Crate zpl_builder 

A library for building ZPL II label strings to be sent to Zebra thermal printers.

Overview

ZPL (Zebra Programming Language) is a label description language interpreted by Zebra printers. This library lets you build valid ZPL strings in Rust without constructing raw strings by hand. All field values are validated against the ZPL II specification at construction time — an invalid value returns a ZplError rather than silently producing a malformed command.

Quick start

use zpl_builder::{LabelBuilder, BarcodeType, Color, Orientation};

let zpl = LabelBuilder::new()
    .set_home_position(10, 10).unwrap()
    .add_text("Hello, printer!", 50, 50, 'A', 30, Orientation::Normal).unwrap()
    .add_graphical_box(10, 10, 500, 300, 3, Color::Black, 0).unwrap()
    .add_barcode(BarcodeType::Code128, "ABC-123", 50, 120, 2, 2.5, 80, Orientation::Normal).unwrap()
    .build();

assert!(zpl.starts_with("^XA"));
assert!(zpl.ends_with("^XZ"));

Elements

The builder supports the following ZPL elements:

Method	ZPL command	Description
LabelBuilder::add_text	^A / ^FD	Text field
LabelBuilder::add_barcode	^BY / ^B*	Barcode (27 types)
LabelBuilder::add_graphical_box	^GB	Rectangle
LabelBuilder::add_graphical_circle	^GC	Circle
LabelBuilder::add_graphical_ellipse	^GE	Ellipse
LabelBuilder::add_graphical_diagonal_line	^GD	Diagonal line

Error handling

Every builder method returns Result<LabelBuilder, ZplError>. This means you can chain calls with ? in a function that returns Result:

use zpl_builder::{LabelBuilder, Color, Orientation, ZplError};

fn build_shipping_label(tracking: &str) -> Result<String, ZplError> {
    Ok(LabelBuilder::new()
        .set_home_position(0, 0)?
        .add_text("SHIP TO:", 10, 10, 'B', 20, Orientation::Normal)?
        .add_graphical_box(5, 5, 400, 200, 2, Color::Black, 0)?
        .build())
}

Or with .unwrap() / .expect() when the values are known to be valid:

use zpl_builder::{LabelBuilder, Orientation};

let zpl = LabelBuilder::new()
    .add_text("Fixed label", 10, 10, 'A', 20, Orientation::Normal).unwrap()
    .build();

See ZplError for the full list of validation errors and their ranges.

Structs

LabelBuilder

Builder for ZPL II label strings.

Enums

BarcodeType

Barcode symbology.

Color

Line and fill color for graphical elements.

DiagonalOrientation

Orientation of a diagonal line.

Orientation

Orientation of a text or barcode field.

ZplError

Errors that can occur when building a ZPL label.