Zebra Printer Chinese SimSun font

Issue / Question

Information about SimSun font offered by Zebra for printers
What is the SimSun font?
How can I print Chinese characters?
How can I see the SimSun font is loaded in my printer?

Applicable To

ZPL base desktop and tabletop printers.

Resolution / Answer

The SimSun font is a Chinese (Simplified) font base on 宋体 (Song typeface) font, using GB18030 or Unicode character encoding.
It is used in conjunction with ZPL (printer command language) to print Chinese characters with Zebra printers.
This font cannot be purchased from Zebra and printers cannot be upgraded with this font in the field.

The printer models with a China (CN) power cord configuration have been loaded with SimSun font by default.
The GB18030 character set (GB18030.DAT encoding table) is also loaded in these printer configurations.
 

 
The following are ways to identify the fonts installed on your Zebra printer.
 

NOTE Please consult your printer’s User Guide for further details.

1. From the printer’s Control Panel menu, print the font list.  
   
   
   
2. Print the object list. 
   
   
   
3. Send the ZPL command to the printer to printout objects in the printer’s internal flash memory. 

   ^XA^WDE:*.*^XZ
   

   
   

Here is a sample ZPL script to use the SimSun font and GB18030 character set for printing Chinese characters:

^XA
^CW1,E:SIMSUN.TTF
^SEE:GB18030.DAT^CI26
^FO50,60^A1N,20,20^FD简体中文abcd1234^FS
^FO50,160^A1N,30,30^FD简体中文abcd1234^FS
^FO50,260^A1N,50,50^FD简体中文abcd1234^FS
^XZ

A similar result can be achieved using Unicode character encoding.
Here is a sample ZPL script using UTF-8 encoding:

^XA
^CW1,E:SIMSUN.TTF
^CI28
^FO50,60^A1N,20,20^FD简体中文abcd1234^FS
^FO50,160^A1N,30,30^FD简体中文abcd1234^FS
^FO50,260^A1N,50,50^FD简体中文abcd1234^FS
^XZ