Barcode font for OnPrem tenants

Description

The labels included in Mobile WMS from version 5.46 uses the IDAutomation2D barcode font provided by Microsoft for their Business Central Online customers.

OnPrem tenants can either purchase the same or use another font, but the latter requires a custom layout and for some fonts also a different barcode decoder.

This is described by Microsoft here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-report-add-barcodes?tabs=1d#built-in-providers-and-font-support

Overview

Licensing the IDAutomation Datamatrix font

This is the font used by the labels in Mobile WMS can be found here: https://www.idautomation.com/barcode-fonts/2d/datamatrix/

The license terms are described here: https://www.idautomation.com/license-matrix-for-barcode-fonts/ and https://www.idautomation.com/licensing/software-license/

We have contacted IDAutomation regarding which edition to select and got the following reply:

Microsoft has purchased licensing for IDAutomation fonts/encoding tools only for their cloud applications and these fonts/encoders may not be copied over to an On Prem solution. The minimum licensing is a 1 Developer license as you will require the embeddable fonts that only come with Developer licensing as per the tutorial information located here: Barcode Integration Guide for Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Navision | Business Central (idautomation.com). IDAutomation also does not support the installation directly in Business Central and our information is limited to the information at the above link.

Each of your customers will need to purchase a minimum 1 Developer license for the font/encoder package for the barcode type they need to create. A 1 Developer license covers one developer working with the software at any one time, any servers that need to be installed and up to 10,000 individual users printing the barcodes across multiple physical locations. User licensing will not be sufficient in Business Central as the fonts that come with those packages cannot be embedded as required by Business Central applications.

and

The minimum required licensing for the use of an IDAutomation product in Business Central is a 1 Developer license. The user licensed fonts will not embed in to applications inside Business Central and will fail to produce barcodes. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with information to purchase less than a 1 Developer license although you are welcome to purchase what you think will work for you. IDAutomation will not be able to support that installation for you and you would need to contact Microsoft for further information. Microsoft has licensed Developer level fonts specifically for this reason in Business Central Cloud.

Installation of font for BC OnPrem tenants

The font needs to be installed on the Windows server hosting the BC Service Tier.

The font shall be installed for all users by right-clicking the TFF file and select "Install for all users"

Secondly you will need to restart the service tier for it to see the new font.

Installation of font in BC Docker containers

For Docker containers made by Freddy's Container Helper you could use this powershell:

# Install 2D font 
Add-FontsToNavContainer -containerName $containerName -path "C:\Temp\IDAutomation2D.ttf"

# Fix missing standard fonts
Add-FontsToNavContainer -containerName $containerName 

# Restart container
docker stop $containerName
docker start $containerName

Write-Host "Fonts installed and Docker restarted. Should be available within a few minutes..."