In production environments, the scan station imaging software is programmed to control the IJL/3. The typical operation sequence starts with the imaging system software telling the labeling system what should be printed on the document. The IJL/3 stores this information and then, under its own internal computer control, waits for the document to start out of the scanner. When the document is in the proper position, the labeling system prints the desired information on the document with no host computer involvement. This allows the host to continue to service the scanner, keeping it running at full speed.
The imaging software can check the IJL/3 for its status after each step. If no errors are reported, then the imaging software knows that the page was imprinted. Since the IJL/3 labels at the same time the scanner captures the image, the software always knows exactly which label belongs with each image.
There is no special driver software for your computer, so the IJL/3 is compatible with any computer, including Macintosh, UNIX, VMS, Windows95/98/NT. The host computer simply uses the native driver for its serial port to talk to the IJL/3.
The Developer's Guide includes a specification of all the Normal and Monitor mode commands and the computer communications port.