brother_ql_web/README.md

## brother\_ql\_web

This is a web service to print labels on Brother QL label printers.

You need Python 3 for this software to work.

![Screenshot](./static/images/screenshots/Label-Designer_Desktop.png)

The web interface is [responsive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design).
There's also a screenshot showing [how it looks on a smartphone](./static/images/screenshots/Label-Designer_Phone.png)

### Installation

**ProTip™**: If you know how to use Docker, you might want to use my ready-to-use Docker image to deploy this software.
It can be found [on the Docker hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/pklaus/brother_ql_web/).  
Otherwise, follow the instructions below.

Get the code:

    git clone https://github.com/pklaus/brother_ql_web.git

or download [the ZIP file](https://github.com/pklaus/brother_ql_web/archive/master.zip) and unpack it.

Install the requirements:

    pip install -r requirements.txt

In addition, `fontconfig` should be installed on your system. It's used to identify and
inspect fonts on your machine. This package is pre-installed on many Linux distributions.
If you're using a Mac, I recommend to use [Homebrew](https://brew.sh) to install
fontconfig using [`brew install fontconfig`](http://brewformulas.org/Fontconfig).

### Startup

To start the server, run `./brother_ql_web.py`. Here's its command line interface:

    usage: brother_ql_web.py [-h] [--port PORT] [--loglevel LOGLEVEL]
                             [--font-folder FONT_FOLDER]
                             [--default-label-size DEFAULT_LABEL_SIZE]
                             [--default-orientation {standard,rotated}]
                             [--model {QL-500,QL-550,QL-560,QL-570,QL-580N,QL-650TD,QL-700,QL-710W,QL-720NW,QL-1050,QL-1060N}]
                             printer
    
    This is a web service to print labels on Brother QL label printers.
    
    positional arguments:
      printer               String descriptor for the printer to use (like
                            tcp://192.168.0.23:9100 or file:///dev/usb/lp0)
    
    optional arguments:
      -h, --help            show this help message and exit
      --port PORT
      --loglevel LOGLEVEL
      --font-folder FONT_FOLDER
                            folder for additional .ttf/.otf fonts
      --default-label-size DEFAULT_LABEL_SIZE
                            Label size inserted in your printer. Defaults to 62.
      --default-orientation {standard,rotated}
                            Label orientation, defaults to "standard". To turn
                            your text by 90°, state "rotated".
      --model {QL-500,QL-550,QL-560,QL-570,QL-580N,QL-650TD,QL-700,QL-710W,QL-720NW,QL-1050,QL-1060N}
                            The model of your printer (default: QL-500)

### Usage

Once it's running, access the web interface by opening the page with your browser.
If you run it on your local machine, go to <http://localhost:8013> (You can change
the default port 8013 using the --port argument).
You will then be forwarded by default to the interactive web gui located at `/labeldesigner`.

All in all, the web server offers:

* a Web GUI allowing you to print your labels at `/labeldesigner`,
* an API at `/api/print/text?text=Your_Text&font_size=100&font_family=Minion%20Pro%20(%20Semibold%20)`
  to print a label containing 'Your Text' with the specified font properties.

### License

This software is published under the terms of the GPLv3, see the LICENSE file in the repository.

Parts of this package are redistributed software products from 3rd parties. They are subject to different licenses:

* [Bootstrap](https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap), MIT License
* [Glyphicons](https://getbootstrap.com/docs/3.3/components/#glyphicons), MIT License (as part of Bootstrap 3.3)
* [jQuery](https://github.com/jquery/jquery), MIT License