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Install a Windows printer for RAW label printing

When you connect a local (USB or LPT) printer to a LabelZoom print agent, the agent uses RAW printing — it sends your label commands (ZPL, EPL, DPL, TSPL, …) directly to the printer, and the printer’s firmware draws the label. It does not rasterize the label through a graphical Windows driver.

Because of that, the printer must be installed on the agent machine with a RAW pass-through driver. The simplest, most reliable choice on Windows is the built-in Generic / Text Only driver. This guide walks through installing it.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • The printer is physically connected to the machine running the LabelZoom print agent (USB cable, or an LPT/parallel port).
  • You know which port it’s on. USB printers usually appear as a USB00x virtual printer port; a parallel printer is on LPT1.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”

1. Open Printers & scanners

Section titled “1. Open Printers & scanners”

Go to Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners (Windows 11), or Settings → Devices → Printers & scanners (Windows 10).

Screenshot coming soon.

2. Add a printer manually

Section titled “2. Add a printer manually”

Click Add device, wait for the scan, then choose Add manually (Windows 11) or The printer that I want isn’t listed (Windows 10).

In the wizard, select Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings, then Next.

Screenshot coming soon.

3. Choose the printer’s port

Section titled “3. Choose the printer’s port”

Select Use an existing port and pick the port the printer is connected to:

  • USB printer: the USB00x entry (e.g. USB001). If several are listed, the one that appeared when you plugged the printer in is usually correct.
  • Parallel printer: LPT1:.

Screenshot coming soon.

4. Select the Generic / Text Only driver

Section titled “4. Select the Generic / Text Only driver”

When asked for the driver:

  1. Under Manufacturer, choose Generic.
  2. Under Printers, choose Generic / Text Only.
  3. Click Next. If prompted, keep the currently installed driver.

Screenshot coming soon.

5. Name the printer

Section titled “5. Name the printer”

Give the printer a clear name — for example Warehouse Zebra (RAW). Write this name down exactly: it’s the value you enter in LabelZoom when adding a USB / Local printer.

Finish the wizard. You do not need to share the printer or set it as default. Skip the Windows test page (it prints a graphical page that a RAW label printer will not render correctly).

Screenshot coming soon.

Add the printer in LabelZoom

Section titled “Add the printer in LabelZoom”
  1. In the LabelZoom dashboard, open Printers and click Add printer on your agent.
  2. Choose USB / Local printer.
  3. Pick the printer from the list (the agent auto-detects installed printers), or type the exact name from step 5.
  4. Save, then use Test print to confirm a label comes out.

If the test label doesn’t print, see Troubleshooting below.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
  • Nothing prints / the agent reports “could not open printer”. The printer name in LabelZoom must match the Windows printer name exactly (including capitalization and spaces). Re-check it in Printers & scanners.
  • A blank or garbage label prints. The printer was likely installed with a graphical vendor driver. Repeat the steps above and select Generic / Text Only, or your printer’s dedicated RAW/ZPL driver.
  • “The data is invalid” error. The printer’s driver rejected raw data. This happens with some vendor drivers (for example a v4 Zebra/ZDesigner driver installed automatically by Windows). Re-install the printer with the Generic / Text Only driver using the steps above, which reliably accepts RAW data.
  • The printer isn’t in LabelZoom’s dropdown. Make sure the LabelZoom agent is running on the same machine and is enrolled, then click Refresh on the Printers page — the agent reports its installed printers on each check-in.
Section titled “Related”