Intermec printers support internal resident fonts, TrueType fonts, and downloadable bitmaps. A standard viewer may substitute a missing font with Arial, masking a disaster. A high-quality viewer will either:
If you are looking for a sleek, modern drag-and-drop interface, this is not the tool for you. The UI is functional and utilitarian, resembling classic Windows utility software.
A pharmaceutical distributor using Intermec PM4i printers experienced recurring chargebacks from a major retailer: the barcodes on shipping labels were intermittently failing (grade “D” or “F”). The labels passed the naked eye but failed scanners. intermec label viewer high quality
The Problem: Their legacy label viewer could not simulate the printer’s 300 DPI mode accurately. It flattened the image to 96 DPI, hiding a subtle bar widening issue caused by incorrect thermal transfer settings.
The Solution: They deployed a high-quality Intermec label viewer that supported raw IPL preview at 300 DPI. The viewer revealed that the bar width reduction (BWR) setting was misconfigured—bars were 0.002 inches too thick. Cons: In the viewer, create a test batch:
The Result: After correcting the BWR and validating with the high-quality viewer, barcode grades returned to “A” across all labels. Chargebacks stopped, saving approximately $200,000 annually.
The viewer must ship with a validated set of Intermec resident fonts. It should also accurately render scalable fonts like Swiss 721 (Helvetica equivalent) and Dutch 801 (Times equivalent) at various pitch sizes (10, 12, 17 cpi). Cons: In the viewer
Pros:
Cons:
In the viewer, create a test batch: run 50 sequential serial numbers through the preview. Look for truncation, alignment drift, or character density changes.