PDF to IPL

Intermec's printers — the PM43 on the production line, the PC43d at the packing bench — do not speak PDF, and half of them no longer have a supported Windows driver. LabelZoom turns each PDF page into a complete IPL job: the program is downloaded, the format is stored with every field's data inside it, bitmaps go down as UDC graphics, and the print command fires — all in one stream the printer executes without keeping any state.

Zebra printers: PDF to ZPL. Datamax / Honeywell: PDF to DPL. TSC: PDF to TSPL. Have IPL 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

A self-contained job: Program mode, format with inline data, UDC graphics, print — nothing left in the printer.

Readable-character output — plain text with spelled-out <STX> markers, safe to paste, store and diff.

Built for Honeywell / Intermec PM43, PC43d/PC43t, PD43 and EasyCoder PX fleets.

How to convert PDF to IPL

  1. 1

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

  2. 2

    Click Quick Convert. Leave the density at 203 dpi unless your model is a 300 dpi variant, and set the width and height to your stock — 4 × 6 inches is the default.

  3. 3

    Copy the job or download the .ipl file and send it to the printer as text — USB, serial, port 9100, or through your WMS. The spelled-out markers make it safe to route anywhere a text file can go.

IPL 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
IPLIntermec / Honeywell (PM43, PC43, PD43, PX series)UDC bitmap downloaded in Program mode, placed with a U fieldText — readable-character form
ZPLModern Zebra (GK, GX, ZD, ZT series)^GF compressed hexText — safe to paste
DPLDatamax-O'Neil / Honeywell<STX>I hex image + Y recordText — safe to paste
EPLEltron / early Zebra desktop (LP2844)GW inline binaryBinary — send as bytes

Other Supported Formats

PDF to ZPLPDF to EPLPDF to TSPLPDF to DPLIPL ViewerIPL to PDFIPL to ZPLImage to ZPL
Start converting now

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Which printers speak IPL?
The Intermec line, now sold under the Honeywell badge: the PM43 and PM43c industrial printers, the PC43d and PC43t desktops, the PD43 mid-range, and the older EasyCoder PX4i / PX6i and 3400-series hardware still running in plants and DCs. If the printer's manual shows formats wrapped in STX and ETX frames and fields defined as H, B and G statements, it is an IPL machine.
What does the IPL output actually contain?
One self-contained job. It enters Program mode with <ESC>P, erases and re-creates format 1 (E1;F1;), stores every text, barcode and graphic as a fixed-data field whose content travels inside the format, and downloads any bitmaps first as UDC graphics — IPL has no inline image command, so the job writes the G and u definitions and places them with U fields. It then closes the format with R, selects it with <ESC>E1, clears host data with <CAN> and prints with <ETB>. Nothing is left on the printer between jobs.
Is IPL output safe to paste and store, like DPL?
Yes. The job is written in IPL's readable-character form: every control marker appears as the spelled-out text <STX>, <ETX> or <ETB> rather than as a raw byte, so the whole stream is ordinary characters. You can copy it, email it, diff it and commit it, and the printer accepts the spelled-out form as long as every marker in the job uses it consistently.
Will the label come out the right size for my stock?
Set the label width and height and pick the density that matches your model — most Intermec printers run 203 dpi, with 300 dpi variants in the PM and PX lines. The converter renders each PDF page onto that dot grid, and the field positions in the job are expressed in the same dots, so a 4 × 6 inch label prints edge to edge with no scaling surprises.
Our fleet also has Zebra and Datamax printers. Can we feed them all?
Yes — the PDF to ZPL, EPL, TSPL and DPL converters use the same rendering pipeline, and the REST API emits any of the five languages from one request by changing the target format. Mixed fleets during a hardware changeover are exactly what it is built for.