News
17/06/2010
Finally got around to going through the website with a fine tooth comb and weeding out some errors and some omissions. The site now, at long last, reflects version 2.3.2 of the code.
Robin.
29/05/2010
Version 2.3.2 released! As promised Zint release 2.3.2 is here at last. It (hopefully) includes all of
the bug-fixes and suggestions I have received since the last version, and the
Windows binary is also now available.
Grab the latest Zint from the usual Sourceforge address:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/zint/ Robin.
17/05/2010
After a long time not being able to do any work on Zint I am finally getting around to catching up with some of the bug reports and getting closer to a new release.
As of today I am changing the "official" method of contacting the development team: rather than contacting me directly could I now ask that bug reports / feature requests / general questions regarding Zint be posted to the project mailing list at zint-barcode@lists.sourceforge.net. I will start sending all communications regarding Zint via this list to make it more visible to all. I hope this move will also stop things from grinding to a halt should I be taken ill again! I will update the website to reflect this move in due course.
To avoid confusion and to, hopefully, bring all of the communication regarding Zint together into one place I will also be closing the forums on Sourceforge. This means that the few posts currently in the forum will disappear but I believe this is a better choice in the long term.
Those who have already contacted me but haven't had an answer yet don't need to re-post on the list - I should be able to catch up with your issues shortly.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank regular users of Zint for their patience and a special thank you to those who have submitted bug reports.
Regards,
Robin.
08/03/2010
Version 2.3.1 is now available. Get it now from the links to the left. Documentation will catch up over the next few days.
26/01/2010
Update and Plans for 2010?
I haven't had a chance to update this log for a while so here's an update of what's happened and where I think the project is going.
More hosts for Windows Zint.
Two more download sites have chosen to host Zint. You will no doubt have noticed already the links for GearDownload.com and FibreDownload.com on the right. I have already found these resources very useful for getting around firewalls which don't allow access to Sourceforge so I am grateful to them for hosting my software.
Bugfixes
There have been a few minor bugfixes made. In particular I have managed to resolve the issue of the text always being the same size, and it now scales with the rest of the image when using the scale option. As a byproduct of this I have also managed to resolve the long standing problem of not being able to scale Maxicode symbols. There is a rather silly bug in MicroPDF417 (silly as in "I should have spotted that one!"), which generates complete gibberish output symbols. I expect to be able to release version 2.3.1 which includes these fixes some time in February.
The Future
I don't like making predictions about what is going to happen, because they are almost always wrong, but here are the things I would like to do this year:
More Standards
Most of my attention so far on Zint has been on increasing the number of barcode standards supported and improving that support. I expect to be moving away from this in 2010 but there are still some standards I would like to add. Top of this list is TLC39, a composite symbology used in telecommunications. The reason I specifically want to add this symbology is because it is the only remaining standard which forms part of the ZPL-II specification which is not supported by Zint. ZPL is the language used to communicate with printers manufactured by Zebra. If it's good enough for Zebra then it's good enough for Zint!
Packaging
Zint needs to be packaged better for Linux platforms. Specifically it needs to be split into separate packages. One for the library and CLI and another for the Qt4 interface. These packages then need to be available in both Debian and Red Hat format. As part of this change I plan to remove the makefiles which are currently part of the source code bundle and refine the cmake configuration to allow compiling of either the whole package or the CLI only.
I also intend to spend some time looking at packaging on other platforms. Specifically I would like to improve support for using Zint on Open BSD and/or Free BSD. I hope this will also make life easier for users of Apple OSX which I am unable to get access to.
Windows users have not been forgotten but, thanks to the fantastic work which has been contributed by others, this platform now has a most complete packaging solution and I can't see anything which needs to be changed here in the coming year.
Taking the next step
A package which just produces barcodes can be quite useful but in order to make proper use of those barcodes you need to get them on paper! For this reason I am looking at expanding my horizons a bit and have already started looking at integraing Zint with both KBarcode and glabels, two open source label-printing applications released for KDE and Gnome respectively. While this doesn't affect Zint specifically it should, I hope, make barcoding a much more pleasant experience in the open source world.
Bugs Bugs Bugs
I am quite sure there are still more bugs just waiting to be found and work to remove them will continue as they become apparent or are reported. Also you may have already read that Codablock-F will be coming out of the next release. The reasons for this are given below.
Wrappers
Some people have been good enough to provide wrappers to use the Zint library in other languages. I currently have code for C++, Delphi and PHP but haven't yet had the chance to properly look at this code or add it to the project. If you are looking for this functionality then please contact me and I will be happy to forward what I have. I hope to be able to add this code to the project this year.
Feedback
I always welcome feedback about Zint whether positive or negative (although I prefer positive!). Over the last year I have had some really nice comments which I feel it only fair to share. What success Zint is enjoying is due to the fact that so many have provided feedback, suggestions and sometimes even code, so this praise really belongs to all of you who have contributed. I would like to give you all proper credit but, to be honest, I'm just not that organised!
"thanks a lot for providing zint, very good piece of work." - Walt
"Thank for your time and good work!" - Eric
"I tried Zint BG and found it not only very useful but also very comfortable and very adjustable, great work thank you! Now I don't need CorelDraw anymore, cause Inkscape + Zint give me all I need to design the retail packages." - Paul
"I've been using several different symbologies from Zint and they have made my life much easier. Thank you!" - Monica
"Thank you very much for the great zint library.... Please keep on working on this great lib." - Benjamin
"Hi, thank you for writing the great barcode generator." - Joie
"Great work by the Zint team." - Mohammed
"Thumbs up! Your app rocks!!!" - Marv
"outstanding! Thanks for your help and nice job on this!" - Harrison
"I've used zint in all sorts of weird places and recommended it everywhere. Thanks much for the most awesome software." - Michael
Thank you,
Robin.
26/01/2010
Codablock-F
There is a problem with the implementation of Codablock-F in Zint which I have been unable to resolve. The problem is simply that the codes as generated by Zint cannot be decoded by commercial decoding software. I have been investigating this for some time and the problem seems to run much deeper than I at first suspected:
By picking apart Codablock-F symbols produced by some commercial products it becomes clear that the Codablock-F standard as used in industry is actually quite different from the standard as specified in the USS documentation from AIM. In particular the strict rules in that standard regarding the switching between modes within a row seem to be simply ignored. Also a completely different algorithm seems to be used for calculating the K1 and K2 check digits. Despite my best efforts I have not been able to work out what this algorithm is. I can find no alternative source for a symbology specification other than the ANSI/AIM document which I have. Unfortunately I think that the time has come to accept defeat on this and move on. I have therefore decided to remove the Codablock-F functionality from Zint. I apologise to those who were asking for this to be fixed but withoutmore information about this "standard" I cannot progress any further.
I do not understand how this situation has come about. My best guess is that the standard had become fragmented with different vendors having different versions of Codablock-F, one of which eventually became a de facto standard. It seems to me that the standard is simply "broken" and, based on these experiences, I would recommend people simply shouldn't use it. Thankfully there are now plenty of alternatives. If you can shed any more light on what is happening here or would like more information about the problem then please e-mail me.
Robin.