Image → ZPL converter

Drop a PNG, GIF or JPEG and get print-ready ZPL, plus a pixel-true preview of what the printer will produce. Free, no signup; this is the exact engine behind our API.

Output carries a light watermark. Sign in and create a free API key; then every run here is watermark-free (500 credits a month, no card).

Drop an image here, or click to choose a file

PNG, GIF, JPEG · converted to print-ready ZPL and previewed as it would print

No file handy? Try a sample

About the Image → ZPL

An image to ZPL converter takes a PNG, JPEG or GIF (a logo, a rendered label, a screenshot) and turns it into a ^GFA graphic field a Zebra printer can print. Thermal printers have no grey: every pixel is either burned or not, so the image is dithered to one bit at the label's real resolution before it is encoded.

Choose the label size and density and the image is scaled to fit, dithered, and packed with Zebra's ASCII compression so the ZPL stays small enough to send over a slow serial or 9100 link. The preview shows the dithered bitmap, not the original image, because that is what will come out of the printer.

Logos usually look best as high-contrast black-and-white originals; photographs and gradients rely on the dither and print greyer than they look on screen.

Density and label size in dots

ZPL positions are printer dots, so the same label is a different number of dots at each density. Match the printer.

Printer	dpi	dots / mm	4 x 6 in label	2 x 1 in label
Most desktop Zebras (GX, GK, ZD, LP)	203	8	812 x 1218	406 x 203
Industrial and healthcare (ZT, ZD 300)	300	12	1218 x 1827	609 x 304
High resolution (ZT 600)	600	24	2436 x 3654	1218 x 609

Your data: Your image is processed in memory and discarded when the response is sent; nothing is stored, logged or read by a person. Anonymous runs carry a small stripyhorse.io logo in the corner; sign in for clean output. Details in the privacy policy.

Questions

What image formats can I convert to ZPL?

PNG, JPEG and GIF. For the sharpest result start from a black-and-white image at or above the printer's resolution.

Why does my logo print grey or speckled?

The dither is approximating shades a thermal head cannot print. Give it a pure black-and-white source, or raise the darkness on the printer, and the speckle disappears.

How big can the image be?

Anything up to 5 MB in the browser tool. The output is capped by the label: a 4 by 6 inch label at 203 dpi is 812 by 1218 dots, and larger images are scaled down to it.

Can I put the image on a label with text and barcodes?

Yes. Take the ^GFA line from the output and drop it into your own ^XA...^XZ, or use the Label builder, which places images, text and barcodes together and gives you the ZPL.

The same engine is behind the API and the guides; every tool here is also an API call.