ZPL command reference

Anatomy of a ZPL field

ZPL is a stream of caret commands. A label is one ^XA … ^XZ block, and inside it every visible thing follows the same shape: say where it goes, say what kind of thing it is, give it data, end the field.

^XA                      start the label
^PW812 ^LL406            4 x 2 in at 203 dpi
^FO30,28                 where
^A0N,44,44               what kind (font 0, 44 dots tall)
^FDHEX BOLT M12          the data
^FS                      end of field
^XZ                      print

Coordinates are always in printer dots, never millimetres or points, and they are measured from the label home set by ^LH — ^LH0,0 puts the origin at the top-left corner. Converting sizes to dots is the other half of getting a label right.

Label structure and print settings

These frame the label and tell the printer how to print it. ^PW and ^LL are the two you will change most often.

Fields and data

^FO positions, ^FD carries the content, ^FS closes the field. Everything else in this group modifies how the data is treated.

Escaping data with ^FH

^ and ~ are ZPL control characters. If your data contains one, the printer will read it as the start of a command and the label will break. Turn on ^FH and write the character as an underscore followed by its two-digit hex code:

^FO30,30^A0N,30,30^FH^FDPART _5E 12 — 40% off^FS

_5E is ^ and _7E is ~. Once ^FH is active the underscore itself is special, so a literal underscore has to be written _5F. MakeZPL applies this automatically: it only emits ^FH when your data actually needs it.

Wrapping text with ^FB

^FD on its own prints one long line that runs off the edge of the label. ^FB gives the field a width and a maximum number of lines, and the printer wraps on word boundaries inside it:

^FO30,30
^A0N,28,28
^FB360,3,0,L,0
^FDStainless steel hex bolt, M12 x 60 mm, grade 8.8, zinc plated^FS

The parameters are width in dots, maximum lines, extra line spacing, justification (L, C, R, J) and hanging indent. Text beyond the line limit is dropped by the printer — which is why MakeZPL measures your text before export and warns you instead.

Text and fonts

^A sets the font for one field; ^CF sets it for everything that follows. Height and width are given in dots, not points.

The built-in fonts

Zebra printers ship with a set of built-in fonts. Font 0 is the one to reach for: it is the only fully scalable built-in, so any height you ask for is the height you get. The letter fonts are bitmaps at a fixed cell size, and the printer scales them by whole-number multiples — ask for 1.5× and you get 1×.

The browser preview approximates these with web fonts, so a line of text can measure a dot or two differently from the printed result. For layouts where that matters, leave a little slack rather than fitting text to the exact dot.

Rotation

The orientation parameter appears in almost every format command: N normal, R rotated 90° clockwise, I inverted 180°, B read from the bottom up (270°). ^A0B,40,40 prints a 40-dot line of text running up the side of the label.

Shapes and images

There is no line command in ZPL. A rule is just a very thin box — which is exactly how MakeZPL exports one.

^FO30,140^GB360,3,3^FS          a 360 x 3 dot rule
^FO30,160^GB360,120,2^FS        a 2-dot outlined box
^FO30,300^GB40,40,40^FS         a solid 40 x 40 square
^FO30,360^GB360,60,60,B,4^FS    a filled box with rounded corners

For images, ^GFA carries the bitmap inline as ASCII hex, one bit per printer dot. It is verbose — a logo can easily be tens of kilobytes — but it needs nothing stored on the printer. Converting a logo to ^GFA covers the details.

Barcode commands

Every barcode is a format command followed by ^FD data, with ^BY setting the module width and height that the following barcodes inherit.

Each symbology has its own rules about what data is legal — UPC-A wants 11 or 12 digits, Interleaved 2 of 5 needs an even count, Code 39 accepts a restricted character set. Barcodes in ZPL lists the rules per symbology, with a working example of each.

Commands MakeZPL does not handle

These are real ZPL and your printer understands them, but MakeZPL has no canvas equivalent. On import they are skipped and named in a warning; they are never silently dropped.

• ^FN — Field number — a numbered placeholder filled in later by ^FD in a recalled format.
• ^DF / ^XF — Download a format to printer memory and recall it, so only the data is sent per label.
• ^SN — Serialised data field: the printer increments a number across a print run.
• ^PO — Print orientation — ^POI flips the whole label 180°.
• ^LS — Label shift: moves the whole format left or right.
• ^LT — Label top: moves the format up or down by a number of dot rows.
• ^MM — Print mode — tear-off, peel, cutter, rewind.
• ^MN — Media tracking — gap, black mark or continuous stock.
• ~DG — Download a graphic to printer memory for later recall by name.

Try a command in the designer See complete labels