ZebraDesigner Essentials & Professional Version 3 Release Notes

Editions

ZebraDesigner Essentials

ZebraDesigner Essentials is the basic edition offering design and printing of graphics and text or barcodes using fixed or variable data from keyboard input, date/time or counter data sources.

ZebraDesigner Professional

ZebraDesigner Professional includes additional features such as support for database connectivity, printing and encoding RFID labels, simple VB scripting and field concatenation. The purchase of a license is necessary to enable these additional features. No dongle (hardware key) is needed. The Professional edition can be evaluated for 30 days with no restrictions.

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System Requirements

• 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 10 desktop editions, Windows 11 desktop editions, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022 operating systems.
• CPU: Intel or compatible x86 family processor.
• Memory: 2 GB or more RAM.
• Hard drive: 1 GB of available disk space.
• Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.7.2
• Display: 1366 × 768 or higher resolution monitor.
• ZDesigner printer drivers.
• Remote Desktop Services and Virtual Machines are not supported.

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Installation

Setup

ZebraDesigner Essentials and Professional editions will be installed as a single product and will run at the Essentials level after the initial installation. Within the application, you may start a 30-day trial of the Professional edition.

Printer Drivers

The ZebraDesigner label design application requires the ZDesigner Windows driver to communicate with your printer. You can access the ZDesigner Windows driver for your printer by navigating to your printer support page from www.zebra.com/support.

Zebra recommends using the version 8.x ZDesigner driver for printers running Link-OS. The version 5.x driver can be used for legacy printers and where the CPCL or EPL command language is required.

Licensing

Licensing in ZebraDesigner Professional version 3 is controlled by the use of a license key number. A license key number can be entered after the software has been installed. (Note: ZebraDesigner Pro V2.x license keys cannot be used in ZebraDesigner Professional version 3)

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Supported Printers

Zebra printer models in the v8.x and v5.x ZDesigner drivers are supported.

For specific model support, see the readme files contained in the v8 and v5 ZDesigner driver distributions available at www.zebra.com/support

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Tips & Advice

1. When printing a QR code using ZPL there are 2 mandatory switch fields that must be formatted in the ^FD field data. In some scenarios it's not possible to encode data in a QR code because of the need for the switch fields in the ^FD command. An example of this would be trying to read and encode the RFID TID field in to a QR code.

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Differences between ZebraDesigner V2.5 and V3.0

1. The following barcode types are no longer available in V3. When opening labels created in V2, these barcode objects will be removed from the label:
   • Royal Mail
   • Australia Post 4-state
   • Code128 Pharmacy
   • Code-32
   • Kix
   • Pharmacode
   • All Postnet barcodes
   • Codablock F
   • GridMatrix
2. The Addon 2 and Addon 5 GS1 barcode options in V2 are represented as Bookland in V3.
3. Object linking and embedding (OLE) label design objects are no longer available. When opening labels created in V2 with such objects, the user will be warned in an “open document report” and the object(s) will be removed from the label.
4. When opening a label created in V2 containing a PDF-417 2D barcode, the aspect ratio is adjusted to a value of at least 1.5 in order to ensure standard compliance. After designing a PDF-417 barcode with value for the rows and columns set to 0, V3 can display the barcode with a slightly different size or ratio. The data itself remains encoded correctly but you should ensure the barcode still fits on the label. Barcode placement can be verified using the label preview function.
5. When opening a label created in V2 containing a DataMatrix barcode, the ECC 000-140 level is automatically set to 200. ECC 200 is the latest version of DataMatrix barcode and uses Reed-Solomon codes for error correction and symbol erasure recovery.
6. V3 includes an optimized calculation of font point sizes. In certain cases, this might cause a Text object to display a font slightly differently when compared to V2. For example, font height might differ by 1 pixel.
7. The Rectangle object now has uniform thickness setting. In V2, you could define different values for horizontal and vertical thickness. In V3, the Rectangle object has a single uniform thickness setting. When opening a label created in V2 containing a Rectangle object, the horizontal thickness is applied.
8. Custom check digit algorithms are no longer available. The custom check digit functionality from V2 (the definition of check digit algorithms and the action to execute the algorithm) cannot be used in V3. The alternative is to code a custom check digit algorithm using VBScript. This applies to the Professional edition.
9. The 'Label linked to stock' option in the V2 label setup wizard is no longer supported (or necessary) as there is no stock editing functionality in V3.
10. Currency conversion and rounding in the Keyboard Input option is no longer supported. A warning of this is displayed when opening a V2 label design.
11. Support for downloaded graphics in the printer memory card is no longer supported. When opening a label created in V2 that used a downloaded graphic, the following behaviour will occur:
    • If the graphic is embedded in the label file, it will be loaded and printed in V3 as normal.
    • If the graphic is not embedded in the label file but does exist in its original path, it will be loaded in V3 otherwise the user shall be warned in an "open document report" the graphic cannot be found.
12. V2 had a global option to embed all graphics files in the lbl file. In V3, for each individual graphic you can choose to embed the graphic in the label or not. This gives a more granular control and the default settings creates smaller label files by default.
13. ZebraDesigner Pro V2.x license key numbers cannot be used in ZebraDesigner Professional V3.
14. In V2 you could link fields regardless of whether it had a fixed or variable value. In V3 you can only link to an object if it has a "variable" data source (variable keyboard input, current date/time, counter etc). V2 labels containing linked fields to fixed data objects will open and print in V3. If the V2 label needs modifying, the fixed data fields willl need to be changed to a variable data source before they can be linked.
15. When opening a label designed in V2 that used a custom font for barcode human readable text, the barcode will be printed as a graphic in v3 instead of using the printer's internal barcode. This is because ZebraDesigner v3 doesn't support using internal printer barcodes and a custom font for barcode human readable text in the same field. To use the printer's internal barcode, uncheck the "Custom Font" option in the Barcode > Human Readable properties and then set "Always use printer element" in the Barcode > General properties. If necessary, turn off the human readable in the barcode properties and print the human readable data using a separate field with custom font.
16. V2 had a "clear values after print" option that would reset a counter value after printing a label batch. To reset the counter value after printing a batch in V3, it's necessary to manually re-enter the start value.

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Change Log

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Technical Support

Worldwide Technical Support is available through your Reseller, or at: https://supportcommunity.zebra.com/s/contactsupport

Zebra Technologies Corporation
Corporate & International Headquarters
3 Overlook Point
Lincolnshire, Illinois 60069 USA
Phone: +1 847 913 2259
Fax: +1 847 913 2578

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Software Updates

ZebraDesigner Essentials and Professional can be updated and modified to take advantage of new developments. Updates will be available on our web site: https://www.zebra.com/zdpro

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