You will need the Check-In permission to change a station's printer settings or its Print To station.
Zebra printers work in the desktop check-in app on Windows and Mac only. They depend on QZ Tray and a Zebra driver, and neither of those exists on a phone or tablet. To print to a Zebra from an iOS or Android station, use the Print To setting — see Using a Zebra from a phone or tablet station below.
Setting up a Zebra printer takes three pieces: the printer driver, a printer name the check-in app can recognize, and QZ Tray running on the same computer. Work through the sections in order, then use the in-app checklist to confirm all three are in place.
Supported Printers
We recommend the ZD model. Most other Zebra printers should work as well, including the GX420d, GK420t, ZQ510, ZD420/421, ZD620/621 and ZQ320.
The 3" x 2" Direct Thermal Labels supported by the above models can be purchased here.
The LP2844Z and the ZSB Series do not work.
Install the Printer Drivers
You will need to install the appropriate printer drivers if you haven't already done so.
For Windows, search for your model on Zebra's support site: https://www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/printers.html. Do not plug in the printer until the drivers have been installed, to avoid issues.
Windows 11: If you have the ZDesigner version 8 driver and are not seeing the printer on the "Printers and Scanners" page of your computer, open the Zebra Setup Utilities tool and manage the printer from there.
For MacOS, you will need to install CUPS, since Zebra does not officially support MacOS and there are no drivers available. See How do I install CUPS for Zebra printer support on Mac? for the steps. This can be complicated and highly technical. Where possible we recommend keeping things simple and using Windows for Zebra printing. Printing on MacOS is also lower quality, because there are no native drivers.
Tip: If the driver is missing, the check-in station tells you directly. The printer line in the station's footer reads Zebra driver missing when a Zebra is plugged in but Windows has no driver for it.
Rename Printer
If you are on a Mac and you followed the steps above on installing CUPS, you can skip this section — your Zebra printer is already named correctly.
For the check-in system to recognize the Zebra printer, its name must contain the word Zebra. To rename your printer, follow these steps. They vary a little depending on your operating system:
Open Printers & Scanners in your System Settings.
Find the Zebra printer, click it, and select Manage.
Open Printer properties in the left menu, then rename the printer — for example, Zebra GK420d.
Install QZ Tray
The check-in station uses a third-party tool named QZ Tray to talk to Zebra printers. To learn more, see their website.
Download and install QZ Tray for your operating system: https://qz.io/download
You may be asked to install Java during this process.
Important: On a Mac, the install may fail if you don't already have Java. If that happens, finish installing Java and then install QZ Tray again.
Next, confirm you can see the QZ Tray icon in your task bar — at the top of the screen on a Mac. Make sure it stays running by clicking the icon and selecting Start Automatically.
The first time you launch the check-in app you will see a prompt about QZ Tray. Before clicking Allow, tick Remember this decision.
Important: when connecting your printer to the check-in station in future, always use the same USB port you used during installation, to avoid problems. If a QZ Tray certificate expires, reinstall the latest version of QZ Tray.
Check your setup from the station
You do not have to guess whether all three pieces are in place. On the station, go to Settings > Printer — you will need the station PIN — and look for the Zebra setup checklist. It covers the three things a Zebra needs, and each item carries its own fix and a download link:
QZ Tray - whether QZ Tray is installed and running on this computer.
The printer - whether a Zebra printer is detected.
The driver - whether the Zebra driver is present.
Work down the checklist and fix whatever is flagged. Alongside it you will find Re-detect, which forces a fresh look for the printer, and Test print, which prints a generic sample label drawn by the app itself.
Tip: Test print deliberately does not use one of your church's label designs, so it proves the printer and the connection on their own. If a test print comes out, the printer is working — and any remaining problem is with the labels assigned to your event. See Labels are not printing.
What the station's footer tells you
The centre of the station's footer shows the station name over a live printer status. For a Zebra, these are the messages worth knowing:
Searching… - still looking. Detection settles within about half a minute at worst.
The printer's name - ready.
QZ Tray isn't running - QZ Tray is not up on this computer. Start it.
Zebra driver missing - the printer is plugged in but Windows has no driver for it.
No printer - nothing found, and nothing more specific to report.
Out of labels, Label jam, Cover open, Printer paused, Printer disconnected - a real printer condition the printer itself reported. Fix it at the printer.
When there is a problem, a small warning glyph also appears in the footer. Tapping it goes straight to the printer card in settings.
Tip: While a printer is missing or in trouble, the station keeps re-checking every 30 seconds and recovers on its own the moment the problem clears. If you start QZ Tray, there is usually nothing to restart on the station — just wait a moment.
If a Dymo is attached to the same computer
On the desktop app the station looks for a Dymo first, then a Zebra, and stops at the first one it finds. So a computer with both attached will use the Dymo.
If you want that computer to use the Zebra, disconnect the Dymo, then tap Re-detect in Settings > Printer.
Using a Zebra from a phone or tablet station
A phone or tablet station cannot drive a Zebra directly, because QZ Tray and the Zebra driver only run on a computer. On a mobile station the check-in app looks for a Brother printer and stops there — it does not fall back to a Zebra.
The answer is to point the tablet at a computer station that owns the Zebra:
Set up the Zebra on a Windows or Mac station using the steps above, and confirm it prints from there.
In your browser, go to Events > Check-In > Stations and open the tablet's station record.
Set Print To to the computer station that has the Zebra, then click Save.
You can also change this on the station itself under Settings > Station > Print to. Either way, changing it re-runs printer detection immediately.
The tablet then sends its labels to that station and shows Prints to {station name} in its footer instead of a printer name. It never looks for local hardware at all.
The computer station doing the printing must be online and running the check-in app. If it can't fulfil the job, the tablet is now told why — for example The printing station couldn't print the labels — its printer isn't ready. The station holding the printer is also the one that decides whether a label can be printed, so make sure the labels assigned to your event suit the Zebra.
