~JA - Cancel All
Discards the format being received and every label the request has already printed.
~JA is the operator's emergency stop: it clears the format the printer receives
and every format already in the queue, so nothing more prints until new data
arrives. It is a control (~) command, so the printer acts on it as it reads it,
not at ^XZ, and it takes effect from inside a format.
Syntax
~JASupport
Every documented parameter renders the same output Labelary produces.
The parser reads the command and the renderer cancels. ~JA discards the format being received, so it prints no page: ^XA^FO50,50^A0N,40,40^FDhi^FS~JA^XZ answers X-Total-Count: 0. It also empties the rest of the print buffer, so a label the same request has already finished loses its page, and the queued copies of a ^PQ run go with it. A label after the cancel is not in the buffer yet and prints as usual. A slew page is the printer feeding media rather than a format printing, so ^PH's blank page survives a later ~JA. The command erases no stored ^DF format, no ~DG graphic and no ^IS image, and it resets no printer setting such as ^LH. A ~JA replayed out of a recalled format reaches no further than that recall. Measured against Labelary on 2026-08-21. — pinned by test_ja_discards_the_label_before_it
Labelary renders this command.
Parameters
~JA takes no arguments.
Behavior
The guide is specific about how much of the stream ~JA reaches. The printer
scans the input buffer, deletes the data ahead of the ~JA, and does not look
further in the buffer for more ~JA commands. Data sent afterwards is a new job
and prints normally. On hardware the current label prints first, then the
printer empties its buffers and the DATA indicator goes out.
Both halves of the command matter to a render request, because one request can
carry many formats. The format the ~JA stands in prints no page. So does every
label the request had already finished, together with the queued copies of a
^PQ run. A label after the cancel prints as usual: it is not in the buffer
yet. Between two formats the command still empties the buffer, so only what
follows it comes back.
A slew page is the printer feeding media rather than a format printing, so
^PH's blank page survives a later ~JA. The command erases no stored ^DF
format, no ~DG graphic and no ^IS image, and it resets no printer setting.
The ink a canceled format had already laid down is still in the image buffer,
which is what ^MC's map-clear N carries into the next label.
Only the immediate spelling is a command. ^JA does not exist, and the label
carrying it prints as if it were not there.
Known issues
Differences from the specification
Labelary against the ZPL II guide
Where Labelary — our compatibility target — behaves differently from the printed specification.
- Labelary reports
^JAas a command that does not exist and prints the label. The guide documents only the immediate spelling, so the caret form is not ZPL. We measured this on 2026-08-21. — pinned bytest_ja_caret_spelling_is_not_a_command
Example
Related commands
~JXCancel Current Partially Input FormatDiscards the format being received, so it prints no page.~JPPause and Cancel FormatDiscards the incoming format and pauses the printer.^PQPrint QuantityPrints the label more than once, the one command here that changes how many pages come back.^XAStart FormatBegins a label format.^XZEnd FormatEnds a label format and prints it.