ptouch-api

Simple REST api for Brother P-touch label printers.

Installation

You can download pre-built binaries from the releases page or build it yourself using cargo build.

Configuring

[listen]
# by default the server listens over tcp
# address = "0.0.0.0" # defaults to "127.0.0.1"
# port = 1234 # defaults to 7074
# you can set it to listen over a unix socket instead.
socket = "/run/ptouch-api.sock"

In additional to the listen configuration, the server will automatically detect if it get's activated trough systemd socket activation and takes the provided socket.

Usage

ptouch-api [--config config.toml]

Permissions

You'll need to either run ptouch-api as root or setup a udev rule to change the owner or permissions to allow ptouch-api to access the label printer over usb.

See 51-ptouch-api.rules for an example udev rule, placing this into /etc/udev/rules.d and adjusting the username as desired should give the specified user access to the ptouch printer.

Alternatively you can use 51-ptouch-api-everyone.rules to give all users on the system access to the label printer.

API

• GET /status: get printer and tape status for details about the fields.
• PUT /print: print the uploaded image, supports png, jpg and bmp

Status

The returned status is a json with the following fields

• media_width: width of the loaded tape in mm.
• pixel_width: the width of the printed image in pixels.
• media_type: material type of the loaded tape.
• text_color: text color for the loaded tape.
• tape_color: tape color for the loaded tape.

Supported printers

The following printers are currently supported

• PT-9200DX
• PT-2300
• PT-2420PC
• PT-2450PC
• PT-1950
• PT-2700
• PT-1230PC
• PT-2430PC
• PT-1230PC_PLite
• PT-2430PC_PLite
• PT-2730
• PT-H500
• PT-E500
• PT-P700
• PT-P750W
• PT-P700_PLite
• PT-P750W_PLite
• PT-D410
• PT-D450
• PT-D460BT
• PT-D600
• PT-D610BT
• PT-P710BT

NixOs module

For NixOs users, a module is available as a flake that includes everything needed run the api.

{
  inputs.ptouch-api.url = "git+ssh://git@codeberg.org/icewind/ptouch-api.git";

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, ptouch-api }: {
    nixosConfigurations.my-machine = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules =
        [
          ptouch-api.nixosModules.default
          ({config, ...}: {
            # enable the api service and setup the udev rules
            services.ptouch-api = {
              enable = true;
              # socket = "/path/for/socket/to/listen"; # defaults to /run/ptouch-api/ptouch-api.sock
            };
            # expose the api to the outside world
            services.nginx = {
              virtualHosts."ptouch.example.com" = {
                locations."/" = {
                  proxyPass = "http://unix://${config.services.ptouch-api.socket}";
                };
              };
            };
          })
          # ... other configuration ...
        ];
    };
  };
}