DPL to PDF

Turn a Datamax-O'Neil or Honeywell print stream into a PDF you can open, print and file without the printer. LabelZoom interprets DPL natively — the <STX>L label format, its fixed-width font and barcode records, lines, boxes and <STX>I downloaded images — honours its hundredth-of-an-inch coordinates and bottom-up rows, and renders the label as a true-size PDF page. Useful for archiving what a system printed, sharing a template with someone who has no thermal printer, and reviewing formats before a fleet migration.

Just want to see it? Use the DPL viewer. Replacing the printers? DPL to ZPL. Other languages: EPL, TSPL, ZPL.

Preview: LabelZoom’s DPL rendering is newer than our ZPL engine and still improving. Most labels come out right, but some elements — scalable fonts and less common record types especially — may not match your printer perfectly. If a label doesn’t look right, let us know — reports go straight into what we fix next.

Paste your DPL code

Note on Watermarks: Free online conversions include a LabelZoom watermark. Need to remove watermarks for production, or process thousands of labels per minute? Check out our REST API subscriptions

Native DPL interpretation — records, not a screenshot of a driver.

Hundredth-of-an-inch coordinates and bottom-up rows handled for you.

True-size PDF you can print on any office printer.

How to convert DPL to PDF

  1. 1

    Copy the DPL from your template, capture file or export — it starts with <STX>L and ends with E — and paste it above, or upload the file. The STX bytes survive a paste; uploading is still the safest route for streams that also carry downloaded images.

  2. 2

    Pick 203 or 300 dpi to match the printer the job was written for, and set the label size in inches if it is not 4 × 6.

  3. 3

    Click Quick Preview, check the label and download the PDF. Every conversion produces one true-size page.

Other Supported Formats

DPL ViewerDPL to ZPLPDF to DPLEPL to PDFTSPL to PDFZPL to PDF
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Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about rendering DPL labels as PDF.

What does DPL look like, and why is it full of control characters?
DPL (Datamax Programming Language) introduces every system command with an STX character (0x02), so a job reads as <STX>L to start a label format, a series of fixed-width records — each one a font or barcode selector, rotation, size, row, column and data — and E to end and print. Row and column are in hundredths of an inch rather than dots, and rows count up from the bottom of the label, which is why the numbers look unlike ZPL's.
Which parts of a DPL job does the PDF rendering cover?
The label format records production labels are built from: text in the internal fonts and scalable fonts, the barcode record types (Code 128, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5, UPC/EAN and the 2D symbologies), lines and boxes, and images downloaded with <STX>I and placed with a Y record. Media settings and rotation are honoured; printer configuration commands that do not affect the printed image are ignored.
How accurate is the rendering?
Close, and improving. DPL support is newer than our ZPL engine: the everyday records render faithfully and are tested against real production streams, but an unusual font or an exotic record may still differ from a specific printer's firmware. If a label looks wrong, tell us — reports go directly into what gets fixed next.
What page size and resolution will the PDF be?
The label size you set, at the density you choose — 203 dpi for most E-Class and I-Class models, 300 dpi for the high-resolution variants. Because DPL positions are physical units, the label lays out at the same true size on either; the density only changes how finely the bitmap is drawn.