dLSoft  Newsletter - July 2004

 

Contents

 

1. Product updates and bug fixes
2.
Recent product announcements (from June)
3. Current versions and prices
4.
Contact addresses and internet site

But first…

Microsoft licences dBarcode.NET from dLSoft.

See the Press release at the end of this Newsletter

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1. Product updates & bug fixes

1.1 All dBarcode-DLL products have been updated to include functions that provide device dependent bitmap or device independent bitmap images to be placed directly on the clipboard. The Visual C/C++ 6 and Visual Basic 6 sample programs provided with the products have also been updated to demonstrate a wider range of functionality.

The dBarcode 1D DLLs now have version number 3.15 and the dBarcode 2D DLLs have version number 3.25.

1.2 Some of our 1D barcode products that permit variable wide/narrow bar ratios (principally for Code 39 and Interleaved 2 of 5 barcodes) were producing the correct absolute symbol width only for a bar ratio of 2:1, and were generating incorrect values for higher ratios. This has now been corrected. The following products have been updated accordingly:

Active Barcode components (all 1D versions)
dBarcode DLLs (all 1D versions)
dBarcode-32 Developers Kit
dBarcode-2k
dLabel-2k
dIndex-2k

1.3 Aztec and Datamatrix fonts kits: the fonts included in the kits released in April were not correctly marked as "embeddable" and so could not be embedded into pdf documents. This oversight has not been corrected.

1.4 The Labels.NET components have been updated to correct the size of the clocked barcode types (PostNet and RM4SCC) and to allow the record number to be specified before generating an OnLabel event.

Testware versions are available from our web site and retail prices are at http://www.dlsoft.com/services/data/pplist.htm  Users of the earlier versions may upgrade under our normal terms.

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2. Recent product announcements (from June issue)

2.1 NEW Labels.NET Components

dLSoft is please to announce the release of Labels.NET, a series of components that enable the developer to add label design and printing to projects built using the .NET Framework v 1.1 or later. Designed for use in Visual Studio projects, the standard component can print labels contain text, lines and pictures, the professional version adds most common 1D barcodes, and the 2D version add both 1D and 2D barcodes.

For details see: http://www.dlsoft.com/barcode_products/labelsnet.htm

2.2 .NET components for CE now available

dLSoft has released a number of barcode components designed for the Compact Framework.

Each component is a class DLL designed for creating barcodes in Pocket PC 2003 or Windows CE projects. Components can either draw the barcode on a graphics surface or provide a pattern string allowing developer to draw bars.

For details see:

http://www.dlsoft.com/barcode_products/barcodes_in_windows_ce.htm

2.3 dBarcode.NET components bug fix

Incorrect margin indicators in dBarcode.NET Universal and dBarcode.NET EAN/UPC

The human readable text shown under barcodes based on the EAN-13 format incorrectly show a margin indicator on the left rather than on the right.

The following barcode types are affected:

EAN-13
ISBN
ISSN
ISMN

and all the above with supplementaries

These barcode types are supported by the following products

dBarcode.NET Universal
dBarcode.
NET EAN/UPC

The problem hase been corrected and updated versions of the products are available for registered users.

Updated versions of the complete products from may be downloaded from

http://www.dlsoft.com/downloads/downlddev.htm

The assemblies alone may be downloaded from

ftp://ftp.dlsoft.com/components/

2.4 Extended Code 39 bug fix

The Extended Code 39 algorithm in several of our imaging products incorrectly encodes the – symbol. (Normal Code 39 is not affected)

This bug has been fixed, and the following products have been updated:

Active Barcode Component - 39/93
Active Barcode Component – 1D Universal
Browser Barcode – 39/93
Browser Barcode – Universal
dBarcode-32
dBarcode-32 Developers Kit
dBarcode DLL – 39/93
dBarcode DLL – 1D Universal
dLabel – 2K
dIndex – 2K
Universal Barcode Font Kit

Testware versions are available from our web site and retail prices are at http://www.dlsoft.com/services/data/pplist.htm  Users of the earlier versions may upgrade under our normal terms.

