Unicode and Asian Double-Byte printing

Introduction

ELP has a build in function to convert Asian Double Byte and Unicode based data streams from SAP into a single byte data stream, which than is printable on any PCL5 printer, without any extra printer hardware requirements.

The fantastic benefits of that are shortly described here or available as a printable Fact sheet and below here:

If SAP is already running in the western world, then you do not need to change or adapt any already created ABAP list or SAPscript form.
All your used fonts are still supported.
If you have a special corporate identity font feel free to continue to use it.
You can use as many font styles as you like, bold, italic etc. There is no limitation.
ELP supports all 3 methods of printing:
- One byte like East and western European characters like German and Cyrillic or Greek.
- Double Bytes printing like simplified or traditional Chinese
- Full Unicode printing
UNIX, Linux and other host operating systems are supported (here).
You can keep using the SAP DeviceType printing method
The data stream can be archived in its real printed form, including the visibility of barcodes and all characters.

IMPORTANT to know: The standard ELP installation does not include the necessary installer. You can download the installer from
our website for additional software downloads.

ELP activation of Double-Byte and Unicode printing

A few steps are needed.

MS Windows operating systems

For a brand new installation follow steps 2 to 6 of the next chapter.
For an existing installation follow steps 3 and 4 and then add the key Sft_Unicode=ON into the section/rule GLOBAL in your convert.ini file:
Go to Configuration Tab - Mark rule Global - Click the Add key to rule button - Open Miscellaneous keys - double click on the Sft_Unicode key - Click OK then Close.
Ensure that the SAP_Unicode key is either not present in the GLOBAL section, or is set to "OFF".

UNIX, Linux and similar operating systems

In order to reduce the download size just retrieve ELP from here.

So here is what you need to do:

Install and test the Unix ELP system, as described here: Installation Linux / Unix / AIX / Solaris etc.
Download and install as well the windows version of ELP. As the fonts are installed using windows tools.
Donload the necessary installer from our website for additional software downloads.
Run the install under MS Windows.
Start the ELP Control Center and in the startup agent go down, activate a queue and then configure further down the windows ELP for Unicode & Double Byte printing.
Testing under MS Windows: Go to the 'Install' tab, select the installed printer you want to test in the right-hand window (single click), then click the 'Print file on selected printer' button. Select the test file SAP_Unicode.pcl - click Print - click Yes.
FTP in binary mode the complete sft (in lowercase!!!) windows directory path to your system. Right into the installation directory.
Also ftp all *.def files from c:\ProgramData\WELP over to the ELP workpath folder defined in the -d command line path below.
Note: ELP will automatically convert them to bin files on the first usage. So make sure the directory is writable for all users!
Also copy over the convert.ini or if you already have a special configuration, add the key Sft_Unicode=ON into the section/rule GLOBAL in your command.ini file.
You need to call ELP including the command line parameters
-c/ELP_location_path/convert.ini and
-d/ELP_location_path
When using full Unicode printing, then maybe import also the provided SAP DeviceType.Benefit: does support all western fonts (Courier, Helvetica, Universe and Times Roman) plus simplified Chinese characters (in Unicode).

Note: If the SFT directory is moved to another volume and this directory is NOT the default working directory, then you need to set the variable #ELP_STARTUPFORMS_PATH# to the new directory. The variable points to the directory above the SFT directory. Example: The new directory is d:\stethos\SFT then use this command set:

[Global]
Variable=#ELP_STARTUPFORMS_PATH#:d:\stethos\
Sft_Unicode=ON

The Definition must end with a backslash for MS Windows or slash for Unix based operating systems!

How does the ELP convert Unicode/double-byte characters?

While analysing the data stream, ELP will identify whether Unicode, non-Latin 1-byte or Asian double-byte data streams are being used./p>

ELP also notes the typeface in which the characters appear. In other words, it notes which font names and styles (regular, bold, italic, etc.) are used./p>

ELP converts the double-byte/Unicode implementation into a single code so that the data stream can be printed on any PCL5-enabled printer using Laser-, Inkjet- or Gel technology. To this end, ELP uses the sft_dir.ini file, which acts as a kind of mapping that instructs ELP to use a specific font for a specific typeface. ELP then converts the characters in the data stream using the specified font for that typeface./p>

The PCL5 and text parser in ELP does evaluate the active typeface, its style and the mode in use. If it is not in non-Latin 1 Byte, Asian Double Byte or Unicode mode, the ELP performs as usual./p>

However, when in Double Byte mode (for technical people: symbol set Big 5 and activation sequence Esc*t38P), or in Unicode mode: (activation: Esc *t83P), ELP converts each character from its coding to its integer value./p>

All possible defined ELP rules are then performed. However, if the Search or Trigger commands are used to activate them, the search argument must be defined in Unicode, Non-Latin 1 Byte, or Asian Double Byte mode. All characters below 128 (i.e. 1–9, A–Z, a–z, full stop, comma, space, etc.) are available in both symbol sets. Characters above 128 must be searched for using their Unicode/double-byte binary implementation.

Difference between SAP Double Byte and real Unicode printing

Real Unicode printing means, that all characters of the world are defined in one font, most likely called Andale or in Windows Arial Unicode.

The Double Byte way of printing means, that there are specific fonts for specific languages.

ELP currently supports the conversion from Big 5 (Traditional Chinese) Code to Unicode and then to single byte printing.
Big 5 is the character encoding standard most commonly used for traditional Chinese characters. Countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia are using this encoding standard.
Every Chinese Character is represented by a two byte code. The first byte ranges from 0xA1 to 0xF9, while the second byte ranges from 0x40 to 0x7E, 0xA1 to 0xFE.
Note that the MSB of the two byte code is always set. Thus, in a document that contain Chinese characters and regular ASCII characters, the ASCII characters are still represented with a single byte.