After more than 5 months of development, the KBarcode team has released version 1.2.0 of KBarcode. This latest stable release brings professional high-quality label printing to the KDE desktop. In fact, KBarcode is already used by a few companies under production conditions and has proven to be reliable and stable -- considering the high costs for similar commercial applications, KBarcode might save you some money! KBarcode supports labels with most major barcode types, images, as well as any kind of rich text, and can be used for everything from simple CD covers to printing thousands of business cards. Labels can easily be created using the WYSIWYG label designer (misc shot) and over 1000 predefined labels. Configuring is easy thanks to the graphical setup wizard, which can also optionally create SQL tables. KBarcode is available in English, Finish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. For further information on documentation and support, click here.
Comments
I haven't trie dit , but I checked out their website. IT looks nice and the screenshots show that their program is very capable.
As our website is down, because of a harddisk failure and it will take some time to get it up again, you can still download KBarcode and the PDF Documentation from our sourceforge page http://www.sf.net/projects/kbarcode. I attached also a screenshot of KBarcode to this post so that you can still see the label editor in action.
CU Dom (KBarcode Programmer)
The website is up and running again thanks to a new harddisk :-).
CU Dom
YOU GOT to be kidding me!!
Dear developers of this program, if you are reading to this, PLEASE shrink your user interface!!!
You have some dialogs over there that DO NOT FIT on a 1024x768 resolution which is what *most people* have today (and about 10% of the users are still on 800x600)! You have some dialogs there that are **UNESESSARY** long or wide!!!
Please, I beg you, pay some attention on how you design that stuff.
Also, it is not just the 1024x768 users that will have problem, but even if you are on 1600x1200, that application steals real screen estate for NO GOOD REASON.
Other than that, it seems like a fin application, but its UI needs serious fixing. :(
Eh, besides that you got a point but using a imho wrong tone. It's not like you are seriously having to suffer through this all. 800x600 is overrated nowadays, and this application is a special case application so it's really not like one million helpless users are now having to go suicide due to that program...
1024x768 a standard ? I suppose this is a joke.
We talk about a software which is used in the industry, not in a student room :)
And in a production environment, there is no need (and what's more, it's unuseable) for résolutions you talk about.
We need to read a screen from 6 feet (in front to, not under :p).
Most of the society i work for are still using 640x480 to please the opérators.
So ... no good reason ? You must be joking (especially with 1600x1200 !) :)
Mike
I tried KBarcode today for the first time in 1024x768 and I found _no_ dialog that did not fit into this resolution. Sure, there are some who are to big for 800x600, but I think that I cannot care for everyone and most people use 1024x768 on the desktop now.
But there is no problem at 1024x768 as I exspected it. So would you please be so kind a show/tell me which dialogs make problems for you so that I can fix the problem.
BTW, KBarcode is no program that you will use from a 6 feet distance so there is definitly no need for it working in 640x480.
CU Dom (KBarcode Programmer)
> so there is definitly no need for it working in 640x480.
Think of an embedded system using your app, maybe with the size of a PDA.
Sure, it is a regular job for me to Print 10.000 labels with barcode from my PDA or even my mobile phone! ;-)
KBarcode is written for use on Desktop PC's and nothing else!
CU Dom
Maybe you use it for that, but what about others? What if I am working in a shipping and logistics company where I have a pda, walk around to ensure that the 10,000 products people wanted sent are prepped, look at my pda running your program to start the printing of the 10,000 labels.
This is part of the problem of open source software developers. They think they know how everyone will use their software, then when someone comes up with a comment or problem with it, they say 'this is my software, I do what I want, do not tell me what people want'.
Thanks for the code, but with an attitude like that, I doubt you will get many users, let alone bug reports or other tips.
What if I am working in a shipping and logistics company where I have a pda, walk around to ensure that the 10,000 products people wanted sent are prepped, look at my pda running your program to start the printing of the 10,000 labels.
You're kidding, right? Be realistic my friend, that's all he's telling you.
Do you know what a PDA is? It's a flimsy little thing like a palm pilot. You don't sit down and do graphics work with it.
*LOL*
Thanks for your support ac. If you want to print 10.000 labels which will take a few hours anyways, you will have the time to sit down on a desktop PC to start printing I guess.
CU Dom
Thank *you* for KBarcode. :-)
Most people have 1024x768 on their desktops though!! Please remodel your UI.
We consider it important that the UI is useable under 1024x768 and after all my tests it is useable. All dialogs fit perfectly on a 1024x768 screen. If someone is able to show me one that does not fix, I promise to fix it within a few hours.
