Zebra Technologies

Zebra Technologies is a manufacturer of thermal bar code label and receipt printers, RFID smart label printer/encoders, card and kiosk printers, based in Vernon Hills, Illinois. Zebra has products in 100 countries around the world. Zebra-brand printers are used by more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies.

Zebra was incorporated in 1969 as 'Data Specialties Incorporated', a manufacturer of high-speed electromechanical products. The company changed its focus to specialty on-demand labeling and ticketing systems in 1982, and became 'Zebra Technologies Corporation' in 1986. Zebra became a publicly traded company in 1991. Today, with more than $800 million in annual sales, the company specialises in speciality printer products, printer supplies (consumables) and RFID technologies.

The company with its headquarters in Lincolnshire, Illinois, has facilities worldwide, for example in Vernon Hills, Illinois; Camarillo, California; Wisconsin; Rhode Island; California; Bourne End and Preston, England; Heerenveen in the Netherlands; Singapore and Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou in China.

All of Zebra's design and manufacturing sites are certified to the ISO 9001 international standard for quality management. Since 2008, Zebra has outsourced the majority of its printer manufacturing to Jabil Circuit in Guangzhou, China.

Zebra's printers make use of a specialized page formatting language called Zebra Programming Language (ZPL). Some printers also use a "Zebra Basic Interpreter" (ZBI 2) to allow the user to capture and manipulate incoming data for use in printing. Labels and documents can be designed using the ¨ZebraDesigner Pro" label design software and printers can be remotely configured and controlled using the ¨ZebraNet Bridge¨ printer management software.

Zebra Technologies acquired the Swedish ticket and kiosk printer company, Swecoin in 2006.