Understanding The Esim Protocol - Intermec EasyCoder PC4 Programmer's Reference Manual

Chapter 1 — Introducing ESim

Understanding the ESim Protocol

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ESim is a built-in protocol for use with Intermec bar code label
printers. ESim enables any computer, terminal, scanner, or
keyboard that can produce ASCII characters to control the
printer. ESim is an alternative to Intermec InterDriver, which
requires the Microsoft Windows operating system.
With the ESim protocol, you can use any editor to control the
printer over the serial RS-232 channel, the USB channel, or the
parallel Centronics channel.
This manual has been organized to provide you with an
understanding of printer functions and command structure. It
also assists in designing labels using the ESim protocol on both
the PC4 and PF8 printers.
Each printer uses a different version of the ESim protocol:
• The EasyCoder PC4 uses ESim v.6.xx or later.
• The EasyCoder PF8 uses ESim v.7.xx or later.
Note: Any labels created on ESim v.6.xx can be printed on v.7.xx
and later, but since new commands are introduced in newer
versions of the ESim protocol, labels created on previous versions
of ESim cannot be printed.
New commands that are unavailable for the PC4 or ESim v6.25
have been noted in this manual. Other Intermec printers may
only support earlier versions of ESim, or may require different
firmware. For more information, see your printer user's guide.
ESim for the PC4 and PF8 Printer Programmer's Reference Manual