new CLI: brother_ql
This will slowly deprecate the other CLIs such as * brother_ql_create * brother_ql_print * brother_ql_info * brother_ql_analyze * brother_ql_debug
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Philipp Klaus
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LEGACY.md
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LEGACY.md
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## Legacy User Interfaces
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The following user interfaces of this package are still around but their use is now deprecated and they will
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be removed in a future release of the package. This documentation still lists the old UI and how it was used.
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### Create
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The command line tool `brother_ql_create` is possibly the most important piece of software in this package.
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It allows you to create a new instruction file in the label printers' raster language:
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brother_ql_create --model QL-500 ./720x300_monochrome.png > 720x300_monochrome.bin
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If you want to find out about its options, just call the tool with `--help`:
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brother_ql_create --help
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giving:
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usage: brother_ql_create [-h] [--model MODEL] [--label-size LABEL_SIZE]
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[--rotate {0,90,180,270}] [--threshold THRESHOLD]
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[--dither] [--compress] [--red] [--600dpi] [--no-cut]
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[--loglevel LOGLEVEL]
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image [outfile]
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positional arguments:
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image The image file to create a label from.
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outfile The file to write the instructions to. Defaults to
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stdout.
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optional arguments:
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-h, --help show this help message and exit
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--model MODEL, -m MODEL
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The printer model to use. Check available ones with
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`brother_ql_info list-models`.
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--label-size LABEL_SIZE, -s LABEL_SIZE
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The label size (and kind) to use. Check available ones
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with `brother_ql_info list-label-sizes`.
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--rotate {0,90,180,270}, -r {0,90,180,270}
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Rotate the image (counterclock-wise) by this amount of
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degrees.
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--threshold THRESHOLD, -t THRESHOLD
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The threshold value (in percent) to discriminate
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between black and white pixels.
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--dither, -d Enable dithering when converting the image to b/w. If
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set, --threshold is meaningless.
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--compress, -c Enable compression (if available with the model).
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Takes more time but results in smaller file size.
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--red Create a label to be printed on black/red/white tape
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(only with QL-8xx series on DK-22251 labels). You must
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use this option when printing on black/red tape, even
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when not printing red.
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--600dpi Print with 600x300 dpi available on some models.
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Provide your image as 600x600 dpi; perpendicular to
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the feeding the image will be resized to 300dpi.
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--no-cut Don't cut the tape after printing the label.
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--loglevel LOGLEVEL Set to DEBUG for verbose debugging output to stderr.
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The image argument should be a PNG/GIF/JPEG image file.
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Here is the output of `brother_ql_info list-label-sizes` listing the available options for `--label-size`:
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Supported label sizes:
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Name Printable px Description
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12 106 (12 mm endless)
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29 306 (29 mm endless)
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38 413 (38 mm endless)
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50 554 (50 mm endless)
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54 590 (54 mm endless)
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62 696 (62 mm endless)
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102 1164 (102 mm endless)
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17x54 165 x 566 (17 x 54 mm^2)
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17x87 165 x 956 (17 x 87 mm^2)
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23x23 202 x 202 (23 x 23 mm^2)
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29x42 306 x 425 (29 x 42 mm^2)
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29x90 306 x 991 (29 x 90 mm^2)
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39x90 413 x 991 (38 x 90 mm^2)
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39x48 425 x 495 (39 x 48 mm^2)
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52x29 578 x 271 (52 x 29 mm^2)
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62x29 696 x 271 (62 x 29 mm^2)
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62x100 696 x 1109 (62 x 100 mm^2)
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102x51 1164 x 526 (102 x 51 mm^2)
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102x152 1164 x 1660 (102 x 152 mm^2)
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d12 94 x 94 (12 mm diameter, round)
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d24 236 x 236 (24 mm diameter, round)
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d58 618 x 618 (58 mm diameter, round)
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**Pro Tip™**:
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For the best results, use image files with the matching pixel dimensions. Die-cut labels have to be in the exact pixel dimensions stated above. For endless label rolls, you can provide image files with a pixel width as stated above. If you provide a file with different dimensions when creating an endless label file, it will be scaled to fit the width.
