Labelwriter

Edit - Jan 2020 from Andy

The information below the break is historic, as it wasn't connected to anything when I came to it

The printer is currently setup on the lasercutterpc windows machine using the dymo software.

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The printer is a DYMO LabelWriter 450, with a USB interface. It's permanently connected to Server_Novo which runs Debian Linux.

Driver File

The printer came with a CD which was only useful for Windows installation. For Linux, a different driver file was required. We got the driver by installing the printer on a Ubuntu system, then copying the driver file that Ubuntu installed. Alternately it can be found from the Dymo SDK downloadable here: http://download.dymo.com/Software/Linux/dymo-cups-drivers-1.4.0.tar.gz

The file was copied from /etc/cups/ppd/ and the filename was 'DYMO-LabelWriter-450.ppd'.

This file was copied to /usr/share/ppd/ on server Neo.

Install Printer

Plug in the printer with the power supply connected. Give the command:

sudo lpinfo -v

This shows whether the printer detected by the system and, if so, what is the designation. It turned out to be "usb://DYMO/LabelWriter%20450".

Next, install the printer, with the terminal command:

sudo lpadmin -p Labelwriter -E -v "usb://DYMO/LabelWriter%20450" -P /usr/share/ppd/DYMO-LabelWriter-450.ppd

This copies the driver file "Labelwriter.ppd" to the directory /etc/cups/ppd/, and creates the file "/etc/cups/printers.conf"

Set the printer as default, with:

sudo lpadmin -d Labelwriter

Configuration of printer

Now the printer is able to print files of types: .txt, .png, .pdf and .ps, but the positioning is wrong.

To correct the position of print on the label, the printer needs to know the default label size. This requires the configuration files to be edited.

First, the cups daemon must be stopped. The command is:

sudo /etc/init.d/cups stop

File /etc/cups/ppd/Labelwriter.ppd was changed to show:

  *DefaultPageSize: w54h144
  *DefaultPageRegion: w54h144
  *DefaultImageableArea: w54h144
  *DefaultPaperDimension: w54h144

The dimensions are taken from the same file, for label size "Return Address". Dimensions are given in point (1/72 inch).

File /etc/cups/printers.conf needed 3 lines added at the end:

  ErrorPolicy retry-job
  Option media-col media-bottom-margin
  Option orientation-requested 4

orientation-requested 4 sets the printing to landscape, or horizontal. (The meaning of media-bottom-margin is a mystery to me).

The cups daemon needs to be started after this:

sudo /etc/init.d/cups start

And the printer is fully set up.

Using the printer

There is a small margin around three edges of the label that the printer cannot reach, about 5mm at the left and right ends, and 2mm from the top.

Printing can be done by lp filename or lpr filename

The printer status can be seen by lpstat -p