CU Dom
This one does not fit:
http://www.kbarcode.net/modules/Screenshots/04-batch1.png
It is 770 pixels high, and if you count on this the 64pixels of the KDE Kicker/taskbar, you will need to find a way to make such dialogs no more than 700 pixels high. More over, I would even advocate to make your application workable on a 800x600 resolution too. But as it stands today, even 1024x768 (plus Kicker) doesn't fit some of your dialogs.
Thank you.
JP
Stop acting like a fool. If you indeed use small resolutions like 800x600 or standard 1024x768 then you'd be crazy to set the font size that big like has been done in that screenshot. The default font size in KDE is considerable smaller, and that window (like most others) is respectively smaller then.
Please try the real version instead of looking on old screenshots from older development releases. The dialog from the final version was slightly changed and is now (with a sensible font size) 634 pixels high. I think it fits very good on a 1024x768 screen. Screeshot is attached - so take a look for yourself, please :).
CU Dom
Do a web search for "portable barcode printer". See how many hits come up?
*You* may not have a need for such a thing, but other people do, including at my workplace.
Incidentally, Dominick, this is *not* a criticism of you or KBarcode. It's useful as a desktop app -- we're just constructively suggesting another niche it could be made to fit. Thank you for making it!
My answer may have been a bit harsh, sorry for this. I just wanted to say, that it works under 1024x768.
I see that it is _not_ useable on lower resolutions. I will try to improve it for the next release and I am happy about all your feedback and suggestions.
CU Dom
How about making it useable on 768x1024 (no, that's not 1024x768)? The idea is, that you can rotate some of the new LCD monitors on it's stand. I can tell you, that works awsome. The new RAND features in Xwindows and the support from KDE for this make that you can actually rotate your monitor and have a desktop that is higher than it is wide. It enables you to view your A4 document as a whole and keep it readable at the same time. Many people I've seen working with these screens, prefer the rotated mode.
The moral of the story: don't assume too much about your users system or preferred setup. Although his desktop may be big, it may not all be available for your application. Keep up the good work!
That is really interesting, a did not know that. But I think that all dialogs will already perfectly work on 768x1024, because the problem of my dialogs is their height and not their width ;-). But I will take a deeper look on this and improve support for this monitors.
CU Dom
Actually, OpenSource supports minoritie's needs much better than any closed source software.
In your case, the needs are 100% hypothetical, there is nobody walking around with a PDA to print, let alone designs barcode labels with it.
It's not only hypothetical: It exists, and is being marketed:
http://www.amerbar.com/catalog/pda_printer.asp
OK, nice, it exist. Point is, a PDA is a different kind of platform than the desktop, so you'd need to re-do the interface anyway. Or does your PDA come with a full-flegded keyboard and a mouse? You can't expect desktop software to be immediatly useable on a PDA.
You're right actually. I just found it funny mentioning that nobody goes around printing with a pda ;-)
It's easy to notice that this soft is only desktop oriented. I think I made the wrong assumtion that this tool was more industry oriented, since barcodes are mainly used by industry.
>1024x768 a standard ? I suppose this is a joke.
> We talk about a software which is used in the industry, not in a student room :)
> And in a production environment, there is no need (and what's more, it's >unuseable) for résolutions you talk about.
You're wrong. Think of how most industries work nowadays: embedded systems (note: embedded=usually small), robots with small LCD touch screens as control panel (maybe even smaller than 800x600), numeric controls with same LCD's... It's the student room that has biggest screens nowadays, just to play UT :-)
Argh! Sorry, I didn't read properly what you wrote above. I think we just agree then ;-)
> >1024x768 a standard ? I suppose this is a joke.
> > We talk about a software which is used in the industry, not in a student room :)
> > And in a production environment, there is no need (and what's more, it's >unuseable) for
> résolutions you talk about.
> You're wrong. Think of how most industries work nowadays: embedded systems (note:
> embedded=usually small), robots with small LCD touch screens as control panel (maybe even
> smaller than 800x600), numeric controls with same LCD's... It's the student room that has
> biggest screens nowadays, just to play UT :-)
And kbarcode will never be used on a robot control panel :-). KBarcode is for the use on desktop PC's only, so I think 1024x768 is fine as a minimum resolution requirement. As soon as someone is able to use KBarcode on a embedded system for robot control, I'll change all dialogs to fit on 640x480 ;-).
CU Dom (KBarcode Programmer)
> As soon as someone is able to use KBarcode on a embedded system for robot
> control, I'll change all dialogs to fit on 640x480 ;-).
