Thermal labels that actually print on the Zebra

Purchased labels that say “nothing to print” stall the line. ShipManta normalizes ZPL/EPL, keeps UTF-8-safe payloads, and uses one station print method.

The problem

Tracking exists. Print again fails. The truck is waiting.

Where print breaks

Carrier APIs return PDF, ZPL, or EPL. UPS thermal payloads can include Latin-1 characters. FedEx document URLs expire. Stations mix Browser Print, DropPrint, and watch folders. Any mismatch becomes a dead reprint.

How ShipManta solves it

Label format comes from printing settings and the carrier. Thermal payloads are normalized and re-encoded when needed so Postgres and JSON do not kill the print request. Reprint uses the purchased label. Each computer picks Browser Print, DropPrint, or download once under Advanced → Printing.