Important Note About Format and Graphics Caching in Seagull Printer Drivers

Overview

The format and graphics caching, first added to Seagull´s drivers in early 1998, can significantly speed up print jobs when the drivers are used with BarTender. However, certain actions can sometimes result in labels printing with missing parts. The reasons for this, and the easy solution, are described below. (Note: These issues only apply to Seagull's drivers being used with BarTender.)
 

Understanding Caching

When used with Seagull's BarTender label software, some of Seagull's drivers have the ability to store ("cache") formats and graphics in your printer and reuse them during subsequent print jobs. This can significantly speed up print jobs because large graphics and label formats need only be sent to the printer once.

BarTender is not the only program that can take advantage of caching objects in printers. However, it is the only program we know of that retains complete caching information between print jobs. (That is, you can print a label format one day, turn off your printer and PC, turn them back on the next day, and BarTender will still know what parts of a print job are already stored in the printer.) However, this can sometimes result in BarTender thinking something is stored in the printer that isn't, which will result in labels printing with missing parts.

The Potential Problem

There are situations where BarTender may think that items have been stored in the printer for later reuse that really haven't. Once this happens, BarTender can execute a print job and fail to send certain items to the printer because it thinks that the items are already stored there. This can result in labels with missing parts, or even blank labels. Here are the possible causes:

A print job failure. (For example maybe your printer was off or not properly connected.)

A cancelled print job. (Windows usually doesn't provide Windows programs with enough details about how and when a print job was cancelled.)

Swapping out printers. (Because the one you took away may have had items stored in it and the new one won't.)

Printing to a file instead of the printer. (Because BarTender doesn't know that the data went to a file instead of the printer.)

Networked printing. (Because, if you have multiple computers talking to the same printer, some items that are assumed to have been cached in the printer by one copy of BarTender can get overwritten by another copy of BarTender running on another computer.)
 

Flushing BarTender's Cache Information with One-Button Click

In the first four situations above, the solution is to display the main Setup dialog for your printer driver and push the "Cache" button. In the Cache Options dialog, push the Flush Cache button, and then press Ok. This will tell BarTender to assume that all items previously stored in the printer are now gone, resulting in all label items being sent to the printer during subsequent print jobs (at least until BarTender thinks they are cached again).
 

Disabling Caching

In the case of networked printers, flushing the cache doesn't help you for very long if you have multiple users all talking to the same printer. Unfortunately, in this situation, you need to simply turn off printer caching in the Preferences dialog of BarTender.
 

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