MakeZPL

Guides

Guides to designing labels in ZPL

Practical walk-throughs for the parts of label design that are easy to get wrong: the first label, logos, and the arithmetic of dots and dpi. Each one is written for someone with a printer in front of them and a deadline behind them.

Start here

How to create a ZPL label

Build a 4 × 2 inch product label from an empty canvas to a printable file, with the ZPL shown at every step. Start here if you have never written a label before.

Convert an image to ZPL

How a logo becomes a ^GFA graphic field, why the file gets so large, and how to pick a threshold that keeps the mark readable at 203 dpi.

Label sizes, dots and dpi

Inches and millimetres converted to dots at 203, 300 and 600 dpi, the common stock sizes, and what to change when a label moves between printers.

Reference material

When you know what you want and just need the syntax.

The order most people need them in

  1. Work out the label size in dots

    Everything else depends on it. A 4 × 6 inch label is 812 × 1218 dots at 203 dpi and 1200 × 1800 at 300 dpi, and no coordinate you write is portable between the two. Sizes and dpi.

  2. Lay out the label

    Place text and barcodes, either on the canvas or by hand in ZPL. The step-by-step guide builds a real one; the examples give you a head start.

  3. Get the barcode right

    Pick the symbology your scanners expect, then size it with ^BY and leave a quiet zone. Barcodes in ZPL.

  4. Add the logo last

    Images are the biggest, slowest part of a label file and the easiest to get looking muddy. Image to ZPL.

Open the designer