Use the b-PAC SDK version that matches the version of your printer, applications, and Windows OS.

Windows 32 bit
Use b-PAC SDK (32 bit version) and 32 bit applications with a printer supporting b-PAC SDK (32 bit version).

Windows 64 bit
Use b-PAC SDK (64 bit version) and 64 bit applications with a printer supporting b-PAC SDK (64 bit version), or use b-PAC SDK (32 bit version) and 32 bit applications with a printer supporting b-PAC SDK (32 bit version).

Windows 32 bit and 64 bit coexisting on the same computer
Use b-PAC SDK (32 bit version) and 32 bit applications with a printer supporting b-PAC SDK (32 bit version).

Note
Microsoft Office software also has 32 bit and 64 bit versions.

If you have installed b-PAC of a wrong version, uninstall b-PAC once and install the version that matches the version of your application.

Make use of the help files that are installed in addition to sample files written in major development languages.

Access the files from: Windows Start Menu -> All Programs -> Brother b-PAC3 SDK

Newly added functions

b-PAC is newly equipped with functions frequently requested by users, such as follows:

Keeping the conventional "simple installation"

What is more, the enhanced functions are available

Please check the version in "b-PAC operating environment".

Note: b-PAC (64-bit) is not supported by all models.

To use b-PAC on a 64-bit version of Windows with a printer that does not support b-PAC (64-bit), combine the running 32-bit application with one of the following versions of b-PAC:
* b-PAC Ver.3.x (32-bit)
* b-PAC Ver.3.0 or lower (only 32-bit version is available)

For more information about combining 32-bit/64-bit b-PAC and applications, see the following related FAQs:
 [Q] "Which of the 32 bit and 64 bit version b-PAC SDK should I use?"
 [Q] "Which platform should I use to build an application in the Visual Studio development environment?"

Check if your application is compatible with the b-PAC version you are using (32 bit or 64 bit).
The compatibility of applications built with "Any CPU" may vary depending on the Windows version (32 bit or 64 bit). Make sure you select the compatible b-PAC version.

For more information, see the following related FAQs:
 [Q] "Which of the 32 bit and 64 bit version b-PAC SDK should I use?"
 [Q] "Which platform should I use to build an application in the Visual Studio development environment?"

A version upgrade example

List of methods used in b-PAC SDK Ver.2.0.3

The table below summarizes the precautions for applying the methods used in b-PAC SDK Ver.2.0.3 to b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0 and later versions. Basic methods that are frequently used are available as they are with b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0 and later versions.

Please check the following.

1) When 64 bit version Windows is in use
Choose a 32 bit or 64 bit version b-PAC that matches the version of your application.
Please see the following FAQs for details.
"Which of the 32 bit and 64 bit version b-PAC SDK should I use?"

2) Check if necessary library references are set for VBA.
Reference setting is required to use b-PAC with VBA.
References are preset in the attached sample file. If you are creating a new file, you need to select "Brother b-PAC 3.x Type Library" as a name of component to use. (The state with a check mark)

b-PAC SDK is available in two versions, 32 bit and 64 bit versions. You need to select a version that matches the version of your application to use.
Use 32 bit version b-PAC SDK for 32 bit applications, and use 64 bit version b-PAC SDK for 64 bit applications. Select a platform that matches the built application version and the b-PAC version.

b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0 or a later version is needed for PT-9700PC and PT-9800PCN. Previous versions of b-PAC are not supported. Please upgrade to b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0 or a later version. See the following for how to upgrade the version.

Step1.
Install b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0 or a later version.
Install a client component of b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0 or a later version for a computer intended as a client computer.

Step2.
Change the selection of the printing destination target printer to PT-9700PC or PT-9800PCN.
There are two methods to do this. Choose either of the following methods to change the selection.

Method 1
Open a template file (*.lbl, *.lbx), change the printer to PT-9700PC or PT-9800PCN and save the file again.

