Zebra label printer c# SDK

Question

We just moved from brother label printers to zebra and the brother sdk for c# is kind of meh but it did what I wanted it to do. Basically it gave me the option to create a label in the designer and attach reference names to the text files, barcode files etc. However looking at zebra I can't seem to find a way to do that. I don't like the fact that you'd have to design the labels using their designer which lacks this function or do it 100% in c# which prevents our designer from re-designing the label later down the road, aka hardcoding labels is a no go.

I've been looking at thermallabel by neodynamic but it costs way to much for this little thing.

Is there a solution out there I've missed? tons and tons of googling and even trying to figure out how to print the existing brother labels through c# to the zebra printer. This is possible (maybe) since p-touch can do it but I also think the sdk lacks this function which makes it impossible anyways.

After looking over the brother sdk for some more options I noticed I can get the label as a bmp, could that be easily printed to the zebra label printer?

Ashbey

While most label printer manufacturers seem to like to have their own printing language, all of them also works as a normal printer. That's the way I went with the printers we deliver with our equipment. You'll have to generate all the content yourself, but it gives you alot of flexibility and doesn't tie you to a single manufacturers crappy label software. – Aerobiology

You can save your ZPL code to a simple text file and then use a shell command to move it on LPT1. – Hickey

I think he's saying their labels aren't in ZPL, but whatever Brother uses, is that a correct assumption Makkesk8? – Tournedos

well both yes and no, we are currently using brother labels since we haven't got the zebra sdk setup for our c# project. We are flexible so we can change over to zebra labels without any issues. – Ashbey

Answer 1

I'll add the source link later when I find it, but this is how I print to our Zebra as of now:

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)]
        public class DOCINFOA
        {
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pDocName;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pOutputFile;
            [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
            public string pDataType;
        }
        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "OpenPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool OpenPrinter([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string szPrinter, out IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pd);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "ClosePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool ClosePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartDocPrinterA", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Ansi, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, Int32 level, [In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStruct)] DOCINFOA di);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndDocPrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndDocPrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "StartPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool StartPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "EndPagePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool EndPagePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter);

        [DllImport("winspool.Drv", EntryPoint = "WritePrinter", SetLastError = true, ExactSpelling = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        public static extern bool WritePrinter(IntPtr hPrinter, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount, out Int32 dwWritten);


public static bool SendStringToPrinter(String printerName, String dataString)
        {
            int dwCount = (dataString.Length + 1) * Marshal.SystemMaxDBCSCharSize;

            // Assume that the printer is expecting ANSI text, and then convert
            // the string to ANSI text.
            IntPtr pBytes = Marshal.StringToCoTaskMemAnsi(dataString);
            // Send the converted ANSI string to the printer.
            SendPBytesToPrinter(printerName, pBytes, dwCount);
            Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(pBytes);
            return true;
        }


        public static bool SendPBytesToPrinter(String szPrinterName, IntPtr pBytes, Int32 dwCount)
        {
            Int32 dwError = 0, dwWritten = 0;
            IntPtr hPrinter = new IntPtr(0);
            DOCINFOA di = new DOCINFOA();
            bool bSuccess = false; // Assume failure unless you specifically succeed.
            di.pDocName = "My C#.NET RAW Document";
            di.pDataType = "RAW";

            // Open the printer.
            if (OpenPrinter(szPrinterName.Normalize(), out hPrinter, IntPtr.Zero))
            {
                // Start a document.
                if (StartDocPrinter(hPrinter, 1, di))
                {
                    // Start a page.
                    if (StartPagePrinter(hPrinter))
                    {
                        // Write your bytes.
                        bSuccess = WritePrinter(hPrinter, pBytes, dwCount, out dwWritten);
                        EndPagePrinter(hPrinter);
                    }
                    EndDocPrinter(hPrinter);
                }
                ClosePrinter(hPrinter);
            }

            if (bSuccess == false)
            {
                dwError = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
                //TODO: log error code
            }
            return bSuccess;
        }

Where dataString is the ZPL interpreted by the printer.

Tournedos

As long as the printer is visible by the name given it will work through both. – Tournedos

Answer 2

You can save your ZPL code to a simple text file and then use a shell command to move it on LPT1.

If your zebra is plugged via network, the simplest way/workaround is to use "NET USE lpt1: \[ip][zebra] /persistent:yes

You can use Zebra Designer to easily generate ZPL for you using the "print to file function"

Hickey