A self-hosted web app for designing and printing labels on a Brother P-Touch label printer. Run it on a Raspberry Pi (or any machine with the printer attached), open it in any browser on your network, and print.
More screenshots
Desktop — empty state
Mobile
- Text labels with automatic font-size scaling to fit the tape width
- QR codes generated from any URL, composited alongside the text
- Icons — 2,800+ bundled Font Awesome SVGs (solid, regular, brands) plus searchable access to 200,000+ icons via Iconify
- Font selection — discovers and lists all fonts installed on the host system
- Border styles — none, thin, thick, double, dashed
- Element ordering — reorder icon, QR code, and text left-to-right using up/down buttons
- Label library — save named label configurations and reload them in one click
- Recent history — last-used labels are remembered and can be reloaded or reprinted
- Live printer status — shows tape width, media type, and error codes
- Mobile-friendly — responsive layout works on phones and tablets
- Black-and-white 1-bit PNG output matched to your tape's exact pixel height
The app shells out to ptouch-print to communicate with the printer. Build it and place the binary at:
/opt/ptouch-print/build/ptouch-print
Requires Python 3.9 or later.
pip install -r requirements.txtcairosvg is optional but required for SVG icons to render on labels. Without it, SVG icons are visible in the picker but won't be composited onto the printed label.
python labelmaker.pyThe app listens on 0.0.0.0:5000 by default. Set the PORT environment variable to change it:
PORT=8080 python labelmaker.pyThe static/icons/ directory ships with 2,800+ Font Awesome Free SVGs organised into three subdirectories: solid/, regular/, and brands/. Use the search box in the icon picker to find them by name.
The Iconify tab in the icon picker searches the Iconify API in real time. Clicking an icon downloads it to static/icons/iconify/{set}/ on the server and selects it — it then becomes part of your local library. Requires internet access from the host machine.
Drop any PNG, SVG, JPG, BMP, or GIF into a subdirectory under static/icons/ and it will appear in the picker immediately.
The Library section lets you save the current label configuration under a name. Saved entries can be loaded, overwritten, reprinted, or deleted. The library persists across sessions.
Requires Homebox v0.26 or later.
The app exposes a webhook endpoint that Homebox can call to generate a label image for any asset.
GET /api/homebox/print
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
URL |
Yes | Encoded into the QR code |
TitleText |
No | Large bold heading |
DescriptionText |
No | Body text (word-wrapped, first line only) |
AdditionalInformation |
No | Small info line at the bottom |
Point your Homebox label-printer webhook at:
http://<host>:5000/api/homebox/print?URL={url}&TitleText={name}&DescriptionText={description}&AdditionalInformation={location}
The endpoint returns a PNG image directly. Homebox handles sending it to the printer. The endpoint works even when the printer is off — it falls back to a 128 px tape height if the printer is unavailable.
Also accepts POST with a JSON body using the same field names.
When configured with a Homebox API key, the webhook fetches full item data and makes every field available as a {{placeholder}} in label templates. Set these environment variables (or add them to .env):
HOMEBOX_URL=http://your-homebox-instance:7745
HOMEBOX_API_KEY=hb_your_api_key_here
Generate an API key from your Homebox profile page (Profile → API Keys). Keys use the hb_ prefix.
Available template variables when API enrichment is enabled:
| Variable | Source |
|---|---|
{{name}} |
Item name |
{{description}} |
Item description |
{{assetId}} |
Asset ID |
{{location}} |
Location name |
{{tags}} |
Comma-separated tag names |
{{collection}} |
Derived from a Label-* tag (e.g. tag Label-Electronics → Electronics) |
{{serialNumber}} |
Serial number |
{{modelNumber}} |
Model number |
{{manufacturer}} |
Manufacturer |
{{notes}} |
Notes |
{{purchaseFrom}} |
Purchase source |
{{purchasePrice}} |
Purchase price |
{{purchaseDate}} |
Purchase date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
{{soldDate}} |
Sale date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
{{soldPrice}} |
Sale price |
{{warrantyExpires}} |
Warranty expiry date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
{{warrantyDetails}} |
Warranty details |
{{quantity}} |
Quantity |
{{<custom field name>}} |
Any custom field defined on the item |
Webhook parameters (TitleText, URL, etc.) take priority over API fields with the same name.
The Homebox label renderer uses Arial Black and Verdana Bold for the title and body text. On Debian/Ubuntu/Raspberry Pi OS these come from the ttf-mscorefonts-installer package:
sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installerWithout them the renderer falls back to a plain bitmap font, which will look noticeably worse.
| File | Responsibility |
|---|---|
labelmaker.py |
Flask app and all routes |
printer.py |
Printer communication (ptouch-print wrapper, status parsing, error codes) |
fonts.py |
Font discovery, cataloguing, and loading |
rendering.py |
Label image rendering (borders, icons, QR codes, both label renderers) |
Printer error codes are mapped to human-readable messages in error_codes.json:
{
"0000": "OK",
"1000": "Printer door open",
"0001": "No tape loaded"
}Add entries here to handle any error codes your printer reports.
The mode switch on the printer must be set to E (Editor mode) for USB communication to work. The app will display a reminder if the printer is not detected.
The web interface has no authentication. It is intended for use on a trusted local network. Do not expose it directly to the internet.
The bundled icons in static/icons/ are from Font Awesome Free and are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Font Awesome is a trademark of Fonticons, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2025 Dan Hoban
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
See LICENSE for the full text.