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3. Current versions and prices of dLSoft Products

A list of current versions and release dates is maintained at:

http://www.dlsoft.com/services/data/versions.htm

and a pdf version at

http://www.dlsoft.com/services/data/versions.pdf

The current retail and upgrade price list is available from:

http://www.dlsoft.com/services/data/pplist.htm

and a pdf version at

http://www.dlsoft.com/services/data/pplist.pdf

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4. Contact addresses and internet sites

e-mail: DLSOFT@DLSOFT.COM
Phone: 020 8559 0049  - International +44 20 8559 0049
Fax:   020 8559 0178  - International +44 20 8559 0178
Our main web site is at: www.dlsoft.com

and this contains links to our support site and international mirrors

We also maintain an ftp site at:  ftp://ftp.dlsoft.com

which contains archives of earlier releases and additional support material, manuals, help files, etc.

Testware versions of any of our products can be obtained from any of these locations.

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End

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Previous issues of the newsletter may be obtained from the link on the Newsletter page on our web site.

DL Technology
PO Box 9, Buckhurst Hill, Essex IG9 5BE, UK
Fax
: (44) (0) 20 8559 0178
E-mail:
DLSoft@DLSoft.com
Web site:
http://www.dlsoft.com/

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
June 29, 2004

dLSoft releases labeling and barcode solutions for Visual Studio.NET 

 Components enable developers to add barcodes and label printing capabilities to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 projects

dLSoft today announced it has released several components that add unique features to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 projects.  Labels.NET is a family of fully-managed-code components for designing and printing labels and forms within Visual Studio.NET projects. In addition, dLSoft today released dBarcode.NET, components for the Microsoft .NET Framework that enable the creation of  barcodes within Visual Studio.NET projects.

dLSoft recognizes the growing popularity of .NET technologies and we are excited to offer developers using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework these unique components,” said David Lawes, dLSoft’s Managing Director. 

“Microsoft is pleased dLSoft will build components on top of the Microsoft .NET Framework,” said XX, product manager in the .NET Developer Product Management Group at Microsoft Corp. “Our mutual customers will benefit from the ability to add barcode and label printing capabilities to their Visual Studio .NET projects.”

Labels.NET

Label printing is generally a tricky task, often involving the transfer of data from one application to another which then handles the printing. The Labels.NET components provide developers using Visual Studio .NET 2003 with the ability to incorporate full label printing facilities directly into their projects, while having the option of predefining the label content or allowing the end user to design their own labels.

Three levels of Labels.NET are available:

* Standard component supports text, line and graphic elements.
* Professional version adds support for most common 1D barcode types.
* 2D version includes both 1D and 2D barcode types.

The data source for each text, image or barcode element may be fixed, generated by the in-built wizard (for sequences, dates, etc.) or passed to the component during the Label event triggered as each label is displayed or printed.

All elements may be colored, rotated and provided with borders, and labels/forms may be up to the full printer page size. The Print function permits any number of labels and/or duplicates to be printed either programmatically or via the display of a Print options dialog.

Components are available as single user versions or as developer versions permitting royalty-free distribution of the component for up to 10,000 distributions, with prices starting at $190. Each component is supplied with a demonstration sample including source code in Visual Basic.NET, illustrating both user-design and programmed modes of operation.

dBarcode.NET

Previous barcode solutions for the .NET framework have often involved fonts and/or interoperability techniques, or have not integrated fully with Visual Studio.NET. dBarcode.NET components overcome all these problems by providing fully integrated managed-code components that allow barcode images to be created within the developer’s own .NET application. A barcode image may be displayed on screen or printed on a printer, or the image may be passed to any other image-handling component. Versions are available for most common 1D and 2D barcode types and a 1D-Universal version supports over 30 types. Each component allows full control over all barcode properties both by the Visual Studio.NET developer, or, if the developer wishes, by the end-user of the application.

“Because Microsoft licensed dBarcode.NET so soon after launch, it has become one of the first companies to license the product,” said David Lawes, dLSoft’s Managing Director. “We are very excited about this and hope it will signify the growing significance of specialized components.”

The dBarcode.NET components are available as single user versions or as developer versions permitting royalty-free distribution of the component for up to 10,000 distributions, with prices starting at $260. Each component is supplied with demonstration samples including source code for VB, C# and J#.

Free trial versions of both products may be downloaded from www.dlsoft.com/downloads/downldnets.htm

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For More Information, Press Only:

David Lawes, DL Technology Ltd, phone: (+44) (0) 208 559 0049,
e-mail: dlawes@dlsoft.com