Send raw ZPL to Zebra printer via USB

Question

Typically  when I plug in my Zebra LP 2844-Z to the USB port  the computer sees it as a printer and I can print to it from notepad like any other generic printer  However  my application has some bar code features  My application parses some input and generates an in-memory string of ZPL  How would I send this ZPL data to my USB device

User · Answer

Found amazing simple solution - working for Chrome (Windows, not tested on Mac)

Zebra ZP 450

Go here Zebra Generic Text
Go precisely by the manual
No COM1 or any other ports needed - USB is enough
When done (named the printer ZTEXT), does not matter if it won't print a test page
Turn of Spooling and enable direct printing in Printer Preferences - 1 note here 1 printer is ZP450 CPT and other ZP450 only - on the other one I do not even need to turn off spooling and it worked.
Go to Chrome and printing ZPL from there with Chrome Print Dialog Box by selecting the ZTEXT printer (Generic / Text) Printer (Do not choose Windows Dialog Box) - we needed this for Chrome to be working

User · Answer

You can use COM  or P Invoke from  Net  to open the Winspool drv driver and send bytes directly to devices  But you don t want to do that  this typically works only for the one device on the one version of the one driver you test with  and breaks on everything else  Take this from long  painful  personal experience   What you want to do is get a barcode font or library that draws barcodes using plain old GDI or GDI  commands  there s one for  Net here  This works on all devices  even after Zebra changes the driver

User · Answer

You haven t mentioned a language  so I m going to give you some some hints how to do it with the straight Windows API in C   First  open a connection to the printer with OpenPrinter  Next  start a document with StartDocPrinter having the pDatatype field of the DOC INFO 1 structure set to  RAW  - this tells the printer driver not to encode anything going to the printer  but to pass it along unchanged  Use StartPagePrinter to indicate the first page  WritePrinter to send the data to the printer  and close it with EndPagePrinter  EndDocPrinter and ClosePrinter when done

User · Answer

I found the answer    or at least  the easiest answer  if there are multiple   When I installed the printer  I renamed it to  ICS Label Printer   Here s how to change the options to allow pass-through ZPL commands    Right-click on the  ICS Label Printer  and choose  Properties   On the  General  tab  click on the  Printing Preferences     button  On the  Advanced Setup  tab  click on the  Other  button  Make sure there is a check in the box labeled  Enable Passthrough Mode   Make sure the  Start sequence   is       Make sure the  End sequence   is       Click on the  Close  button  Click on the  OK  button  Click on the  OK  button    In my code  I just have to add      to the beginning of my ZPL and      to the end and print it as plain text  This is with the  Windows driver for ZDesigner LP 2844-Z printer Version 2 6 42  Build 2382    Works like a charm

User · Answer

I ve found yet an easier way to write to a Zebra printer over a COM port  I went to the Windows control panel and added a new printer  For the port  I chose COM1  the port the printer was plugged in to   I used a  Generic   Text Only  printer driver  I disabled the print spooler  a standard option in the printer preferences  as well as all advanced printing options  Now  I can just print any string to that printer and if the string contains ZPL  the printer renders the ZPL just fine  No need for special  start sequences  or funky stuff like that  Yay for simplicity

User · Answer

I spent 8 hours to do that  It is simple     You shoud have a code like that   private const int GENERIC WRITE   0x40000000     private const int OPEN EXISTING   3  private const int OPEN EXISTING   1  private const int FILE SHARE WRITE   0x2  private StreamWriter  fileWriter  private FileStream  outFile  private int  hPort    Change that variable content from 3  open file already exist  to 1  create a new file   It ll work at Windows 7 and XP

