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FARGO Electronics Inc.
HDP700 Series Card Printer 3-17
3.7.7 Sending Track Information
Magnetic track data is sent in the form of text strings from the application software to the printer
driver. In order for the printer driver to differentiate between magnetic track data and the rest of the
printable objects, specific characters must be added to the magnetic data to be encoded. These specify
the data that is to be encoded, the tracks to encode, and mark the start and stop of the data string. In
some cases, these specific characters are automatically added to the string of track data by ID software
applications. In most cases, the user must manually add these characters to the string of magnetic
track data. If these characters are not added to the track data, the text intended for the magnetic track
will appear as printed text on the card. To avoid this, track information must be entered as follows.
When entering track data, the "~" (tilde) character is entered first, followed by the track number (1, 2,
or 3) on which the data should encode. This is followed by the data to be encoded. The first character of
this data string must be the track's specific Start Sentinel (SS) and the last character must be the
specific End Sentinel (ES). The characters or data in between the SS and ES can include all of the
valid characters specific to each track. The number of these characters, however, is limited by each
track's maximum character capacity. When segmenting track data, the appropriate Field Separator
(FS) must be used. Table 3-3 shows the SS, ES, FS, and the valid characters defined for each track.
Sample String
Track 1: ~1%JULIEANDERSON^1234567890?
Track 2: ~2;1234567890987654321?
Track 3: ~3;1234567890987654321?
Table 3-2
Start Sentinel
End Sentinel Field Separator
Valid Characters
Maximum
Number of
Characters
Track 1 % ? ^
ASCII 32-95
(See Table 3-3)
78
Track 2 ; ? =
ASCII 48-63
(See Table 3-3)
39
Track 3 ; ? =
ASCII 48-63
(See Table 3-3)
106