Method 2
Designate PT-9700PC or PT-9800PCN using the /D option in the Open method. For example, designate as follows.
Open("C:¥Program Files¥Brother bPAC SDK¥Templates¥NamePlate1.lbl /DBrother PT-9700PC")

b-PAC Ver. 3.0/3.1 supports Windows 7.

b-PAC SDK Ver.2.0 and later versions support the .lbx file.

Besides a development environment, the b-PAC SDK, the printer driver for a Brother Label Printer and P-touch Editor are needed to be installed.

To use the PT-2430PC with b-PAC, its printer driver needs to be installed on the PC and the switch behind the printer should be switched to [E].

Although it has not been tested with Delphi, the b-PAC component is implemented as a COM component.
Delphi 5 and later versions can handle a COM automation object such as b-PAC.

<Programming example>
Using Test.lbl as a template file, change a text to 'Hello World!' and print it.

procedure TForm1.LabelPrintClick(Sender: TObject);
var
	V: Variant;
begin
	try
		V := CreateOleObject('BrssCom.Document');
	except
		ShowMessage('Could not start b-PAC component.');
	Exit;
end;

if (V.Open('C:¥Test¥Test.lbl') <> 0) then
	begin
		V.SetText(0. 'Hello World!');
		V.DoPrint(0, '0');
	end;

	V := Unassigned;
end;

No. Only computers running Windows can be used at this time. There are no plans at this time for developing b-PAC for use in other environments.

A b-PAC type of COM interface can be called up from LotusScript of Notes R5 or later. For details, please refer to the Lotus website.

In order to use new functions provided with b-PAC Ver. 3.0/3.1, some methods from b-PAC Ver. 1.0 or 2.0 must be modified as b-PAC Ver. 3.0/3.1 methods. Refer to the replacement samples provided in the Help.

For b-PAC Ver. 2.0.* and before, double clicking BrssCom.exe in C:¥Program Files¥Common Files¥Brother BrssCom.
From b-PAC Ver. 3.0/3.1, display [Properties] of the bPAC.dll in C:¥Program Files¥Common Files¥Brother¥bPAC.
When using b-PAC SDK (32 bit version) on a 64 bit OS, replace "C:¥Program Files" with "C:\Program Files (x86)".

The b-PAC library for JAVA isn't provided.
If it is possible to call up a COM component from JAVA, b-PAC can theoretically be used from JAVA.
We cannot guarantee correct operation, but we have heard there are examples using middleware as a bridge between JAVA and COM.

Please check "PrintFromWebApplication" document.

A print completion event is not notified when b-PAC SDK (32 bit version) Ver.3.1.004 and b-PAC SDK (64 bit) Ver.3.1.003 are used on PJ-773, 763MFi, 763 and 723.

Please check the following.

1) When 64 bit version Windows is in use
Choose a 32 bit or 64 bit version b-PAC that matches the version of your application.
Please see the following FAQs for details.
"Which of the 32 bit and 64 bit version b-PAC SDK should I use?"

2) To run VBScript with 32 bit application on 64 bit version Windows, please use wscript.exe (32 bit version).
Example）How to run VBScript (NamePrn.vbs) from command prompt
%systemroot%\syswow64\wscript.exe NamePrn.vbs

Do one of the following:
1) Create a template and set the target printer for each file.
2) Set the target printer in the b-PAC program.

Note
Make sure all the distributed printer drivers are installed on your computer with separate names (output destinations).

1) Create a template and set the target printer for each file. You can then print to the target printer by selecting its template.

2) Set the target printer using the "SetPrinter" method in the b-PAC program as follows:

The label printer specified in the label template file may be different from the label printer that is actually connected.
Open the label template file in P-touch Editor, and then change the setting for the label printer to be used.
Make sure that the printer to be used for printing is connected and turned on.

Since the label template file contains information on the printer to be used, a label template file containing the new printer information must be prepared.

Install the printer driver for the new label printer to be used, open the label template file in P-touch Editor, and then select the new label printer driver.
Depending on the model to be used, the display area may be slightly different. Therefore, check the label layout, and then save it.

In addition, if the old label printer will no longer be used, we recommend deleting the printer driver.

