Virtual ZPL Printer Driver for Windows & macOS

How It Works

1. Install the Virtual ZPL Printer Driver. A printer named VirtualZPLPrinter_USERNAME is added for each user, and it also listens on a local TCP/IP port.
2. Open the Settings (Windows system tray or macOS menu bar) and choose the action: Write To File (PDF, PNG, JPG or PCX) or Print To another installed printer. Set the DPI and label size to match your ZPL.
3. Print ZPL from your application to VirtualZPLPrinter_USERNAME, or send raw ZPL to its TCP/IP port. Each label is saved as a file or printed on the target printer.

Which ZPL Edition Do I Need?

The same ZPL rendering engine is available in four editions:

ZPL Commands Support

Virtual ZPL Printer Driver rendering engine supports most of the ZPL formatting and control commands. The following table lists the supported commands. Not listed or unsupported commands will be skipped in the parsing stage.

Support for JSON Payload

The Virtual ZPL Printer Driver can handle raw printer commands as well as JSON Payload. The JSON Payload has the following format:

Virtual ZPL Printer Driver FAQ

• How do I print ZPL labels on a regular laser or inkjet printer?

  Install the Virtual ZPL Printer Driver, open its Settings from the Windows system tray or the macOS menu bar, choose the Print To action and select the target printer. Every ZPL job sent to the virtual printer is rendered and printed on that printer, so you can print ZPL labels without a ZPL printer.

• How do I convert ZPL to PDF on Windows or macOS?

  Choose the Write To File action in the Settings and select PDF, PNG, JPG or PCX. Every ZPL job sent to the virtual printer is saved as a file in the configured folder.

• Can I test ZPL labels without a Zebra printer?

  Yes. The Virtual ZPL Printer Driver works as a ZPL printer emulator: print the ZPL from your application to the virtual printer and check the rendered PDF or image, without wasting real labels.

• What is the name of the virtual printer?

  Each Windows or macOS user gets their own virtual printer named VirtualZPLPrinter_USERNAME, with their own settings. It also listens on a local TCP/IP port shown in the Settings, so you can send ZPL directly to that port.

• Which operating systems are supported?

  Windows 11, 10, 8.1 and 7, Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012 R2 and 2008 R2, and macOS 10.14 Mojave to macOS 15 Sequoia.

• Printing from Text Editor (Notepad, Wordpad, Word, Text Edit...) apps does not produce any output or an error... Why?

  The problem is that apps like those will usually break/invalidate the raw ZPL commands structure when printing to our virtual driver. To bypass this problem you should do the following:

  • Under Windows
    1. Save the ZPL file as is (e.g. name it SampleZPL.txt)

    2. Download our rawprint.exe utility.

        IMPORTANT! The rawprint.exe is digitally-signed with a Windows Authenticode Certificate issued by Sectigo Limited. Run the utility only if the Publisher is Neodynamic; otherwise contact us.

       You can run it in two different ways:

       • Graphical UI: just double click on rawprint.exe, select the target printer, select the ZPL file saved before and finally click Print button. That's it!
       • From Command Prompt:
         1. Open a Command Prompt window (Click Start button and type cmd) and go to the folder where the rawprint.exe file was downloaded.
         2. Type this command (NOTE: Be sure you replace Neo with your own user name and the SampleZPL.txt full path):
            rawprint.exe -p VirtualZPLPrinter_Neo -f SampleZPL.txt
  • Under macOS
    1. Save the ZPL file as is (e.g. name it SampleZPL.txt)
    2. Open a Terminal window
    3. Type this command (NOTE: Be sure you replace Neo with your own user name and the SampleZPL.txt full path):
       lpr -P VirtualZPLPrinter_Neo -o raw SampleZPL.txt

• Printing from another machine on the same network...

  Here is an example of how to send raw ZPL commands or a JSON payload right to the virtual printer IP and port. We'll suppose that the printer IP is 192.168.1.20 and the port is 60800 (Please change it based on your own scenario. The VirtualZPLPrinter port is displayed by the Settings page.)

  • Under Windows

    Powershell script:

    $tcp = New-Object System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient("192.168.1.20", 60800)
    $stream = $tcp.GetStream()
    $bytes = [Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes("^XA^FO50,50^ADN,36,20^FDHello World^FS^XZ")
    $stream.Write($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)
    $tcp.Close()
  • Under macOS

    Terminal:

    echo "^XA^FO50,50^ADN,36,20^FDHello World^FS^XZ" | nc 192.168.1.20 60800