Etiquette

Print labels on a Brother P-touch P700 printer from the command line, without any special drivers.

echo "Label" | etiquette /dev/usb/lpN

Features

• Print a list of newline delimited labels from stdin as one job, only wasting the ~25mm of feed tape once per job:

  echo -e "Label 1\nLabel 2" | etiquette /dev/usb/lpN
  

  (Make sure to remove labels as they feed out, otherwise small ones can pile up and slow down the printer, offsetting the text on the next labels.)

• Detect tape size loaded into printer, and automatically pick corresponding font size.

• Print pre-rendered images, for example QR codes:

  qrencode --symversion=3 --strict-version --size 4 --margin 1 -o- "http://go.afab.re/etiquette" | etiquette -img /dev/usb/lpN
  

• Preview the output as a PNG:

  echo "Label" | ./etiquette -preview label.png /dev/usb/lpN
  

Requirements

• Linux usblp driver.
• Printer should show up as /dev/usb/lpN.
• Permission to access /dev/usb/lpN. Typically add yourself to the lp group:
  • sudo usermod -aG lp $USER; newgrp lp

Install

With a working Go installation:

go install go.afab.re/etiquette/cmd/etiquette@latest

Alternatives

• ptouch-print

  • Doesn't support printing and cutting multiple labels at a time.
  • Font size varies based on text: labels with descenders (eg g) will use a smaller font than those without.

• B-Label

  • Doesn't support printing multiple labels at a time.
  • Doesn't output anything with the P700 printer.

• ptouch-driver

  • CUPS driver.

  • Need to manually specify label length, defaults to 100mm. Eg:

    lp -d PT-P700 -o PageSize=Custom.17x70 -o landscape
    

  • Supports printing and cutting multiple labels at a time.