ptouch-rs

Rust tool for Brother P-Touch USB label printers. CLI and GUI.

Features

• Print text labels with custom font, size, alignment and rotation
• Print images (PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, SVG, and more)
• Compose multi-element labels (text + image + cut mark + padding)
• Chain print and multi-copy support
• GUI with live preview, zoom, and drag-and-drop element reordering
• Export to image (PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, WebP) without a printer connected
• Feed and cut tape without printing

Supported Printers

PT-9200DX, PT-2300, PT-2420PC, PT-2450PC, PT-18R, PT-1950, PT-2700, PT-1230PC, PT-2430PC, PT-2730, PT-H500, PT-E500, PT-E550W, PT-P700, PT-P750W, PT-D410, PT-D450, PT-D460BT, PT-D600, PT-D610BT, PT-P710BT, PT-E310BT, PT-E560BT and more.

Tape widths: 3.5mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm, 18mm, 24mm, 36mm.

Building

Requires Rust stable toolchain.

Linux (libusb + udev):

sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0-dev libudev-dev   # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo pacman -S libusb                            # Arch
sudo emerge dev-libs/libusb                      # Gentoo
cargo build --release --workspace

macOS / Windows: no extra dependencies.

cargo build --release --workspace

Binaries: target/release/ptouch (CLI), target/release/ptouch-gui (GUI).

GUI

ptouch-gui

• Live label preview with zoom
• Add/edit/reorder text, images, cut marks, padding
• Free-angle text rotation with auto font sizing
• Tape width selection
• Print to connected printer or export to image file
• Feed and cut tape without printing

CLI Usage

# Print text
ptouch print "Hello World"

# Multi-line text
ptouch print "Line 1" "Line 2"

# Print with options
ptouch print "Label" -f "DejaVu Sans" -s 32 -a center

# Print image (PNG, JPEG, BMP, SVG, etc.)
ptouch print -i logo.png

# Text + image + cut mark
ptouch print "Name" -i photo.png -c

# Export to image file (no printer needed, format from extension)
ptouch print "Preview" -o label.png -w 76
ptouch print "Preview" -o label.bmp -w 76

# Show printer info
ptouch info

# List supported models
ptouch list

Print options

Flag	Long	Description
	TEXT...	Text lines (max 4)
-i	--image	Image file path
-o	--output	Export to image file instead of printing
-f	--font	Font name (default: DejaVuSans)
-s	--size	Font size in points (auto if omitted)
-m	--margin	Top/bottom margin in pixels
-a	--align	Text alignment: left, center, right
-w	--tape-width	Force tape width in pixels (with -o)
-c	--cut	Add cut mark
-p	--pad	Add padding in pixels
	--chain	Skip final feed/cut (chained labels)
	--binarize	Binarization: auto, threshold, dither
	--copies	Number of copies
	--debug	Enable debug output

USB Permissions (Linux)

Copy the udev rules file:

sudo cp udev/20-usb-ptouch-permissions.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Project Structure

crates/
  ptouch-core/    -- USB transport, protocol, device/tape tables
  ptouch-render/  -- Bitmap, text rendering, image loading, raster
  ptouch-cli/     -- CLI binary
  ptouch-gui/     -- GUI binary (egui)

License

MIT -- see LICENSE.