For thermal transfer printers, the media may not be outside-wound or it may not be approved for use with your printer. See Ribbon Test with Adhesive and Ribbon Scratch Test to test if you are using the correct ribbon supplies and loading them as needed for your printer.
The printed image does not look right.
The printhead is dirty. Clean the printhead.
The printhead is under temperature.
Adjust the print darkness and/or print speed.
Use the
^PR
(speed) and
~SD
(darkness) commands referenced in the ZPL Programming Guide available from zebra.com/support.
Use the
D
(darkness/density) and
S
(speed) commands in the EPL Programmer’s Guide available from zebra.com/support.
Manually adjust print darkness with the six-flash sequence of FEED Button Modes.
The Windows printer driver or the application software may change these settings and may require a change to optimize print quality.
The media being used is incompatible with the printer. Use the recommended media for your application, and always use Zebra-approved labels and tags.
The printhead has worn out. The printhead is a consumable item and will wear out due to friction between the media and the printhead. Using unapproved media may shorten life or damage your printhead. Replace the printhead.
The platen may need cleaning or replacement. The platen (driver) roller may be losing traction due to:
Foreign objects attached to its surface,
The rubbery smooth surface has become polished and slippery, or
There is damage to the usually smooth and flat print surface such as from box-knife cuts.
There are long tracks of missing print (blank vertical lines) on several labels.
The printhead is dirty. Clean the printhead.
The printhead elements are damaged.
Print does not start at the top of the label or misprinting of one to three labels.
The printer may need to be calibrated for the media you loaded. Refer to details of the two-flash sequence of FEED Button Modes.
For ZPL label formats:
The correct media sensor may not be activated. See Manual Calibration to make sure the correct media-sensing method is being used for the labels you loaded. Also seethe
^MN
command in the ZPL Programming Guide available from zebra.com/support.
Verify that the Label Top (
^LT
) command is correctly set for your application. See the ZPL Programming Guide.
For EPL label formats:
The correct media sensor may not be activated for label dispensing, blackline or notch sensing, or Gap/Web sensing. Manual calibration selects the media sensing method for the labels being used. See the
O
and
Q
commands in the EPL Programmer’s Guide available from zebra.com/support.
EPL label formats—Verify that the Set Label Length (
Q
) command is correctly set for your application, See the EPL Programmer’s Guide.
A ZPL label format was sent to, but not recognized by the printer.
A communications problem has occurred. First, make sure that the correct communications port on the computer is selected. Refer to Connecting your Printer to a Device.
Verify the correct Format and Control Prefix on the printer match what you are using in your ZPL programmed label format. The default format (
COMMAND CHAR
) is caret (
^
) and the Control (
CONTROL CHAR
) is a tilde (
~
) character. Verify the characters with the Configuration Status label printout. Refer to the one-flash sequence of FEED Button Modes for instructions on printing this label.
An EPL label format was sent to, but not recognized by the printer.
Is the printer in pause mode? If so, press
FEED
.
If the printer has label dispensing enabled, the printer may be waiting for the label to be removed. The liner/web must be properly threaded through the label-dispenser mechanism (peeler) to correctly operate in label dispense mode, refer to Label Dispenser Option.
A communications problem has occurred. Make sure that the correct communications port (USB) on the computer is selected. See Connecting your Printer to a Device.
