In my experience:

1. All printers are pain. This is a sad fact of computers.
2. If it detects&gets recognized in CUPS, you can usually fiddle with it and make it work eventually.
3. If it works on one distro, there will be some way to hack it enough for it to work on all distros.

Usually for these devices the application generates ZPL printer data directly. What application are you thinking of using?

Zebra indicates that there are CUPS drivers available for their printers on “some Linux distributions”

https://supportcommunity.zebra.com/s/article/Adding-a-Zebra-Printer-in-a-CUPS-Printing-System?language=en_US

There’s also this GitHub repo which promises a better PPD file for Zebra printers.

https://github.com/mvnural/zebra-cups-driver

Many label printers (especially the older ones) use a proprietary text-based language, and accept plain vanilla text input via their serial port. They don't use a printer driver as such. To use one of them you have to learn their command language (usually pretty simple) and write a text file describing what you want to print using that language, and upload the file to the printer.

Start with the printer documentation and go from there.

Newer printers need linux drivers. Support varies.

Yes! I have a few Zebra printers working on Mint via cups. They work perfectly.

Brother QL-1110NWB

Works flawlessly on Ubuntu. Even the cut feature. I recall looking at their Linux driver page, but can't recall if it was even necessary to install it.

Because this is a network-enabled model, it was auto-detected on the network. That makes printing from Android a breeze as well.

I imagine the other Brother models work just as well like the QL-1100.

I use a Rollo thermal printer on Linux Mint with zero issues. Rock solid.

Zebra ZD220 DT works great on Linux using CUPS. Tested it on both Ubuntu 23.10 and the latest version of Mint.

I've been using a printer called 4barcode for a while. It has an apt package with ppd cups drivers in it, and it works well.

I don't know the exact model, and I think the brand of the printer might not even be 4barcode and it's just a different "brand" but really they're all the same?

That having been said, the one I have once failed to work with a brand of labels on a roll I bought in a pinch, but the fanfold ones I've been using from Amazon work well.

Not label printers but I've used thermal receipt printers which should be similar. They use a special command set designed by Epson which is supposedly "confidential" but it's easy to find manuals online. I expect there is code around too. I didn't attempt any CUPS integration. My program just sent the commands directly to the printer.

I have a Amazon thermal printer ("TATTMUSE") running on vanilla debian. related blog post.

Brother QL-550 here. I think it might be smaller than you need but judging by this and the other comments the Brother QL series looks good. Can't remember what setup it needed (I don't think there was much) but if the information is helpful to you I can take a look

If it's thermal paper/stickers and it advances the paper but doesn't actually print anything, you might double check to make sure the paper is still good. Hold it over a lit lighter and make sure it darkens with heat.

Nevermind, I missed the last paragraph where it's already working on Windows

Late to this, but for anyone still stuck: most of these cheap 4×6 printers (Munbyn, iDPRT, Beeprt, JADENS, Xprinter, Phomemo PM-241/D520…) speak the same language, TSPL - and the reason they "install but never print" is that the vendors only ship x86 binary CUPS filters. I got tired of that and wrote a free open-source driver: https://github.com/RunTheWall/tspl-cups-driver (apt/dnf repos, arm64/armhf/amd64, also shares the printer as AirPrint/IPP so phones print driverless via a Pi). Bench-tested on an HZD950-PRO; the other models are driven by the same verified TSPL command set but I'll happily debug any that act up - there's a printer-report issue template.

This one works on Linux https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3LGCYKM?social_share=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apan_dp_9KF56881X5P887C7JMBH&titleSource=true

Phonemo has linux drivers on their website. i have the 241BT and it works well with usb. did not test with BT https://github.com/PMCSilva/phomemo_PM-241-BT/tree/main

Just a questions, are such thermal printers useful for home users? I find them quite interesting since they are fast. They could make sense if one just wants to print a tiny snippet of information like a shopping list, a street adress, or a password, and one does not want to fire up a laser printer and print a whole A4 page.

(Thinking about that, passwords are an interesting use case... often a paper copy makes sense and the copy needs to match exactly.)

I have been using a Dymo and it works perfectly on Linux Mint for printing 4x6 labels.