With Open(), printer enumeration is performed internally.
At this time, if a printer with slow response is connected, for example, a printer on the network that is turned off, Open () will take a long time.

It is confirmed that a phenomenon that the printed text is missing exists on some computer models due to bug of the display driver. It is recommended to check the website of the display manufacturer and upgrade the display driver to the latest version. If the upgraded display driver is unavailable, the following method may be helpful to improve the phenomenon.

Lower the setting in Screen properties > Setup > Details > Troubleshooting > Hardware Accelerator (normally set to maximum) by one level.

Yes. Install the b-PAC and the printer driver on the PC where the print data is created.
When the print data is created on the server PC, the b-PAC should be installed on the client PC as well.

Yes. Install the b-PAC and the printer driver on the server PC.

Yes. Each label template file has a printer information. When creating the template file with the P-touch Editor, make sure to select a printer to be used.
When connecting multiple PT-9500PCs, switch the USB ID switch to [1].

Yes. Install each printer driver and select each label printer with P-touch Editor to create a label template file.

In b-PAC SDK Ver.2.0 and earlier versions, a file is locked and file handling is disabled just by displaying an image file in the picture box.

This problem is solved in b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0.

With P-touch Editor 5, Date and Time objects can be inserted into text objects; however, this cannot be processed with b-PAC.
When using Date and Time objects with b-PAC, arrange them in the label template file as a Date and Time object instead of including them in a text object.

Yes. Use b-PAC Ver. 3.0/3.1. Refer to the help for the detailed explanation.
As for b-PAC Ver. 2.0.* or before, it is not possible to get printer status.

Yes. Open the label template file with P-touch Editor.
With P-touch Editor 5, all the objects in the template file are shown in order in the Show Order tab in Professional mode. Select an object which you want to change the order of and drag it to its new position.
With P-touch Editor 4.2 and former, select an object you want to change the order and change the order by using the Order function in the right click menu.

Use b-PAC Ver. 3.0/3.1.

Print the font used must support the corresponding language, such as Arial font does not support Chinese, print Chinese characters may be blank.
Actual printing will not become blank according to the different operating systems and the default font may have change.
If it is found the text blank, please try to set the font before you print.

Install the provided Client Component Installer (CCI) on the client PC. Or create an installer using the merge module included in the b-PAC SDK and install it on the client PC.

Download the client installer package from the b-PAC Download page. Components needed to run applications using b-PAC will be installed by the installer.
(Documents, samples, sample template files and others that are included in SDK are not copied. A P-touch driver must be correctly installed on the computer used.)

Install the provided CCI and try printing. If printing is successful, the reason of this error is the lack of modules such as msxml4.dll or gdiplus.dll.
Download them from the pages below (make sure they are the latest versions), and copy them to the Windows system folder.
Windows 2000: both msxml4.dll and gdiplus.dll are needed.
Windows XP: msxml4.dll is needed.

Download:

MSXML4*

GDI+*

Make sure to copy them to the Windows system folder.
*: This link goes to the Web site of Microsoft.com

It is because there are insufficient modules for the created installer.
Based on the version of your b-PAC, add the following merge modules and others provided by Microsoft to the installing project and re-create the installer.

* The following merge modules are normally stored in the Program Files folder of a computer installed with Visual Studio.
   e.g. C:¥Program Files (x86)¥Common Files¥Merge Modules¥

With b-PAC 3.0:
 - Visual C++ 8.0 MFC (Microsoft_VC80_MFC_x86.msm)   *Stored in Visual Studio 2005
 - Visual C++ 8.0 CRT (Microsoft_VC80_CRT_x86.msm)   *Stored in Visual Studio 2005
 - GDI+ and MSXML4 are required in some cases. Please see the following FAQ.
   [Q]"When printing, the "Error 429: ActiveX component can't create object." error occurs."

