LabelZoom Python SDK

Official Python client for the LabelZoom API. Converts barcode labels between ZPL, EPL, IPL, TSPL, DPL, SBPL, PDF, LabelZoom XML/JSON, and raster images.

Python 3.10+. Fully typed (py.typed), sync and async clients, one dependency (httpx).

Install

pip install labelzoom-sdk

The distribution is labelzoom-sdk; the import is labelzoom.

Stable. The public API is covered by a shared conformance suite that every language SDK runs against the same fixtures. Each SDK is versioned independently, and the contract carries its own version in conformance/spec.json.

Quick start

An API key is optional. Without one you get the free tier — watermarked output, first label only, a 1 MB request cap, and no multi-page, JSON-target, or image-to-image conversion.

from pathlib import Path
from labelzoom import LabelZoomClient

with LabelZoomClient() as client:                # anonymous; this works
    result = client.convert(
        "zpl", "png",
        "^XA^FO20,20^A0N,28^FDHello^FS^XZ",
        dpi=300, label_width=4, label_height=6,
    )

Path("label.png").write_bytes(result.content)

result.content is the authoritative payload — the PDF and image targets are binary, and every printer-language target can inline binary of its own. result.text decodes it using the response charset for the textual ones.

With a key — passed explicitly, or picked up from LABELZOOM_API_KEY:

client = LabelZoomClient("lz_live_...")
from_env = LabelZoomClient()                     # reads LABELZOOM_API_KEY
anonymous = LabelZoomClient(None)                # forces anonymous, ignoring the env

Omitting the argument and passing None mean different things on purpose: omitting it consults the environment, and None (or "") suppresses that fallback.

Filling variable fields — each record produces one label:

result = client.convert(
    "zpl", "pdf", template,
    data=[{"name": "ACME Corp", "sku": "12345"},
          {"name": "Globex", "sku": "67890"}],
)                                                # a 2-page PDF

Async

AsyncLabelZoomClient is a mirror, not a wrapper — same arguments, same behaviour, awaited. The test suite asserts the two signatures are identical, so they cannot drift.

import asyncio
from labelzoom import AsyncLabelZoomClient

async def main() -> None:
    async with AsyncLabelZoomClient() as client:
        result = await client.convert("zpl", "png", zpl, dpi=300)
        print(result.status, result.content_type, len(result.content))

asyncio.run(main())

Formats

SourceFormat = Literal["zpl", "epl", "ipl", "tspl", "dpl", "sbpl",
                       "xml", "json", "pdf", "png", "bmp", "gif",
                       "jpeg", "jpg", "url"]

TargetFormat = Literal["zpl", "epl", "ipl", "tspl", "dpl", "sbpl",
                       "xml", "json", "pdf", "png", "bmp", "gif",
                       "jpeg"]

jpg and url are source-only — jpg normalizes to jpeg, and url is a fetch instruction rather than a format — and the type system says so:

client.convert("pdf", "url", body)
#                     ^^^^^ error: Argument 2 has incompatible type "Literal['url']";
#                            expected "Literal['zpl', 'epl', 'ipl', 'tspl', ...]"

A mypy error, not a runtime 404. Run mypy and you find it before you ship; the SDK also raises locally rather than round-tripping to the server.

epl, ipl, tspl, dpl and sbpl are targets as well as sources — client.convert("pdf", "epl", body) is a real conversion. Their output is text/plain with every label concatenated, but they can all carry raw binary (EPL's GW, TSPL's BITMAP, IPL's STX/ETX-framed bitmap columns, SBPL's inline graphics): read result.content rather than result.text whenever a label might carry graphics.

"url" as the source has the server fetch a URL you supply and convert what it finds. Validate the URL first if it came from untrusted input.

Options

Options are keyword arguments with the API's nesting flattened by underscores — label.width becomes label_width, pdf.pageNumber becomes pdf_page_number.

Only options you actually set are sent. The SDK never fills in a client-side default, so a change to a server default reaches you without an SDK upgrade. That is why unset options use an UNSET sentinel rather than None — watermark=False is a value you can deliberately send.

For building a request programmatically, ConversionOptions is the same field set as a frozen dataclass:

from labelzoom import ConversionOptions

preset = ConversionOptions(dpi=300, label_width=4, label_height=6)
result = client.convert("zpl", "png", zpl, options=preset, rotation=90)

Keyword arguments passed alongside options win.

Errors

Every non-2xx raises a typed error carrying the server's own message, the raw body, and the X-LZ-Request-Id support handle. The body is never discarded.

from labelzoom import ForbiddenError, LabelZoomError

try:
    client.convert("zpl", "json", zpl)
except ForbiddenError as error:
    if error.is_paid_feature:
        # "JSON export is a paid feature" — the most common free-tier failure.
        print(f"{error.message} (request {error.request_id})")
except LabelZoomError as error:
    print(f"{error.status}: {error.message}")

BadRequestError, UnauthorizedError, ForbiddenError, NotFoundError, PayloadTooLargeError, RateLimitedError and ServerError all subclass LabelZoomError.

LabelZoomValidationError deliberately does not — it means the calling code is wrong, it never reaches the network, and it should not be swallowed by a handler written for server failures. It subclasses ValueError.

Retries

429, 5xx and transport failures are retried automatically: 3 attempts, 1s/2s/4s with full jitter, honouring a longer Retry-After. Other 4xx responses raise immediately — a malformed request will not become valid on a second attempt.

client = LabelZoomClient(max_retries=0, timeout=30.0)

Testing your own code

The transport and the sleep function are both injectable, so retry logic can be tested without spending the wall-clock time:

import httpx
from labelzoom import LabelZoomClient

slept: list[float] = []
client = LabelZoomClient(
    None,
    transport=httpx.MockTransport(lambda request: httpx.Response(200, text="^XA^XZ")),
    use_jitter=False,
    sleep=slept.append,
)

Pass http_client=httpx.Client(...) instead to share a connection pool with the rest of your application. The SDK will not close a client it did not create.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest            # offline; no key, no network
mypy
ruff check

The test suite runs the shared conformance fixtures that every LabelZoom SDK is checked against, executes each one through both the sync and async clients, and asserts it ran all of them. See docs/CONFORMANCE.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.