I have a code which generates a ZPL file which can be sent directly to a printer or downloaded like a file with a .zpl extension. My question is what is the difference between this .zpl and .lbl extension files? The code for the ZPL is below.

^XA ^FX Top section with logo, name and address. ^CF0,60 ^FO210,100^FDCompany Name Here^FS ^FX Second section with item information ^CFA,30 ^FO30,300^FDITEM NAME: Printer^FS ^FO30,340^FDSERIAL NO: 12345^FS ^FX Third section with bar code. ^BY4,2,250 ^FO100,550^BC^FDsparc123^FS ^XZ 

If they are the same does it mean I can change the file extension from .zpl to .lbl and print it without a problem?

1 Answer

.lbl extension is the one produced by a label design software (.lbl is the extension of the files created by zebradesigner 2, for example, while .nlbl is the extension of zebradesigner 3), while .zpl files contain the zpl code the printer actually needs to produce a label. You can better picture the difference comparing the .lbl (or .nlbl) files as a .docx file and a .zpl file as a .txt file If you open a .lbl file with a text editor, you'll see it doesn't contain zpl commands, so you can't simply swap the file extensions

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