What's new in ZPL Designer

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.