The answer is actually much easier than you would expect. I have been battling with this problem for ages until I found an article on sending raw text to the printer here(
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322091/EN-US/[
^] )
I don't know vb.net although I am sure you would be able to translate this :D
Then all you need is send formatted strings to the printer using the ESC commands supplied in the manual ie:
static byte[] SetBarcodeHeight = new byte[] { 0x1D, 0x68, 0x25 };
static byte[] SetBarcodeWidth = new byte[] {0x1D,0x77,0x03 };
static byte[] EAN13BarCodeStart = new byte[] { 0x1D, 0x6B, 67, 13 };
string BarcodeString(string barcode)
{
string s = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(SetBarcodeHeight);
s+=ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(SetBarcodeWidth);
s+=string.Format("{0}{1}",ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(EAN13BarCodeStart),barcode);
return s;
}
Now all you need to do is send the string to the printer using the RawPrinter from the link above. The HEX Codes are available in the Epson manual. This example is for EAN13 only, to change the barcode symbology you would just need to create byte arrays for each supported barcode type