ZPL Guide — Evolabel Docs (2025)

How much visual difference can I expect?¶

In general you can expect small differences arising from font differences.We have made an effort to make the Trivium font optically similar andmetrically compatible with the CG Triumvirate font.

You can check the result on the free online viewer.Note that the online viewer only supports single documents and no store/recallfunctionality. In order to test more advanced cases, test against a real printer, oruse the Virtual Printer.

The ZPL code below was sent to both printers with the font name being the only difference:

^XA^LH0,0^PW660^LL150^FO10,8^GB650,140, 2,B^FS^FO20,30^A0N,60,^FDLorem ipsum 1234567890^FS^FO20,100^A0N,40,^FDPrinted with Triumvirate/Trivium font^FS^XZ

Why do I get parentheses in my human readable?¶

Our GS1-128 barcode generator complies with the GS1 specification that states thathuman readable text shall have parentheses around the AIs. This only applies forbarcodes with automatically generated human readable text.

Can I use my layouts created for 203 dpi?¶

Evolabel printers only use 300 dpi print heads but can scale 203 dpi layouts to300 dpi. Note that graphical elements, text and so on are scaled from 203 to 300 dpi,but barcodes must be scaled from 200 to 300 dpi, as scaling must be uniformlyperformed.

The worst case errors for different barcode expansions are listed below.Note that for variable ratio barcodes the errors are often less.

Can I prevent parse errors for unsupported ZPL commands?¶

It is possible to turn off the Parse error warning underSETTINGS ‣ Print Jobs ‣ Protocol Emulation ‣ Unsupported Command Behavior

Check Connection¶

After a restart, check that the protocol is enabled by connecting to the printer’sIP address at port 9100.

C:\Users\Evo\Desktop>nc <printer ip> 9100

When the ZPL protocol is enabled, and a client is connected to port 9100 the textZPL client from x.x.x.xwill be displayed under OPERATION ‣ CLIENTS.

Press CTRL+C to close the connection.

Note that CLIENTS displays No Connections.

Note

Please ensure that you have the necessary legal rights to use the font in a printerbefore proceeding to installing it.

Install Font¶

1. Insert a USB drive with a TrueType font.
2. Navigate to SETTINGS ‣ Files ‣ Fonts and expandResources To Add. Locate the font that you want to install and press+.

Use Installed Font in a ZPL Layout¶

Fonts can be referenced with the ^A@ command using the font filename. Thefile name is case insensitive.

Example:

^XA^PW400^LL80^FO10,20^A@N,24,24,E:ARIBLK.TTF^FDTest with Arial Black^FS^XZ

Note

• JSON data must not contain ^ or ~
• JSON \uxxxx notation should be used for non ASCII data
• The ^FX command must be part of a label format (between ^XA and ^XZ)
• Variables from multiple ^FX commands are merged.

Example: Activate Profile¶

Including the special variable __profile__ activates the specified profile.

^XA^LH0,0^LL200^PW400^FX{"_custom_job_id": "job_abc1", "__profile__": "profile1"}^FO50,20^FDTest with job variables^FS^XZ

This example sets the job id to job_abc1 and activates the profile profile1.

Example: Unprintable Job¶

Including the special variable _printable and setting it to false creates anunprintable job

^XA^FX{"_custom_job_id": "job_abc2", "_printable": false}^XZ

Example: Expected Data For Code Matching¶

Including the special variable _code_matching allows explicitly setting expecteddata used for Code Matching Validation in the Scan sequence configuration.

^XA^BY10^FO020,55^BIN,100,Y,N^FD12345^FS^FO40,230^BQN,2,10^FDLA,1234567890123456789012345678901234567890^FS^FX Exact Match Data for label verification ^FS^FX{"_code_matching":{"expected":[["1234567890123456789012345678901234567890","12345"]]}}^FS^XZ

Example: Controlling Motorized Stand Position¶

Including the special variable __stand1-position_mm sets the stand position before thejob is activated.

^XA^LH0,0^LL200^PW400^FX{"_custom_job_id": "job_abc1", "__stand1-position_mm": 800}^FO50,20^FDTest at stand position 800^FS^XZ