ZPL Designer

Design labels for Zebra and other ZPL II printers the way you design anything else on a Mac: visually, with instant feedback, and with output you can trust. ZPL Designer writes clean ZPL II while you work, previews the label at printer resolution and sends it straight to your printer.

DESIGN ANY LABEL

• Any label size in millimeters, inches or dots, at 152, 203, 300 or 600 dpi
• Start from a catalog of common label stocks or enter your own size
• Text in the printer's own fonts, in downloaded printer fonts or in any Mac font
• Text boxes with wrapping and alignment, rectangles, lines, ellipses, inverse areas and symbols
• Pictures and logos, dithered and converted to printer graphics
• Rulers, a real grid, guides you drag from the rulers, smart guides and snapping
• Align, distribute, group and lock objects; move them dot by dot with the arrow keys

EVERY BARCODE YOUR PRINTER KNOWS

• All ZPL II barcode commands, from Code 128, Code 39, EAN and UPC to QR Code, Data Matrix, PDF417 and Aztec
• Every barcode setting in the inspector, with the printer's own defaults
• GS1 logistics built in: SSCC-18 with its check digit and a counter for the serial reference, GS1-128 with a check on every application identifier, and ITF-14 with bearer bars

LABELS THAT FILL THEMSELVES

• Variables, counters and serial numbers that remember their last value
• Dates, times and calculated values with simple expressions
• Print one label per record from a CSV, TSV or text file
• Ask for values when you print

LIVE ZPL II

• The ZPL updates as you design; select an object and its lines are highlighted
• Open existing .zpl and .prn files as editable designs
• The ZPL Viewer previews any ZPL you paste or type and updates as you edit it
• Save as a design or as ZPL, or export to PNG and PDF
• Saved ZPL files reopen fully editable in ZPL Designer (the default)

PRINTS RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

• Print over the network, to a USB printer through its CUPS queue, or as an image to any Mac printer
• Status from network printers before and after every job: paused, head open, out of media or ribbon, and the label length the printer is set to
• Every label resets the printer settings that can move or flip a print, such as label top, label shift, orientation and mirroring
• Print an alignment label, enter the margins you measure, and ZPL Designer corrects the print position from then on
• Calibrate media, print a configuration label, store formats on the printer and encode RFID tags

A PREVIEW AT PRINTER RESOLUTION

The preview is a 1-bit image at printer resolution, built from the same layout as the ZPL. Font 0, the font most labels use, is spaced with metrics measured on a real printer, so text lines up on paper the way it does on screen. A few rarely used symbologies, such as MaxiCode, appear as placeholders and are drawn by the printer.

MADE FOR THE MAC

ZPL Designer is a native, sandboxed Mac app with full undo, dark mode and keyboard shortcuts throughout. A searchable handbook with step-by-step guides and a ZPL II quick reference is built in. Your designs stay on your Mac: there is no account, no cloud service and no tracking.

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, and a printer that understands ZPL II for printing ZPL labels. Designing, previewing and exporting work without a printer.

Zebra, ZPL and ZPL II are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corporation or its affiliates. ZPL Designer is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Zebra Technologies.