Adding Accented Letters to a Ticket Face

Printing accented letters on tickets limits you to using Font F13.

This means for any field that has an accented letter within it, the line must use font F13 (other lines of coding can be any other font you wish). This is the only available font within the default language for the ticket printer that uses the extended ASCII character set.

Click here to download a table of Font 13 codes or refer to the table at the bottom of this help page.

Why don't thermal printers support accents in all fonts?

Automatic printing of French or other European characters is not easily done using ticket printers. To understand why, is a bit of a trip through computer history. ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a character encoding system based on the English Alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, printers and any other device that uses text. ASCII first came from telegraphic codes. Its first commercial application was a code for teleprinters. It began in the 1960s and the last update to the character set was in 1986. It was the standard world wide until 2008 when it was surpassed by UTF-8.

As computer technology spread, the ASCII character set spread with it and the Europeans decided to get creative and put some accented characters in some of the empty slots in the character set -- where these characters was not standardized into the exteneded ASCII set until the 1970's. Because of this the characters are non-standard and their placement in the listing in irregular.

Because this was a large problem, they invented UTF-8 (about 1992 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8) , the universal character set. UTF 8 is designed to hold 2 billion plus character combinations, including the entire Chinese character set. All new computers, realizing that foreign language is a benefit, support this. Theatre Manager is fully UTF8 -- you can put accented characters into the database. You can print them on reports. You can add them to emails. all those products also understand UTF8 so characters are no issue.

Unfortunately, it is not the same for the ticket printers. Ticket printers do not understand UTF 8. They are limited to ASCII and a few variations. The only font supplied with the printers is the extended ASCII set in Font 13. Click here to access the Practical Automation Printer manual.

 

How to use FONT 13 to get accented characters

In some instances, a Play or Event title or other piece of information you need to print on a ticket face, includes an accented letter. The following instructions will allow you to make that edit.

  1. Chose Setup --> Ticket Faces to open the Ticket Face List Window.

    For more information on the click here.

  2. In order to have accented characters appear on a ticket face, you will need to HARD CODE the accent onto the ticket face. For Example, to have Théatre appear on a ticket face,

  3. Create a new ticket face, or a duplicate of an exiting ticket face.

    This will allow you to continue using the original ticket face for your events that do not require any accented characters. For more information on designing ticket faces, please click here.

  4. Double-click the line of ticket face code to edit to include the accented text.

    This opens the Ticket Face Detail window for that line of code.

    For information about formatting ticket faces, click here.

  5. Select Font F13 from the Font Drop Down Menu. .

    Selection of any font, other than F13, will print "?" for the character. Any other fonts available do not reference the extended ASCII character set.

  6. Click here to download a table of Font 13 codes.

  7. Enter the Code con(chr(128),'a devrait 'chr(136)'tre moi')

    To add the title:Ça devrait être moi

  8. Font 13 Characters and Numbers

    Click here to download a table of Font 13 codes.

    DecCharDescriptionDecCharDescription
    128
    Ç
    Latin upper case C with cedilla192
    Graphic Character
    129
    ü
    Latin lower case u with diaeresis193
    "
    130
    é
    Latin lower case e with acute194
    "
    131
    â
    Latin lower case a with circumflex195
    "
    132
    ä
    Latin upper case A with circumflex196
    "
    133
    à
    Latin lower case a with grave197
    "
    134
    å
    Pilcrow sign198
    ã
    Latin lower case a with tilde
    135
    ç
    Latin lower case c with cedilla199
    Ã
    Latin upper case A with tilde
    136
    ê
    Latin lower case e with circumflex200
    Graphic Character
    137
    ë
    Latin lower case e with umlaut201
    "
    138
    è
    Latin lower case e with grave202
    "
    139
    ï
    Latin lower case i with umlaut203
    "
    140
    î
    Latin lower case i with circumflex204
    "
    141
    ì
    Double low line205
    "
    142
    Ä
    Latin upper case A with grave206
    "
    143
    Å
    Section sign207
    "
    144
    É
    Latin upper case E with acute208
    ð
    Latin lowercase eth
    145
    æ
     ligature209
    Ð
    Latin uppercase Eth
    146
    Æ
    Latin upper  ligature210
    Ê
    Latin upper case E with circumflex
    147
    ô
    Latin lower case o with circumflex211
    Ë
    Latin upper case E with umlat
    148
    ö
    Latin lower case o with umlaut212
    È
    Latin upper case E with accent
    149
    ò
    Latin lower case o with grave213
    Latin lower case dotless i
    150
    û
    Latin lower case u with circumflex214
    Í
    Latin upper case I with accent
     151
    ù
    Latin lower case u with grave215
    Î
    Latin upper case I with circumflex
    152
    ÿ
    Latin lower case y with umlaut216
    Ï
    Latin upper case I with umlaut
    153
    Ö
    Latin upper case O with umlaut217
    Graphic Caracter
    154
    Ü
    Latin upper case U with umlaut218
    "
    155
    ø
    Small slashed zero219
    "
    156
    £
    Pound Sign220
    "
    157Ø Large slashed zero 221
    "
    158
    x
    Times222
    Ì
    Latin upper case I with grave
    159
    ƒ
    Latin lower case f with hook223
    Graphic Character
    160
    á
    Latin lower case a with acute224
    Ó
    Latin upper case O with accent
    161
    í
    Latin lower case i with acute225
    ß
    Eszett or Sharp S
    162
    ó
    Latin lower case o with acute226
    Ô
    Latin upper case O with circumflex
    163
    ú
    Latin lower case u with acute227
    Ò
    Latin upper case O with grave
    164
    ñ
    Latin lower case n with tilde228
    õ
    Latin lower case O with tilde
    165
    Ñ
    Latin upper case N with tilde229
    Õ
    Latin upper case O with tilde
    166ªfeminine ordinal indicator 230
    µ
    Micro sign
    167
    º
    Degree Symbol231
    þ
    Lower case letter Thorn
    168
    ¿
    Inverted Question Mark232
    Þ
    Upper case letter Thorn
    169®Registered Trade Mark - note it is not the 'tm' symbol233
    Ú
    Latin upper case U with acute
    170
    ¬
    Not sign234
    Û
    Latin upper case U with circumflex
    171
    ½
    Fraction one half235
    Ù
    Latin upper case U with grave
    172
    ¼
    Fraction one quarter236
    ý
    Latin lower case y with acute
    173
    ¡
    Reversed Exclamation Mark237
    Ý
    Latin upper case Y with acute
    174
    «
    Left-pointing double angle quotation mark238
    Graphic character
    175
    »
    Right-pointing double angle quotation mark239
    "
    176
     
    Graphic character 240
    "
    177 " 241
    "
    178
     
    " 242
    "
    179 " 243
    "
    180 " 244
    "
    181
    Á
    Latin upper case A with acute245
    "
    182
    Â
    Latin upper case A with circumflex246
    "
    183
    À
    Latin upper case A with grave247
    "
    184©Copyright248
    "
    185
     
    Graphic Character 249
    "
    186 " 250
    "
    187
     
    " 251
    "
    188
    " 252
    189
    ¢
    Cent Sign253
    "
    190
    ¥
    Yen254
    "
    191
    Graphic Character 255
    "