What's new in ZPL Designer

The preview becomes a real design surface: add objects, move objects by dragging them on the canvas, line them up with a new grid and snap-to-grid, and edit their attributes live in a new properties panel.

• New
  Drag to move objects: Objects can now be moved by dragging them directly on the canvas; their ^FO / ^FT position is updated in the code.
• New
  Grid and snap-to-grid: A grid can be shown on the canvas with a new toolbar toggle, and objects snap to it while you move them.
• New
  Properties panel: A side panel opens on the right of the preview (double-click an object on the canvas, or use the new Properties toolbar button) to view and edit the attributes of the selected element in real time.
• Improved
  Label home marker: The ^LH origin is now drawn on the grid (ring, axes and an "LH" label), and tick marks show its position in the horizontal and vertical rulers, even when the grid is hidden.
• Improved
  Pan and zoom: Navigation in the preview has been reworked: the mouse wheel now scrolls the label (Shift+scroll for horizontal), Ctrl+scroll zooms toward the cursor, and Ctrl+drag or middle-button drag pans.
• Fixed
  Fit zoom: The Fit zoom no longer frames the label incorrectly: the whole label is now properly fitted in the preview.
• Fixed
  Object coordinates: The coordinate label of an object now shows the actual ^FO / ^FT values from the source code (taking ^LH into account) instead of its position on the canvas.
• Fixed
  Downloaded graphics: Logos downloaded with ~DG and recalled by ^XG / ^IM with a device prefix (e.g. R:LOGO.GRF) are now displayed correctly.
• Fixed
  Serialization: ^SN serialization is now supported, with one label generated per serialized value.

This release adds support for ZPL stored-format templates, so labels built from a stored format and its field data now render in the preview.

• New
  Stored-format templates: Formats stored with ^DF and recalled with ^XF are now supported, with ^FN placeholder fields (including repeated fields). Rendered by both the internal renderer and Labelary.

ZPL Designer can now be opened with a label and its settings encoded in the URL, and a new Share button generates such a link for the current label. Handy to share a label with a colleague or to integrate ZPL Designer into your own software.

• New
  Deep links: Open the app with a label preloaded via ?zpl= (Base64) or ?zplz= (compressed, much shorter links), optionally with dpi and format. See the URL contract in the documentation.
• New
  Share button: Generate a link to the current label in one click. The link keeps the raw code ({{variables}} stay editable by the recipient) and carries the DPI and label size, so the recipient doesn't need the same format preset.

Label format management was one of your most frequent pain points. This release reworks it from the ground up and lets you finally remove the preinstalled formats you don't use.

• Improved
  Label format management redesign: Managing label formats has been completely redesigned to make creating, editing and choosing a format simpler and clearer.
• New
  Delete preinstalled formats: Preinstalled label formats can now be deleted, so your format list only contains the sizes you actually print.

This release sharpens the internal renderer,correct scalable font alignment and international character decoding and adds dot-graduated rulers to help position fields precisely.

• Fixed
  Scalable font vertical alignment: Text drawn with the scalable font 0 (e.g. ^FO…^A0N,320,210^FD77^FS) is now anchored by its cap-height line, so it no longer drifts or overflows the cell. Placement is font-independent and matches Zebra across all orientations (N/R/I/B).
• Fixed
  International characters: ^FH hex escapes now decode via the active ^CI code page (CP850 / CP1252 / UTF-8), with a custom escape character supported and invalid UTF-8 bytes hidden as on a real Zebra printer.
• Improved
  Preview highlight: The anchor point of a highlighted field now shows its X,Y dot coordinates.
• New
  Dot rulers: Rulers graduated in dots now frame the preview, making it easier to position fields precisely.

This release brings a one-click ZPL beautifier and a new tool to convert raster images into embeddable ZPL graphics.

• New
  Beautify: A new Beautify button formats your ZPL code for readability, adding a line break after each ^FS so every field sits on its own line.
• New
  Image to ZPL: A new entry in the Tools menu converts a PNG, JPEG or BMP image into a ^GFA graphic, with a choice of ASCII hex, compressed ASCII hex or Z64 encoding.

A focused update that adds a new tool for working with carrier-generated labels, along with a bug fix for direct Zebra renderer.

• New
  Base64 to ZPL converter: A new entry in the Tools menu lets you paste a Base64-encoded string (such as the shipping-label payloads returned by carrier APIs like UPS, DHL or Colissimo) and decode it back into ready-to-use ZPL code, loaded directly into the editor and rendered instantly in the preview.
• Fixed
  Zebra printer resolution auto-detection: Fixed an issue where a Zebra printer's resolution was not automatically detected when using the zpld-proxy with the direct Zebra printer render source.

Initial public release of the all-new ZPL Designer: create, preview and print Zebra Programming Language labels.

• New
  Intelligent ZPL code editor: Built on Monaco Editor (the engine behind VS Code) with syntax highlighting, IntelliSense and parameter assistance for 80+ ZPL commands, a contextual help panel and a visual Command Assistant.
• New
  Real-time internal renderer: A local Canvas-based render engine that updates as you type, supporting text and bitmap fonts, 1D & 2D barcodes, graphics and a wide range of formatting and control commands.
• New
  Labelary & Zebra printer previews: Switch between the internal renderer, pixel-perfect Labelary cloud rendering, or live rendering directly on your own Zebra printer's embedded web server.
• New
  Editor-preview linking: Hover, click and cursor movements stay in sync between the code and the rendered label, with an interactive crosshair and ^FO insertion on shift-click.
• New
  Template variables & CSV import: Auto-detected variables with configurable delimiters and CSV import to fill label values in bulk.
• New
  Label configuration & multi-printer management: 15 predefined label formats plus custom sizes, selectable DPI, and management of multiple Zebra printers by IP with automatic model and resolution detection.
• New
  Custom fonts: Map Zebra font names to fonts installed on your system via ^A@ and ^CW, with a live preview and persistent mappings.
• New
  Privacy-first, installable PWA: 100% client-side with no account required, dark/light themes, a configurable accent color, offline support and .zpl file association when installed as a desktop app.