Visual Basic Barcode Integration Guide & Tutorial
Integrate barcoding into Microsoft® VB 6 and Visual Basic .NET

IDAutomation.com provides several products and options for implementing barcodes in VB with flexible license agreements to meet a variety of needs including single user licenses and royalty-free developer licenses. The following chart may be used to determine the best product needed:

Self-Checking Barcode Fonts (including MICR and OCR fonts) are compatible with Visual Basic and may be used with ease. To use a self-checking font such as Code 39, insert an asterisk "*" before and after the data encoded. Therefore, to encode TEST3OF9 in a barcode, the text of *TEST3OF9* would need to be present in a field with the Code 39 font selected. When using the Codabar Font for numbers only, use the 'A' character instead of the asterisks.

The following is a VB 6 example of printing the Code 39 bar-code font from Visual Basic, where variable is a string to encode in the barcode:
Printer.FontName = "IDAutomationHC39M"
Printer.CurrentY = 3000
Printer.FontSize = 12
Printer.Print  "*" & variable & "*"
Printer.FontSize = 10
Printer.FontName = "Helv"  'Switch to a text font
Printer.Print "The above barcode is code-39"
Printer.EndDoc 'This tells the printer to eject the page

Barcode may also be printed from a field in a database via the data control, for example:
Printer.Print  "*" & Data1.Recordset("field1") & "*"

The start and stop characters may also be appended to the variable, for example:
variable ="*" & DataString  & "*"
Printer.Print  variable

When printing with Crystal Reports, refer to the Crystal Reports Integration Guide for the best implementation method.

'Set the font of the font object and the data to encode
PrintFont = New Font("IDAutomationHC39L", 12)
VariableToPrint = "*" & "128-39-200-128" & "*"

'Add an event handler that will be called for each page that is generated
AddHandler PrintDoc.PrintPage, AddressOf Me.PrintDoPrintPage

'Initiate the printing of the document
PrintDoc.Print()
'****

The following code should be placed in the event handler, which places the data on the page:
Dim linesPerPage As Single = 0        'Number of lines (bar codes) that you will be able to fit on the page
Dim yPos As Single = 0                    'yPos on the page of the bar code
Dim leftMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Left    'left margin of bar code
Dim topMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Top   'top margin of bar code
Dim line As String = Nothing        'String that font will be applied to and printed

'Calculate the number of lines to print per page that we can fit based on the
'height of the font
linesPerPage = ev.MarginBounds.Height / PrintFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)

'Set the y position of the font (how far down on the page it prints
yPos = 100

'Set the text that we will print
line = VariableToPrint

'Send the string to the printer. An empty string format variable is passed in. This
'variable can do any formatting on the string that is necessary
ev.Graphics.DrawString(line, PrintFont, Brushes.Black, leftMargin, yPos, New StringFormat())

When printing with Crystal Reports, refer to the Crystal Reports Integration Guide for the best implementation method.

The IDAutomation VB Font Module (or source code from the module) calculates the start, stop and check digits for the barcode and returns a text string, that when combined with the appropriate IDAutomation Barcode Font, creates a correct barcode. VB developers may add this module to their Visual Basic applications and access the functions directly. Using this module, there is nothing to distribute with the application except the barcode font because the functions of the module are compiled into the EXE file.

Note: Depending on the method used, a parameter may be required. For example, Code128("123456",0,True).

1. Install the desired IDAutomation Barcode Font package. If unsure of which is needed, IDAutomation recommends the Code 128 Font Advantage Package because this package includes several fonts in different heights and it encodes all letters and numbers.
2. Download the Visual Basic Barcode Font Module and extract the IDAutomation.bas file into the VB project directory.
3. Open Visual Basic; Choose Project - Add Module.
4. Select the IDAutomation.bas file.
5. Now that the module is part of the project, the methods of the module used to format text to the barcode fonts may be called. For example:
   Printer.FontName = "IDAutomationC128L"
   Printer.CurrentY = 3000
   Printer.FontSize = 16
   Printer.Print  Code128(Data1.Recordset("field1"), 0)
   Printer.FontSize = 10
   Printer.FontName = "Helv"  'Switch back to a text font
   Printer.Print "The above barcode was printed with the IDAutomation Code 128 Font"
   Printer.EndDoc 'This tells the printer to eject the page

1. Install the desired IDAutomation Barcode Font package. If unsure of which is needed, IDAutomation recommends the Code 128 Font Advantage Package because this package includes several fonts in different heights and it encodes all letters and numbers.
2. Download the Visual Basic Barcode Font Module and extract the IDAutomation.vb file into the VB project directory.
3. In Visual Basic .NET, Choose Project - Add Existing Item.
   