Considering how quickly the technology is changing, I'm wondering if embedded systems for robot control will support 1024x768 before you redesign the UI to handle lower resolutions ... ?
Excellent piece of software, by the way. I've got a couple wishes I'm going to file on it shortly.
So you seriously think that this is an application that will be used from an embedded device at some plant? Of course that's not how it works. It will be used at the office area of that plant where some employee creates the labels once and for all, and then copies labels onto some standard paper or whatever, and then sends it down to the labelling machines in the plant.
Every office employee at the plant will have a normal computer, nobody has a robot with a small LCD touch screen.
Ah, that's fine. I said this because I had a system in front of me not long ago. It was an automated system, which made some pieces and printed the barcodes in stickers after doing it... This was just a small student project, so it was controlled through a PC, but in a real life system that automation part may not have a 1024x768 screen.
Anyway, to say the truth, it's a really good tool!
we are working on a fix and considering to release 1.2.1 next week (after Easter). We will annouce it here, so please test it.
cu
Stefan Onken
Project Manager Kbarcode
From the screenshots: this is not correct German, right?
"Massen Druck"
"In die Zwischen Ablage Kopieren"
"Eigene Label Definition Hinzofügen"
Sorry, it is "Eigene Label Definition Hinzufügen", but that still looks wrong.
Indeed it is not.
Correct would be:
"Massendruck"
"In die Zwischenablage kopieren"
"Eigene Label-Definition hinzufügen"
Have a nice day/evening/night!
ok, da wir ja alle Legastiker sind (hoffentlich ist das richtig geschrieben :) ), werden wir das deutschen Beschreibungen ändern.
Die Sache mit der Bildschirmanzeige: ok, werden wir berücksichtigen, vielleicht können wir das ja kurzfristig ändern.
cu
Stonki
The screenshot's are from a slighly older version. The final stable release got spell checked, so there are hopefully not that many spelling mistakes in the final :-).
Anyways thanks, for the information, we will update the screenshots as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, we can't right no, because we had an IDE harddisk crash on our server and we are still waiting for a new one. That is also why our webpage can't be accessed right now. Sorry for all the inconviences.
CU Dom (KBarcode Programmer)
catch (LegasthenikerAlarm e)
{
e.replace ("Legastiker", "Legastheniker");
};
LOL! What a word to make a mistake in!
catch( LameCatchUsage& e )
{
e.replace( "LegasthenikerAlarm", "LegasthenikerAlarm&" );
};
// >;-)
Hallo Erik,
when working for more than 9 months on a program like kbarcode, you do not see this kind of mistakes. Please: give us better phrases and keywords for the German and English language. We will release a 1.2.1 version, which will fix the 800x600 problems, so this would be a good opportunity to fix the language as well.
cu
Stefan Onken
Project Manager kbarcode
First KStars, now KBarcode. Quality apps doing a very special and useful job. Keep them coming!
First, let me congratulate for the excellent quality of KBarcode.
Similar software under windows are often based on OLE controls which can be embedded by various applications (word processors, report printers and so on). Can (or will) KBarcode make something like this using KParts?
I already thought about this, because I think it would especially be a good addition for KOffice. Maybe this is a good chance for me to learn KParts better ;-)!
For now you can still export barcodes as png images (or other formats) and import them in almost every app and document. But I know a KPart would be much better.
CU Dom
When it comes to using barcode programs it's not the importing into other apps or documents which is the important task. The important ting is to be able to use it as a lib for printing. Naturally you will use the barcodeapp to design the layout, but what a power user wants is the ability to use this as a template and print from a 3rd party app. The 3rd party app generates someting like part/serial-number or something and the barcode lib generates the barcode from the template and prints it.
In the windows world they would use ActivX not OLE. Having seen this implemented, I can tell you settting up and dumping the ActivX controller into the program took less time than designing the label according to the spec :-)
BTW: How good does it work with dedicated barcodepriners?
DEfinitelly agree with that one. I would like to use it from my "underdeveloppement" library software to print book label. The requirement is just to generate on the fly lable using a specific template for new document.
As of July 24th, 2002 and according to OneStats, common screen resolutions are:
1. 1024 x 768 43%
2. 800 x 600 37%
3. 1280 x 1024 12.9%
4. 1152 x 864 3.8%
5. 640 x 480 1.3%
6. 1600 x 1200 1%
7. 1152 x 870 0.2%
And personaly, I've a 800*600 screen. All programs should be usuable on such a screen.
These are the stats for KDE users in kde-look (which differ quite a lot!):
http://www.kde-look.org/poll/index.php?poll=19
Perhaps because 800x600 is still unusable pretty much in KDE? :)