User · Answer

Visual Studio C  solution  found at http   support microsoft com kb 322091   Step 1    Create class RawPrinterHelper     using System  using System IO  using System Runtime InteropServices   public class RawPrinterHelper          Structure and API declarions       StructLayout LayoutKind Sequential  CharSet   CharSet Ansi       public class DOCINFOA                MarshalAs UnmanagedType LPStr           public string pDocName           MarshalAs UnmanagedType LPStr           public string pOutputFile           MarshalAs UnmanagedType LPStr           public string pDataType             DllImport  winspool Drv   EntryPoint    OpenPrinterA   SetLastError   true  CharSet   CharSet Ansi  ExactSpelling   true  CallingConvention   CallingConvention StdCall       public static extern bool OpenPrinter  MarshalAs UnmanagedType LPStr   string szPrinter  out IntPtr hPrinter  IntPtr pd         DllImport  winspool Drv   EntryPoint    ClosePrinter   SetLastError   true  ExactSpelling   true  CallingConvention   CallingConvention StdCall       public static extern bool ClosePrinter IntPtr hPrinter         DllImport  winspool Drv   EntryPoint    StartDocPrinterA   SetLastError   true  CharSet   CharSet Ansi  ExactSpelling   true  CallingConvention   CallingConvention StdCall       public static extern bool StartDocPrinter IntPtr hPrinter  Int32 level   In  MarshalAs UnmanagedType LPStruct   DOCINFOA di         DllImport  winspool Drv   EntryPoint    EndDocPrinter   SetLastError   true  ExactSpelling   true  CallingConvention   CallingConvention StdCall       public static extern bool EndDocPrinter IntPtr hPrinter         DllImport  winspool Drv   EntryPoint    StartPagePrinter   SetLastError   true  ExactSpelling   true  CallingConvention   CallingConvention StdCall       public static extern bool StartPagePrinter IntPtr hPrinter         DllImport  winspool Drv   EntryPoint    EndPagePrinter   SetLastError   true  ExactSpelling   true  CallingConvention   CallingConvention StdCall       public static extern bool EndPagePrinter IntPtr hPrinter         DllImport  winspool Drv   EntryPoint    WritePrinter   SetLastError   true  ExactSpelling   true  CallingConvention   CallingConvention StdCall       public static extern bool WritePrinter IntPtr hPrinter  IntPtr pBytes  Int32 dwCount  out Int32 dwWritten           SendBytesToPrinter          When the function is given a printer name and an unmanaged array        of bytes  the function sends those bytes to the print queue         Returns true on success  false on failure      public static bool SendBytesToPrinter string szPrinterName  IntPtr pBytes  Int32 dwCount                Int32 dwError   0  dwWritten   0          IntPtr hPrinter   new IntPtr 0           DOCINFOA di   new DOCINFOA            bool bSuccess   false     Assume failure unless you specifically succeed           di pDocName    My C  NET RAW Document           di pDataType    RAW               Open the printer          if  OpenPrinter szPrinterName Normalize    out hPrinter  IntPtr Zero                            Start a document              if  StartDocPrinter hPrinter  1  di                                    Start a page                  if  StartPagePrinter hPrinter                                            Write your bytes                      bSuccess   WritePrinter hPrinter  pBytes  dwCount  out dwWritten                       EndPagePrinter hPrinter                                     EndDocPrinter hPrinter                             ClosePrinter hPrinter                        If you did not succeed  GetLastError may give more information            about why not          if  bSuccess    false                        dwError   Marshal GetLastWin32Error                      return bSuccess             public static bool SendFileToPrinter string szPrinterName  string szFileName                   Open the file          FileStream fs   new FileStream szFileName  FileMode Open              Create a BinaryReader on the file          BinaryReader br   new BinaryReader fs              Dim an array of bytes big enough to hold the file s contents          Byte   bytes   new Byte fs Length           bool bSuccess   false             Your unmanaged pointer          IntPtr pUnmanagedBytes   new IntPtr 0           int nLength           nLength   Convert ToInt32 fs Length              Read the contents of the file into the array          bytes   br ReadBytes nLength              Allocate some unmanaged memory for those bytes          pUnmanagedBytes   Marshal AllocCoTaskMem nLength              Copy the managed byte array into the unmanaged array          Marshal Copy bytes  0  pUnmanagedBytes  nLength              Send the unmanaged bytes to the printer          bSuccess   SendBytesToPrinter szPrinterName  pUnmanagedBytes  nLength              Free the unmanaged memory that you allocated earlier          Marshal FreeCoTaskMem pUnmanagedBytes           return bSuccess            public static bool SendStringToPrinter string szPrinterName  string szString                IntPtr pBytes          Int32 dwCount             How many characters are in the string          dwCount   szString Length             Assume that the printer is expecting ANSI text  and then convert            the string to ANSI text          pBytes   Marshal StringToCoTaskMemAnsi szString              Send the converted ANSI string to the printer          SendBytesToPrinter szPrinterName  pBytes  dwCount           Marshal FreeCoTaskMem pBytes           return true            Step 2   Create a form with text box and button  text box will hold the ZPL to send in this example    In button click event add code     private void button1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                           Allow the user to select a printer              PrintDialog pd   new PrintDialog                pd PrinterSettings   new PrinterSettings                if  DialogResult OK    pd ShowDialog this                                    Send a printer-specific to the printer                  RawPrinterHelper SendStringToPrinter pd PrinterSettings PrinterName  textBox1 Text                   MessageBox Show  Data sent to printer                               else                               MessageBox Show  Data not sent to printer                               With this solution  you can tweak to meet specific requirements   Perhaps hardcode the specific printer   Perhaps derive the ZPL text dynamically rather than from a text box   Whatever   Perhaps you don t need a graphical interface  but this shows how to send the ZPL   Your use depends on your needs

User · Answer

Install an share your printer   localhost zebra Send ZPL as text  try with copy first   copy file zpl  localhost zebra  very simple  almost no coding

User · Answer

ZPL is the correct way to go  In most cases it is correct to use a driver that abstracts to GDI commands  however Zebra label printers are a special case  The best way to print to a Zebra printer is to generate ZPL directly  Note that the actual printer driver for a Zebra printer is a  plain text  printer - there is not a  driver  that could be updated or changed in the sense we think of most printers having drivers  It s just a driver in the absolute minimalist sense

[usb] Send raw ZPL to Zebra printer via USB

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