How PaperReady works
Browsers deliberately can't see your printers or print silently. That's a security rule, not a bug. PaperReady bridges the gap the same way Zebra, DYMO and PrintNode do: a tiny local agent. Ours is brand-agnostic, prints at true size, and sets up in about a minute.
The three pieces
The web app
Design a label (text, barcodes, QR, logos) or pick a saved one, then hit print. Runs in any browser; nothing to install here.
The Print Bridge
A tiny signed agent on the computer with the printer. It's the only part that touches your hardware, and it binds to your machine alone.
Your printer
Whatever your OS already knows about: Zebra, DYMO, Rollo, Brother, MUNBYN, or a plain office printer for Avery sheets.
Set up in about a minute
- Install the Print Bridge. A small, signed background app for Windows, macOS or Linux. It binds only to your own machine (loopback) and installs in seconds.
- Allow local access. The first time, your browser asks to connect to devices on your local network. Choose Allow. That's what lets the page reach the Bridge.
- Your printers appear. Label printers are detected and highlighted automatically: no drivers to hunt down, no IP addresses to type.
- Design and print. Compose a label at true size (or drop in a saved design or a 4×6 PDF) and print: straight to the printer, or as raw ZPL.
Four ways to trigger a print
However a job starts, it ends at the same Print Bridge and prints at true size.
From the Print Bench
Design or pick a label in the web app and print: one at a time, or a whole batch.
From a spreadsheet
Map a CSV to a saved design and print the entire run at once. Mail-merge →
From Shopify
Connect a store and every new order auto-prints a label on your bench. Shopify →
From your own app
Call the cloud API from your backend to print to your users' local printers. Cloud API →
Private by design
The Bridge never opens an inbound port to the internet. It listens only on localhost: plain HTTP on 127.0.0.1, plus TLS via local.paperready.studio, which resolves to 127.0.0.1 with a real certificate so a secure page can reach it. When you print locally, the label goes straight from your browser to the Bridge to the printer. It never touches our servers. When you use the cloud API, the job is relayed to your Bridge and the payload is deleted the moment it prints.