thermal-label CLI

thermal-label-cli is the unified command-line front-end. It discovers printers across every installed driver package and exposes a small command set: list, status, print text, print image.

Philosophy

The CLI is diagnostic-first:

• Prove USB permissions, udev rules, and TCP connectivity.
• Smoke-test media detection and error reporting.
• Script one-off prints in CI or servers.

It does not compete with full label design tools. For templates, barcodes, CSV batches, and multi-up PDF export, upstream documentation points to burnmark-cli — same drivers, richer workflow.

Installing

Install the CLI globally plus only the driver packages you need:

npm install -g thermal-label-cli @thermal-label/brother-ql-node
# or, for a project-local install:
pnpm add -D thermal-label-cli @thermal-label/brother-ql-node

Printer family	Driver package
Brother QL	@thermal-label/brother-ql-node
DYMO LabelWriter	@thermal-label/labelwriter-node
DYMO LabelManager	@thermal-label/labelmanager-node

Drivers are optional peers — install side by side as needed.

Commands (mental model)

• thermal-label list — printers across all drivers; add --drivers to see which npm packages are present and whether they export PrinterDiscovery.
• thermal-label status — readiness, detected media, structured errors; supports --host for TCP.
• thermal-label print text "<text>" — quick rasterized text using the shared bitmap font (simple by design).
• thermal-label print image file.png — PNG/JPEG with threshold / optional dither / rotation.

When multiple printers are visible and you did not pass --printer or --serial, the CLI prints the list and exits non-zero — deliberate for scripts (no interactive prompt).

Text vs image rendering

print text uses @mbtech-nl/bitmap’s pixel font — good for sanity checks, not branding. For real typography or logos, render externally and use print image.

See also

• Integrating for programmatic equivalents.
• burnmark-io for production-oriented CLIs and apps.