Barcodes in ZPL - 1D and 2D symbologies

ZPL renders barcodes natively on the printer - no images required. The two most

important commands are ^B* (barcode type) and ^FD (data).

Linear barcodes (1D)

^XA
^FO50,50^BY2,2,80^BCN,80,Y,N,N^FD4006381333931^FS
^XZ

• ^BY2,2,80 - barcode defaults: module width 2 dots, wide/narrow ratio 2, height 80 dots
• ^BCN,80,Y,N,N - Code 128, normal orientation, height 80, print interpretation line (Y),

no interpretation line above (N), no UCC check digit (N)

Common symbologies:

Symbology	Command	Example data
-----------	---------	--------------
Code 128	^BC	^BCN,80,Y,N,N
Code 39	^B3	^B3N,80,N,N,N
EAN-13	^BE	^BEN,80,Y,N
EAN-8	^B8	^B8N,80,Y,N
UPC-A	^BU	^BUN,80,Y,N
Code 93	^B9	^B9N,80,Y,N,N
Interleaved 2 of 5	^BI	^BIN,80,Y,N
Codabar	^B2	^B2N,80,Y,N,N
POSTNET	^BP	^BPN,80,N,N
MSI	^BM	^BMN,80,Y,N
PDF417	^B7	^B7N,80,5,5

2D barcodes

^XA
^FO50,50^BQN,2,8^FDMM,https://example.com^FS
^XZ

• ^BQN,2,8 - QR Code, normal orientation, magnification 2, error correction 8 (≈30 %)
• ^FDMM, - QR mode: MM = auto/binary, QA = alphanumeric, QN = numeric.

Data follows after the comma.

GS1-128 (EAN-128): use ^BC with the >; FNC1 prefix:

^BCN,80,Y,N,Y^FD>;0104006381333931^FS

Tips

• Module width (^BY first parameter) is the most common print-quality issue:

1 dot is too thin for many media types; 2–3 is typical.

• EAN/UPC data is fixed length - the printer adds check digits automatically.
• Keep the quiet zone (white space) around the barcode: at least 10× module width.