Can I write directly to a USB virtual port ?

[dacad]

I am using a Zebra TLP 2844 printer connected via USB.  It does not generate a conventional serial port but is shown as a virtual printer port in the printer config.

For some reason, the newer driver does not provide the ability to rotate my label 90 degrees and I need to send a printer cmomand straight to the printer.

Any options for this ?

May end up having to find the older printer driver that provides for 90 degree location.

Note this is not a Portrait / Landscape issue as I have many other systems already printing correctly but this is yet another  "Upgrading to Windows 7" issue I have run into.

Thanks for any thoughts...

[Karl-G]

Could you give some details for the community? You mentioned you are using Windows 7 now; were you using Windows XP successfully with this device previously? Checking the company's website, are you using the newest driver (v2.7.03.16)?

[dacad]

At least one other install is also Win 7 running LV 2011 though that should have no effect.  Am using the MS Word specific print functions to populate fields (bookmarks) in a word document (for a label) and sending it to the printer.

The Word document I am using on the other machine prints fine.  On this new setup, it prints incorrectly (rotated 90 degrees so only part of the information prints on the label).  I am using the latest driver. The other machine may not though so I had considered rolling the driver back to a previous version.

Continuing to work on it, I found that an alternate version of the label that I had on hand would print ok.  Tried to compare all the settings between the good printing label and the not good one.  Tried adjusting all that to no avail.  Finally made a copy of the good printing one and pasted the required text and bookmarks and saved it and now it will print.

It seems that the page layout, margins and such are very critical when printing to a small label on this printer. (Label is only 1.75 wide by .75 high)  If I tried to adjust the margins and shift the content, it would change how the label printed (rotation) and I could never recover back to printing correctly.

I am going to file this as a "barely stable document/printer situation" and hope it doesn't take a wild turn.  Will make my label document read-only so that it won't inadvertently get changed.

The reason I wanted to write directly to the USB was to send a raw printer command to rotate the print 90 degrees.  Hopefully I won't have to figure out how to do that now.

Case closed for me at this point.

Thanks....