Zebra Programming Language

Zebra Programming Language, abbreviated ZPL, is a page description language from Zebra Technologies that is used mainly for labeling applications. The original language was superseded by ZPL II, which is not fully compatible with the older version, and ZPL II is also supported by some label printers made by other companies. Later the Zebra BASIC Interpreter, or ZBI, was built into printer software; the producer sees it as an advance on ZPL II, and it is oriented toward ANSI BASIC. Its main purpose is to avoid rewriting code when a customer changes printers, and one possible use is converting a label format received from a competitor's printer software into ZPL II on the fly so that it can be printed. ZPL commands always begin with a caret or a tilde, ZPL II has more than 170 commands, and every format must start with the command ^XA and end with ^XZ. A label is therefore a short text file of commands for fonts, positions, barcodes and fields that the printer interprets directly.