Extract Text (using Regular Expression parser)
Content-based barcode printing inserts a barcode in the printed document based on the printed document content. When using regular expression, the printed text is parsed and only relevant targeted information is extracted form the document, such as, account number, invoice number, pricing, and so on. Refer to the examples below.
Select the Barcode tab (Start > Control Panel > Printers and Devices > right click on Black Ice Printer Drivers X1 > Printing Preferences > Barcode tab) to configure the value of the printed barcode by Extract Text (using Regular Expression parser).
If the user selects this option, the Printer Driver X1 uses the text from the printed page as the value of the barcode. However, to extract only specific data from the printed page to be used as the value of the barcode, one needs to create a Regular Expression configuration file.
To extract only specific data from the printed page to be the barcode, one can use a Regular Expression. The Regular Expression is a specific pattern that provides flexible means to match (that is, specify and recognize) strings of text, such as words, particular characters, or patterns of characters. Common abbreviations for a regular expression include regex and regexp. The location of the regexp.txt and regexpformat.txt sample files is the following:
On every system, the files are located in the directory pointed to by the %ALLUSERSPROFILE% environment variable.
The environment variable points to the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users directory on old systems, and to C:\ProgramData\ on newer systems.
On old systems (Windows XP Windows Server 2003):
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Black Ice Software LLC\regexp.txt
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Black Ice Software LLC\regexpformat.txt
On new systems (Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012):
C:\ProgramData\Black Ice Software LLC\regexp.txt
C:\ProgramData\Black Ice Software LLC\regexpformat.txt
The filename and the location can be changed in the Printer Driver X1 .INI file, or by clicking the Options button next to the Extract Text (using Regular Expression parser).
If the printer driver does not find the regexp.txt file, the Printer Driver X1 extracts the whole text from the printed document and uses the printed page text as the value of the barcode.
The regexp.txt must contain the regular expression to extract the data from the printed text. The regexpformat.txt contains the declared values to format the extracted data, by the regular expression, to be encoded into a barcode.
The regexp.txt and the regexpformat.txt is as follows:
The result is the following:
If the printer driver is unable to extract the text from the page using the regular expression, the Barcode will not appear on the page.
To confirm that the problem is with the regular expression, the Enable Group File option should be turned on in Printing Preferences > Filename Generation.
If the regular expression does not match the document content, the following error will be seen in the .GRP file:
Barcode Error=Invalid barcode value (Regular expression does not match)
If the Enable Group File option is turned on, the driver will generate a .GRP file into the output directory which can be opened with Notepad.