If you have high volumes of label printing, print speed is of high importance. Many manufacturers are printing thousands of labels on a daily and even an hourly basis. Understanding the difference between ‘Extended’ and ‘Continuous’ mode within BarTender (http://www.seagullscientific.com/) and how to ensure you are falling within one of those modes is critical to ensuring you are efficient in your processes.
Continuous Mode printing allows large print requests to come down to the printer as a single job where the printer is controlling the contents of the label. This is the fastest method to print. Many of Pragmatyxs’ customers want their printing processes to avoid running in “Extended Mode” where single jobs are sent down to the printer causing slower production and efficiency.
Here are some tips that we have found that will assist in staying out of “Extended Mode” printing.
- Use native printer fonts on your label or allow for the substitution of best matching printer fonts.
2. Single line field types; field types that are in “paragraph” form are likely to cause extended mode. Defining your line type can easily be found when you open a fields properties.
3. Having multiple templates within a single document will also cause you to run in extended mode. If you have templates that are very similar but with slight changes it is suggested to use the “layers” option that will allow you to place logic on items at print time.
4. A few other items that will help print performance include using graphics sparingly, use supported barcode symbology and limit the amount of serialized fields.
If you have questions on label design and printing performance please feel free to reach out to Pragmatyxs!