Labeling Shouldn’t Be a Hassle

Ah, printers. Arguably the world’s most universally despised peripheral. But among all printers, there’s one that truly reigns supreme: the label printer. These infernal contraptions, often emerging straight from the depths of IT hell, are not only untamable beasts but also come with a problem even bigger than their price tag: they rarely have good software options. Instead, they’re paired with proprietary, costly solutions that make managing label printing a tedious and expensive ordeal.

The Birth of OpenLabel

I was one of the unfortunate developers tasked with subduing the label-spewing demons. Our current solution was draining us out to the tune of $25,000 anually in licensing fees for a software that had in reality only a few core features:

• Network printing
• ZPL temlating with conditional rendering
• ZPL DPI scaling

Of course, we were paying such a premium for the GUI editor that let you create labels using drag-and-drop components. However, mastering the arcane magic of ZPL isn’t that difficult, especially with the excellent web-based editor Labelary.

With that in mind, I set out to create OpenLabel, a C# library designed to give developers the features necessary to build ZPL printing applications easily.

How OpenLabel Works: A Quick Example

Here’s a brief glimpse into how simple it is to get started with OpenLabel. Let’s say you need to print a label over the network:

NetworkPrinter printer = new NetworkPrinter();
await printer.PrintLabelAsync(@"\\server\printer", 5, "^XA^FO50,50^A0N,50,50^FDHello, World!^FS^XZ");

With just a few lines, you can print your ZPL labels. Now, if you need to scale a label to fit a printer’s DPI, OpenLabel makes it even easier:

string scaledZPL = LabelScaler.ScaleZPL("^XA^FO50,50^FS^XZ", 203, 300);

And for dynamic templates, where you want the label to change based on a condition, OpenLabel’s templating system makes it seamless:

TemplateHandler templateHandler = new TemplateHandler();
string template = "{{IF CONDITION}}^FO50,50^FDText^FS{{ENDIF}}";
Dictionary<string, string> placeholders = new Dictionary<string, string> { { "CONDITION", "1" } };
string renderedLabel = templateHandler.RenderTemplate(template, placeholders);

Why OpenLabel Matters

At its core, OpenLabel is about freedom. It frees you from expensive, restrictive proprietary software. It gives you control over your ZPL labels and empowers you to create efficient label printing applications with minimal fuss. Whether you’re working on a small e-commerce store or a large warehouse system, OpenLabel streamlines the process so you can focus on what really matters.

Get Involved

This is just the beginning! This tool is made to facilitate the creation of applications for ZPL printers, free from closed-source code. Like any open-source project, it thrives on community involvement

If OpenLabel interests you consider taking a few minutes to do the following:

• ⭐ Star the repository on GitHub to show your support and help others discover this project.
• 🚀 Contribute: Whether you’ve found a bug, want to improve the code, or have ideas for new features, your contributions are more than welcome. Fork the repo, submit a pull request, or open an issue. Let’s make OpenLabel even better together!
• 📢 Spread the Word: Share OpenLabel with your community, colleagues, or anyone who works with ZPL labels. The more users we have, the stronger the project becomes!

Every little bit of feedback, contribution, or star helps OpenLabel grow into a tool that can support more use cases, be more efficient, and ultimately make label printing a smoother process for developers everywhere.