HP KE100 Compact Thermal Label Printer

This is a somewhat compact desktop direct thermal label printer. It runs off a 24V 2.5A supply. It only has a USB interface. It measure about 20x10x12 cm (8x4x5 in). Weighs about 1.2kg (2 lbs 10 oz).

HP says it supports Windows and Mac. It is also compatible with Zebra Programming Language (ZPL) according to device.report.

Linux printing (CUPS)

This doesn't have an HP provided driver. It was identified as a usblp device, and CUPS could see it, but I didn't know what driver to install.

After having a play with a Windows laptop I was poking around in the device properties, and saw one of the filenames included 'zpl'. I hooked it up back up to a Linux machine, and added it to CUPS as a Zebra, ZPL Label Printer.

The print came out upside down (doesn't matter at all), and two borders were cut off (top, right). The grayscale dithering seems worse quality than I remember getting out of the SiPix A6 (400 dpi), or even my Intermec PB51 (203 dpi). This is adequate for label printing though.

CUPS Configuraiton

The only things I set in CUPS were:

General

Media Size
4.00x6.00"

Media Tracking
Non-continuous (Web sensing)

Otherwise defaults seem fine for my UPS-style labels. If you do want to tweak things, it might be worth printing the printer's self-test page as a reference first. Holding the button for 1-3 seconds causes it to print that. Mine looked like:

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KE100 SELF TEST INFORMATION
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Firmware Version     :  V01.10 STD 120622
Configuration
     Speed           : 5 ips
     Darkness        : 20/30
     Emulation       : SLCS & BPL-Z & BPL-E
     Tear Option     : Tear Off
     Tear Off Value  : +000 dot
     Print Offset    : +0000 dot
     Power Up Action : No Feed
     Printer Method  : Direct Thermal
     Label Length    : 1221 dot
     Label Width     : 832 dot
Character
     BPL-Z CodePage  : CP-850 (SBE. USA-1 CharSet)
     SLCS CodePage   : WCP1252-Latin1
     SLCS ICS        : U.S.A
USB Serial Numer     : XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Media Type           : Gap
Sensing Info
     Reflect Sensor  : H:1.48V, L:0.61V, D:0.87V, T:1.03V
     Transmit Sensor : H:2.06V, L:0.84V, D:1.22V, T:1.51V
     Cal. Check Unit : 300
------------------------------------------------------
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CONFIGURATION CONTROL STATUS
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Print Speed          : COMMAND
Print Darkness       : COMMAND
Print Width          : COMMAND
Print Offset         : COMMAND
Tear Offset          : COMMAND
Media Type           : COMMAND
Language             : COMMAND

Print samples

Here's a few 4x6 label scans.