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### Print
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Once you have a Brother QL instruction file, you can send it to the printer like this:
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cat my_label.bin > /dev/usb/lp1
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Be sure to have permission to write to the device (usually adding yourself to the *lp* group is sufficient.
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Or via network (if you have a LAN/WLAN enabled Brother QL):
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nc 192.168.0.23 9100 < my_label.bin
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You can also use the tool `brother_ql_print` (Py3 only) to send the instructions to your printer:
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brother_ql_print 720x151_monochrome.bin /dev/usb/lp0
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# or
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brother_ql_print --backend network 720x151_monochrome.bin tcp://192.168.0.23:9100
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# or (requires PyUSB: `pip install pyusb`)
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brother_ql_print 720x151_monochrome.bin usb://0x04f9:0x2015
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# or if you have multiple ones connected:
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brother_ql_print 720x151_monochrome.bin usb://0x04f9:0x2015/000M6Z401370
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# where 000M6Z401370 is the serial number (see lsusb output).
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If your printer has problems printing the instructions file, it may blink its LED (green or red) depending on the model. This can have many reasons, eg.:
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* The selected label doesn't match (make sure `--red` has been passed to `brother_ql_create` if you're using black/red labels).
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* End of paper.
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* Unsupported opcode (wrong `--model` when using `brother_ql_create`?)
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### DEBUG
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In case of trouble printing an instruction file, there are some ways to help debugging.
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One way is to look into the binary raster instruction file, see the *Analyse* section.
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The other way is to send those instructions to the printer one by one and check how it reacts, see the *Debug* section.
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#### Analyse
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To analyse a binary file containing Brother QL Raster instructions:
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brother_ql_analyse 720x300_monochrome.bin --loglevel DEBUG
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The tool will dissect your file and print the opcodes to stdout.
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In addition, it creates PNG images of what the printer's output would look like.
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They are saved to page0001.png etc. (yes, one .bin file can contain more than one "page").
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This tool also has the `--help` option.
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(This specific tool doesn't work on Python 2.)
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#### Debug
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If your printer has problems printing the instructions file, it may blink its LED (green or red) depending on the model. This can have many reasons, eg.:
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* The selected label doesn't match.
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* End of paper.
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* Unsupported opcode (some printers require a mode switching opcode, others fail if such an instruction is sent; some do support data compression, others don't)
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To debug this situation and find out which command could be the culprit, connect your printer via USB. (You don't get any status information via network).
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You can use the supplied tool `brother_ql_debug` to send your problematic instructions file to the printer. It will be split into single instructions sent one after the other.
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After every instruction, the printer will be given a chance to send a status response containing error information. Here is an example:
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philipp@lion ~> brother_ql_debug ./720x151_monochrome.bin /dev/usb/lp0
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INFO: CMD preamble FOUND. Instruction: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [...] 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: CMD init FOUND. Instruction: 1B 40
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INFO: CMD status request FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 53
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INFO: Response from the device: 80 20 42 30 4F 30 00 00 00 00 3E 0A 00 00 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Reply to status request' (phase: Waiting to receive), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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INFO: CMD media/quality FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 7A CE 0A 3E 00 97 00 00 00 01 00
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INFO: CMD margins FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 64 23 00
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INFO: CMD raster FOUND. Instruction: 67 00 5A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 FF FF FF 1F FF FF FF FF FF F0 00 00 00 00 00 0F FF FF 03 FF FF FF FF E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [...] 00 07 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Response from the device: 80 20 42 30 4F 30 00 00 00 00 3E 0A 00 00 15 00 00 00 06 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Phase change' (phase: Printing state), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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INFO: CMD print FOUND. Instruction: 1A
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TIME 1.60
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Printing completed' (phase: Printing state), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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TIME 1.60
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Phase change' (phase: Waiting to receive), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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Here, a command file was successfully printed. The last response should state the *Waiting to receive* phase.
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If you want to confirm the sending of every single command individually, you can add the `--interactive` argument to the command line call.
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If you're seeing any error there, open a new issue on Github containing the debugging output to get your device supported.
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