based applications a large, established and stable development
environment in which to work. Linux’ large base of developers have developed many tools and services
beneficial for enterprise thermal printing configurations in large, global organizations. Source
Technologies’ thermal printer products rely on the following tools and feature modules to extend their
functionality for global enterprise print management:
• Network Time Protocol (NTP)
• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
• SSH (Secure SHell)
• HTTP (HTTP Web Server)
• Telnet
Network Time Protocol (NTP)
All of Source Technologies’ Linux-based thermal printers are shipped with Network Time Protocol (NTP).
When enabled, this service allows printers to synchronize to a common-time server on the network.
This ensures all printers are synchronized to the same time and that all print jobs have this time stamp
recorded on the final printout. This feature helps global organizations keep an accurate record of how
and when information is being shared within the company.

5. New Standards for Enterprise Thermal Printer Management 5/31/12 5
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
Another vital Linux add-on for enterprise print management is the SNMP (Simple Network Management
Protocol) for Remote Printer Management.
SNMP is a widely used protocol designed to facilitate the management of networked devices from a
central location. Designed originally for the management of devices such as routers and switches, its
usage has grown rapidly to encompass the monitoring of nearly any electronic device.
SNMP is the method that allows administrators to manage or monitor all of their equipment running on
an Internet infrastructure throughout the world. It allows for the monitoring of traffic flowing through
the equipment, institutes a trigger when faults occur and changes the configuration of equipment
remotely.
To work with SNMP, network devices utilize a distributed data store called the Management Information
Base (MIB). All SNMP-compliant devices contain a MIB which supplies the pertinent attributes of a
device. Some attributes are hard-coded in the MIB, while others are dynamic values calculated by agent
software running on the device.

6. New Standards for Enterprise Thermal Printer Management 5/31/12 6
SNMP allows printers to be remotely administered under password-protected credentials. Monitoring
of the printers may be performed at any time, without interruption to printing. Administrators have the
ability to monitor or manage:
• Printer status via remote access
• Notification alerts to the operator of paper or ribbon levels, locally and remotely
• Printer firmware updates
• Email alerts on printer health
• Cold or warm restart
• Master/slave setups, Hot swap print jobs
• Managed Print Services capabilities
Enterprise network management software, such as Tivoli and HP OpenView, also uses SNMP commands
to read and write data in each device MIB. 'Get' commands typically retrieve data values, while 'Set'
commands typically initiate some action on the device. For example, a system reboot script is often
implemented in management software by defining a particular MIB attribute and issuing an SNMP set
from the manager software that writes a "reboot" value into that attribute.
SSH (Secure SHell)
This add-on is a network protocol for secure data communications between a host and the printer. This
ensures that all data over the wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection is encrypted using public-key
cryptography to authenticate the remote computer.
HTTP (HTTP Web Server)
All Source Technologies’ printers have their own HTTP server that provides remote configuration
capabilities using a standard web browser.
Telnet
With this Linux module, administrators may log into all network printers remotely for low-level
administrative activities. All access can be controlled through standard Linux access control
mechanisms.
For more information on thermal printing with Source Technologies Thermal Series printers please call:
800-922-8501 or visit us on the web: www.sourcetech.com
STETPM 5/31/12-C