Switching a Zebra printer to Thermal Transfer Mode with ZPL

Zebra printers can be configured using ZPL commands; one of the main configurations is the Media Type, as printers can be either Thermal transfer or Direct thermal.

Thermal Transfer printers require a ribbon to print, while Direct Thermal printers require thermal labels.

Zebra printers use the ^MTa command to set the print method. We have the following options:

• ^MTT: Thermal Transfer
• ^MTD: Direct Thermal

To change the printer settings to Thermal Transfer, we must send the following ZPL commands:

^XA
^MTT
^XZ

This will change the media type of our printer for the current job.

If we want to persist this change between boots, we must save the settings using the ^JUS command.

So, the complete configuration will be:

^XA
^MTT
^JUS
^XZ