Command String Argument Types
Important
The modern print platform is Windows' preferred means of communicating with printers. We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for printer device development.
For more information, see Modern print platform and the Print support app design guide.
When you include arguments in command strings, you must specify each argument's type. Each argument type specification is a single letter, preceded by a percent sign.
The following table lists all the argument type specifiers:
| Argument type specifier | Description of resulting value |
|---|---|
| %<Digits>d | ASCII string representing a decimal value, including a minus sign if negative. <Digits> is an optional number indicating the string length. |
| %<Digits>D | ASCII string representing decimal value, including a plus or minus sign. <Digits> is an optional number indicating the string length. |
| %c | Binary byte. |
| %C | Binary byte added to ASCII "0". |
| %f | Unsigned ASCII string representing a decimal value, with a decimal point inserted as the third character from the right, as in "12.25". |
| %g | 2 * ABS(Parameter) + IS_NEGATIVE(Parameter) as a base-64 number, least significant digit to most significant digit. The most significant digit (0-63) is represented by bytes 191 through 254. All other digits are represented by bytes 63 through 126. "IS_NEGATIVE(Parameter)" is 1 if Parameter is negative, and zero otherwise. |
| %l | Binary word, least significant byte first. |
| %m | Binary word, most significant byte first. |
| %n | Canon integer encoding. Binary value encoded from most significant byte to least significant byte. The 4 least significant bits are encoded as 001sbbbb, where s represents the sign (0 is negative, 1 is positive), and b represents a significant bit of the integer. The next most significant 6 bits are encoded as 01bbbbbb. For example, 254 (11111110) is represented as (01001111 00111110). |
| %q | ASCII string representing a QUME hexadecimal number. For Toshiba/Qume devices. |
| %v | NEC VFU (Vertical Format Unit) encoding. The specified variable's value is divided by 1/6 inch. The result is the number of times VFU data is sent to the printer. |
You can specify a range of acceptable values for any argument. To do so, include the argument's minimum and maximum values by placing them inside a set of square brackets ( [, ] ), immediately following the argument type specifier, and separating the values by a comma. For example, the following command specifies 0 through 255 as an acceptable range for the value of LinefeedSpacing/2:
*Command:CmdSetLineSpacing{*Cmd:"<1B>3"%c[0,255]{(LinefeedSpacing/2)}}