With b-PAC 3.2:
<32 bit version>
 - Visual C++ 14.0 MFC (Microsoft_VC140_MFC_x86.msm)  *Stored in Visual Studio 2015
 - Visual C++ 14.0 CRT (Microsoft_VC140_CRT_x86.msm)  *Stored in Visual Studio 2015
<64 bit version>
 - Visual C++ 14.0 MFC (Microsoft_VC140_MFC_x64.msm)  *Stored in Visual Studio 2015
 - Visual C++ 14.0 CRT (Microsoft_VC140_CRT_x64.msm)  *Stored in Visual Studio 2015
 - Visual C++ 11.0 CRT (Microsoft_VC110_CRT_x64.msm)  *Stored in Visual Studio 2012

These error messages may appear when you are performing the following tasks: 

The tape size specified to be used with the sample may be different from the size of tape actually loaded into the label printer.
In P-touch Editor, open the label template file for the sample (normally, installed at C:¥Program Files¥Brother bPAC SDK¥Templates), and then change the tape size to the size of tape loaded in the label printer.

Check the following.

1) Before you print using b-PAC, make sure you can print from the standard software (P-touch Editor).
If you cannot print from P-touch Editor, check the printer driver settings and connection, and then try again. For more information about solving common printing issues, visit the Brother Solutions Center at support.brother.com.

2) (For Windows 64-bit users only) Choose b-PAC (32-bit) or b-PAC (64-bit) according to the version of your application. For more information, see the following related FAQs:
 [Q] "Which of the 32 bit and 64 bit version b-PAC SDK should I use?"
 [Q] "Which platform should I use to build an application in the Visual Studio development environment?"

3) Make sure the path of the label template file (.lbx file) is correct.
For example, in Excel VBA, the path
Const sPath = "C:\Program Files\Brother bPAC3 SDK\Templates\Asset1.lbx” included in the program needs to match an actual location where the template file (Asset1.lbx) is saved.

You may need to correct the path if:
- The location or name of the template file has changed.
- b-PAC (32-bit) is installed on a 64-bit version of Windows. In this case, change the part underlined below:
 [C:\Program Files (x86)\Brother bPAC3 SDK\Templates\Asset1.lbx].

Please check the following.

Open the label template file with P-touch Editor. With P-touch Editor 5.0, objects contained in the label template file are displayed in order in the "Display Order" tab on the right side of the Professional mode screen. The text displayed at the top is the one last entered, and its index becomes 0.
With P-touch Editor 4.2 and earlier versions, select Display menu > Text Box. Text objects contained in the label template file are displayed in order by pressing the <<Button>> button.

Open the label template file with P-touch Editor. With P-touch Editor 5.0, objects contained in the label template file are displayed in order in the "Display Order" tab on the right side of the Professional mode screen. Select a text object you want to change the order of and drag it to any position to change the index of the text object.
With P-touch Editor 4.2 and earlier versions, select a text object you want to change the order of and change the order to a desired one by selecting [Order] in the right click menu.

Click Printer & Fax to display the label printer properties, and uncheck Enable Bi-Directional Support in the Port tab.

For detailed information about cut options, see the b-PAC SDK Help:
1. Click Start > All Programs > Brother b-PAC3 SDK, and then click the help file you want.
2. In the help file, go to [APPENDIX] > [Printout samples and cut option combinations for each major device type].
3. Click your model from the model list. (The available cut options depend on the model.)

Cut options can be described either by an enumerator value that starts with "bpo" or by a numeric value, depending on your script language. Use the numeric value in VBScript.
Refer to the samples in the b-PAC help > [Sample Codes] > [Sample printout].

When combining multiple cut options, enter the enumerator values connected with the "Or" operator, or enter the result of the "Or" operation of the numeric value in the StartPrint command.

- Combining the "Half cut" and "Chain print" cut options allows you to cut labels manually after printing:
     enumerator value : bpoHalfCut Or bpoChainPrint
     numeric value : &H600

=== (In the case of VBA) ===
[* The previous part is omitted.]
ObjDoc.StartPrint ( "Document_xxxx", bpoHalfCut Or bpoChainPrint )
  [If there is a loop command, place the loop start command after StartPrint.]
ObjDoc.PrintOut ( 1, 0 )
  [If there is a loop command, place the loop end command between PrintOut and EndPrint.]  ObjDoc.EndPrint ( )
===
  * The second argument of the PrintOut command is "0" because it is null.

