PDF to EPL

The LP2844 in the corner of the warehouse does not speak ZPL, and it certainly does not speak PDF. LabelZoom renders each PDF page at the printer's 203 dots per inch, reduces it to the two colors a thermal head can make, and wraps it in a native EPL2 label — an inline GW bitmap between N and P1 — that Eltron-era printers accept over USB, serial, parallel or a print server with no driver in the way.

Newer Zebra? Use PDF to ZPL. TSC printers: PDF to TSPL. Datamax / Honeywell: PDF to DPL. SATO: PDF to SBPL. Have EPL already? View it or migrate it to ZPL.

Upload a label to convert

Drag and drop a PDF document here, or click to browse your computer.

Note on Watermarks: Free online conversions may include a LabelZoom watermark on rendered previews. Need to process high volumes directly from your WMS? Check out our REST API subscriptions

Native EPL2 with an inline GW bitmap — the printer receives dots, not a driver's guess.

q and Q set from your label size, so 4 × 6 stock prints edge to edge.

Built for LP2824, LP2844, TLP2844 and dual-language GK420 / GX420 printers.

How to convert PDF to EPL

  1. 1

    Upload your PDF above — a carrier shipping label, a packing slip, or any page sized for thermal media. A ZIP of PDFs converts each file into its own label.

  2. 2

    Click Quick Convert. Leave the density at 203 dpi (every Eltron-era printer is 203) and set the width and height to your stock — 4 × 6 inches is the default.

  3. 3

    Download the .epl and send it as raw bytes: copy it to the printer's USB or LPT port, push it to port 9100 on a print server, or hand it to your WMS. Do not paste it through a text editor — the GW bitmap is binary.

EPL against the other printer languages

Same PDF, same renderer; the difference is which printer family the output is for and how the bitmap is carried.

TargetPrinter familyGraphics commandOutput is
EPLEltron / early Zebra desktop (LP2844, TLP2844, GK420)GW inline binaryBinary — send as bytes
ZPLModern Zebra (GK, GX, ZD, ZT series)^GF compressed hexText — safe to paste
TSPLTSC and compatiblesBITMAP inline binaryBinary — send as bytes
DPLDatamax-O'Neil / Honeywell<STX>I hex image + Y recordText — safe to paste

Other Supported Formats

PDF to ZPLPDF to TSPLPDF to DPLPDF to IPLPDF to SBPLEPL ViewerEPL to PDFEPL to ZPLImage to ZPL
Start converting now

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about printing PDFs on EPL2 thermal printers.

Which printers speak EPL?
The Eltron line Zebra acquired and kept selling for years: the LP 2824, LP 2844 and TLP 2844 desktop printers, their Plus variants, and the early GK420 and GX420 models, which accept both EPL2 and ZPL. If a printer is old enough to have shipped with a parallel port, or its manual talks about EPL2 rather than ZPL II, this is the language it wants. Newer Zebra desktop models still accept EPL for compatibility.
What does the EPL output actually contain?
A complete label: N to clear the buffer, q and Q for the label width and length in dots, a GW command carrying the rendered page as an inline bitmap, and P1 to print one copy. GW is EPL's raw graphics command — the bytes that follow it are the printer dots, row by row — which is why the output is binary rather than plain text and why it should be sent as bytes, not pasted through a text editor.
Why not print the PDF through the Windows driver?
Many warehouses still run LP2844-class printers precisely because they are simple and cheap, and the driver stack around them is not: scaling defaults, page-size dialogs and spooler quirks all sit between the PDF and the label. Native EPL gives the printer exactly the dots to burn. It is also the only option when the printer is on a print server, behind a mobile device, or driven from a WMS with no Windows in the path.
Does the EPL come out at the right size for 4 × 6 stock?
Yes, if you tell the converter the label size and density. Eltron-era printers are 203 dpi, so a 4 × 6 inch label is 812 × 1218 dots; the converter renders the PDF page to exactly that grid and sets q and Q accordingly. If your label is a different size, change the width and height in the settings before converting.
Can I convert the same PDF to ZPL for the newer printers in the fleet?
Yes — the PDF to ZPL converter uses the same rendering pipeline, and the REST API can produce EPL, ZPL, TSPL, DPL, IPL or SBPL from one request by changing the target. Mixed fleets during a migration are exactly what it is for.