4. Select the IDAutomation.vb file. After adding the module, it should show up in the IDE.
   
5. Now that the module is part of the project, the functions of the module may be used to format text to IDAutomation Barcode Fonts. For example:
   TextVariable = Code128("Code 128 Font Test", 0)  returns a character string, that when combined with the bar code font, creates a correct barcode.
6. The following code example prints a bar code in VB.NET:
   Import the System.Drawing.Printing class and define a class level variable:
   Imports System.Drawing.Printing
   Private PrintFont As Font                'Class level variable.
   private VariableToPrint as string    'Class level variable representing the data to print
   
   Place code in an object event to generate the page(s) to be printing:
   '****Code within the object generating the print, such as a toolbar button...
   'Initialize the Print Document object that will be sent to the printer
   Dim PrintDoc As New PrintDocument()
   Dim VariableToPrint as string            'variable that we are printing

   'Set the font of the font object and the text to encode
   PrintFont = New Font("IDAutomationHC39M", 12)
   VariableToPrint = "*" & "12827384736388" & "*"

   'Add an event handler that will be called for each page that is generated
   AddHandler PrintDoc.PrintPage, AddressOf Me.PrintDoPrintPage

   'Initiate the printing of the document
   PrintDoc.Print()
   '****
   
   The following code should be placed in the event handler, which places the data on the page:
   Dim linesPerPage As Single = 0        'Number of lines (bar codes) that you will be able to fit on the page
   Dim yPos As Single = 0                    'yPos on the page of the bar code
   Dim leftMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Left    'left margin of bar code
   Dim topMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Top   'top margin of bar code
   Dim line As String = Nothing        'String that font will be applied to and printed

   'Calculate the number of lines to print per page that we can fit based on the
   'height of the font
   linesPerPage = ev.MarginBounds.Height / PrintFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)

   'Set the y position of the font (how far down on the page it prints
   yPos = 100

   'Set the text that will print
   line = VariableToPrint

   'Send the string to the printer. An empty string format variable is passed in. This
   'variable can do any formatting on the string that is necessary
   ev.Graphics.DrawString(line, PrintFont, Brushes.Black, leftMargin, yPos, New StringFormat())

The IDAutomation.com ActiveX controls allow generation of Windows Enhanced Metafile images and printing from Visual Studio.NET. IDAutomation recommends using .NET Forms Controls instead of ActiveX if possible.

1. Purchase or download and install the ActiveX Control.
2. Open a VB .NET Project and choose Project | Add Reference.
   
3. Select the appropriate IDAutomation Barcode Component from the COM components tab of the reference list. Click Select. Click OK.
   
4. The following code examples use the IDAutomation.com Linear Bar Code ActiveX control in the object named axBarCode1 to print to the default printer:

Private Sub cmdPrintToPrinter_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdPrintToPrinter.Click

    Dim pd As New PrintDocument()
   
    'Add an Event Handler for printing
    AddHandler pd.PrintPage, AddressOf Me.pd_PrintPage
   
     'Fire off the print page event.
    pd.Print()
End Sub

'Event handler for the PrintDocument
Private Sub pd_PrintPage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal ev As PrintPageEventArgs)
    Dim linesPerPage As Single = 0
    Dim yPos As Single = 0
    Dim count As Integer = 0
    Dim leftMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Left     'Left Margin of Page
    Dim topMargin As Single = ev.MarginBounds.Top     'Top Margin of Page.
    Dim line As String = Nothing                                            'Data that we will write to the printer

    ' Calculate the number of lines per page based on the height of the font that was sent.
    linesPerPage = ev.MarginBounds.Height / printFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)

    ' Print each line of the file.
    line = "IDAutomation.com, Inc. VB Dot Net Example"

    'Set the y co-ordinate of where we are going to print the Line
    yPos = topMargin + count * printFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)

    'Send the string to the printer
    ev.Graphics.DrawString(line, printFont, Brushes.Black, leftMargin, yPos, New StringFormat())

    'Increase the line count
    count += 1

    'Set the y position of the next line
    yPos = topMargin + count * printFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)

    'Set the second string to be printed. We have to account for the actual printing position of the
    'bar code when displaying yPos in this line. yPos set above is actually the location that this line
    'will be printed on.
    line = "Printing the Enhanced Metafile version of the barcode at X=" & leftMargin & ", Y=" & yPos + (topMargin + ((count + 1) * printFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)))
   
    'Print the string
    ev.Graphics.DrawString(line, printFont, Brushes.Black, leftMargin, yPos, New StringFormat())

    'Increase the line count
    count += 1

    'Increase the ypos
    yPos = topMargin + count * printFont.GetHeight(ev.Graphics)
   
    'Print the enhanced metafile image of the bar code
    ev.Graphics.DrawImage(AxBarCode1.GetEnhWMF, leftMargin, yPos)

End Sub

An image may also be saved the a local hard drive with the following code:
Private Sub cmdSaveToFile_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdSaveToFile.Click
    AxBarCode1.SaveBarCode("C:\SavedBarCode.wmf")
End Sub

Copying the image to the clipboard is only supported with IDAutomation's .NET Forms Controls. When printing with Crystal Reports, refer to the Crystal Reports Integration Guide for the best implementation method.

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