You can also specify other settings, such as the print resolution.
For more information, search for "PrintOptionConstants" in the b-PAC help.

With the text object set as

use the SetText() method with aaa as Text 0 and bbb as Text 1. (The index figure varies by content of the label template created.)

This could be possible by using a combination of a cut function on the label printer and the cut option of b-PAC.
Refer to the b-PAC Ver. 3.0/3.1 help "Printout samples and cut option combinations for each major device type" for detailed information.

Please see "b-PAC Download" for details.

Yes. The Export method is available with the b-PAC component. With the Export method, a bitmap file of the specified resolution (dpi) can be generated in the specified folder.

With PT-9200DX, if a resolution of 360 dpi is specified, a bitmap image that is the same as the actual printout will be generated. The image cannot be previewed directly on the screen using the Export method; however, an image of the finished product can be checked before the label is printed.

For more details on using the Export method, refer to the b-PAC SDK documentation and the ¥Samples¥VBS¥VBS_NamePlate.html file that is available after installing b-PAC.

b-PAC SDK Ver.1.5.4 and later versions provide an option to maintain the aspect ratio.
With b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0, set "4" to the third parameter of IObject::SetData().
With b-PAC SDK Ver.2.0 and earlier versions, set "4" to the third parameter of ReplaceImageFile().

With b-PAC SDK Ver.1.5.4 and later versions, the CODE128/EAN128 barcode data can be set to contain the control codes.
For example, write as follows to set data "1234"FNC1"567"FNC1.

ObjDoc.SetBarcodeData 0, "1234¥a567¥a" (in the case of using VBScript)

FNC1 "¥a"
FNC2 "¥b"
FNC3 "¥c"
FNC4 "¥d"

P-touch Editor 4.0, b-PAC SDK Ver.1.4 and later versions can handle up to 250 digits. Please download and use the latest version.
P-touch Editor 3.x can handle only up to 30 digits. To print data with more than 30 digits, you need to leave sufficient space on a template you create so that the barcode can fit into the space even when the number of data digits has increased.

Yes. You can change it with b-PAC SDK Ver.3.0.
For b-PAC SDK Ver.2.0 and earlier versions, you need to do the following.

For example, if you want to change the barcode size to 4 cm or 6 cm according to the intended use, it is convenient to create two types of template files, i.e. 4-cm and 6-cm barcode template files, beforehand and let the program use either of the two files. The barcode width is selectable only from 3 types (or 4 types depending on the resolution of P-touch Editor and P-touch), large, medium and small (and ultra-small), due to print precision constraints of P-touch.

Since there is no database merging function in the b-PAC component, layout files merged with a database cannot be used as templates. The connection with a database must be performed within the user's program, not with b-PAC or the layout file.
You must create a new layout that is not merged with a database, and use it as a template.

The procedure for easily creating a layout that can be used as a template with b-PAC from an existing layout merged with a database is described as follows:

As this layout is not merged with a database, it can be used as a template with b-PAC.

Yes. Make the label template file as follows.

If "Long Text" is selected, calling the SetText method repeatedly for the same object after the Open method fixes the tape length to the largest size. To solve this problem, call the Open method/Close method on each printing occasion though it is less efficient.

Specify Fixed Frame Size (Wrap) as the text layout of the text object. The overflowed characters are placed in the next line.
To enter a return character at a certain point, include a return character code in the text to be replaced.
Refer to the Asset1.xls, VBA sample program, included in b-PAC SDK Ver. 3.0.

Merge Options is a function that, depending on the label that you wish to create, specifies the area in which text is printed and either automatically enlarges or reduces the character size or uses a fixed character size.
As for detail, refer to the P-touch Editor Help.

Yes. Use the label template file from P-touch Editor 5 with b-PAC Ver. 2.0 or later.