Integrating 1C-Bitrix with Brother label printers

Integrating 1C-Bitrix with Brother Label Printers

Brother is an alternative to Zebra for office and light warehouse tasks. The QL series (thermal printing on DK rolls) and PT series (tape printers) are used where small label batches are needed: kit labelling, address labels for shipments, shelf labels. The key difference from Zebra is that Brother works primarily through the operating system's print subsystem (GDI/CUPS) rather than through RAW TCP/IP with ZPL.

Ways to Communicate with a Brother Printer

Option 1: Via the system printer (recommended for office use)

Brother is installed as a system printer on Windows or macOS. 1C-Bitrix generates a PDF or PNG of the required size and sends it to print via a system command:

function printLabelViaCups(string $pdfPath, string $printerName): bool
{
    $cmd = escapeshellcmd("lp -d " . escapeshellarg($printerName) . " " . escapeshellarg($pdfPath));
    exec($cmd . ' 2>&1', $output, $returnCode);
    return $returnCode === 0;
}

On Windows — similarly via SumatraPDF -print-to or mspaint /pt.

Option 2: Brother SDK / b-PAC (Windows only)

Brother provides a COM object, b-PAC, for working with .lbx templates in P-touch Editor. Integration via the PHP COM interface:

$doc = new COM('bpac.Document');
$doc->Open('C:\\Labels\\price_label.lbx');
$doc->GetObject('barcode')->Text  = $barcode;
$doc->GetObject('price')->Text    = number_format($price, 2, ',', ' ') . ' RUB';
$doc->GetObject('name')->Text     = $productName;
$doc->StartPrint('', 0);
$doc->PrintOut(1, 0);
$doc->EndPrint();
$doc->Close();

This approach only works if PHP is running on a Windows server with Brother P-touch Editor installed. It cannot be used on Linux production servers.

Option 3: Brother Web API (QL-820NWB and newer models)

Several networked Brother models have a web API. Documentation is model-specific, but the general principle is: HTTP POST with a base64-encoded image or PDF.

Label Rendering on the 1C-Bitrix Side

For Linux servers (Option 1), label images are generated using GD or Imagick:

class BrotherLabelRenderer
{
    public function renderPriceLabel(array $product, int $widthMm = 62, int $heightMm = 29): string
    {
        $dpi = 300;
        $wPx = (int)($widthMm / 25.4 * $dpi);
        $hPx = (int)($heightMm / 25.4 * $dpi);

        $image = imagecreatetruecolor($wPx, $hPx);
        $white = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);
        $black = imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 0);
        imagefill($image, 0, 0, $white);

        // Product name (using a TTF font)
        $fontPath = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/local/fonts/DejaVuSans.ttf';
        imagettftext($image, 14, 0, 20, 60, $black, $fontPath, mb_substr($product['NAME'], 0, 35));

        // Price in large font
        $price = number_format($product['PRICE'], 2, ',', ' ') . ' RUB';
        imagettftext($image, 28, 0, 20, 120, $black, $fontPath, $price);

        // Barcode via library (picqer/php-barcode-generator)
        $barcodeGenerator = new \Picqer\Barcode\BarcodeGeneratorPNG();
        $barcodePng = $barcodeGenerator->getBarcode($product['BARCODE'], $barcodeGenerator::TYPE_EAN_13, 2, 60);
        $barcodeImg = imagecreatefromstring($barcodePng);
        imagecopy($image, $barcodeImg, 20, 150, 0, 0, imagesx($barcodeImg), imagesy($barcodeImg));

        $tmpPath = sys_get_temp_dir() . '/label_' . $product['ID'] . '_' . time() . '.png';
        imagepng($image, $tmpPath);
        imagedestroy($image);
        return $tmpPath;
    }
}

Print Queue for Brother

Unlike Zebra (where TCP transmission is fast), printing via the system printer takes time. The same queue architecture is used with bl_brother_print_queue:

CREATE TABLE bl_brother_print_queue (
    id           SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    printer_name VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,  -- CUPS printer name
    template     VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
    product_id   INT,
    data_json    JSONB,
    copies       SMALLINT DEFAULT 1,
    status       VARCHAR(20) DEFAULT 'pending',
    created_at   TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW(),
    processed_at TIMESTAMP
);

A 1C-Bitrix agent picks jobs from the queue, renders a PNG via BrotherLabelRenderer, and sends it to CUPS.

Integration with the Administrative Interface

A "Print label" button is added to the product card in 1C-Bitrix admin — it adds a job to the queue with a printer selection from the list (bl_brother_printers). When multiple products are selected in the list view, a bulk action "Print labels" becomes available.

A "Print labels for shipped order" button is added to the admin order card: it generates an address label (name, address, order number) and kit assembly labels.

Timeline