BarTender On-Premises v12.1 – Release Notes

July 2026

BarTender® v12.1 delivers targeted enhancements that support more precise control over label printing and increased reliability in dynamic printing environments. This release continues our focus on helping organizations maintain operational efficiency while adapting to evolving printing needs.

Release

The release will be deployed on July 30, 2026 at 17:00 PDT.

Notes

• The supported LocalDB version has been upgraded to 2025.
• BarTender documentation for new features (in-app help, online help, and technical documents) are only available in English.
• The BarTender Licensing Service now checks the Latest Supported Release value in addition to the Latest Supported Version to determine if a license is valid for an update. If the license is not valid (for example, a license for 11.4 R3 is invalid for versions 11.4 R4 and greater) BarTender displays messages indicating that this is the case and directing the user to update their license.

What’s New

• Choose a Provisional license When Separate Subnets Cannot Be Created: Users can now intentionally select and persist a Provisional license connection when both servers (Production and Provisional) are visible on the same subnet. This enables predictable and compliant licensing behavior in mixed environments by preventing unwanted automatic switching between provisional and main licenses.
• Hybrid Cloud Updates: Several updates have been made to the Hybrid Cloud, including warning when a license is too close to expiration to be used (less than 30 days), enforcing naming conventions for the Organization Name field, and automatically entering the Organization Domain ID when linking to a BarTender Cloud tenant.
• Synchronizing the Hybrid Library: Delivers a more consistent hybrid experience by improving Cloud‑to‑On‑Prem synchronization for librarian workloads. This reduces friction for customers operating in both environments and ensures data remains aligned across products. Additionally, it improves Cloud Printer Lists and related APIs to include on‑prem printers, grouped by instance, providing better visibility and manageability of on-prem printers in the Cloud.
• Extending Cloud APIs to On-Premises: The BarTender Actions API and BTXML Script have been updated to generate and print labels dynamically via API. This removes the user's dependency on templates, reduces complexity, and accelerates integration and change management. The new endpoints enable you do:
  • Get a list of all printers
  • Get information for a single printer
  • Print from the Actions API
  • Create a preview image
• Using the API to Control Printer Offsets: This feature enables users to make offset adjustments (horizontal and vertical) when running a print job through the REST API or SDK, as well as the Print Portal or Print Station Print pages.
• Printing Multiple PDF Files in a Single Print Job: Printing to PDF has been expanded to transform PDF output from a single static artifact into a configurable workflow unit, unlocking new automation scenarios and reducing operational friction for enterprise customers.
• Transitioning 2014 Express LocalDB to the Latest Supported Version: BarTender has been updated to remove its dependency on SQL Server 2014 Express LocalDB and transition to a supported SQL Server version. Using a supported database version reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities and helps customers meet internal IT and compliance requirements.

Minor Fixes

This release includes a series of refinements that contribute to overall platform reliability and consistency:

• BarTender now prints to the correct printer when using a .csv file as the integrated database.
• The BarTender REST API and Print Portal REST API no longer show a successful RanToCompletion on failed print jobs when multiple print actions are sent in XML format.
• Printing a BTXML payload using BarTender's REST API no longer bottlenecks the print job by limiting it to a single print engine.
• When working with a license whose support expires soon (1-2 months) in Bartender, and Bartender Designer is configured in the Danish or Turkish language, Bartender no longer crashes.
• Using the .NET SDK to PrintToFile now returns the expected PRN file instead of sending the document to a printer.
• Restarting the Windows Print Spooler Service no longer causes Print Maestro to encounter Access Violation errors.
• Bartender no longer displays error 3415 when printing to a USB printer. The print jobs now cpomplete successfully.
• Upgrading BarTender 2022 and later versions to BarTender 12.0 and later no longer causes Print Maestro to fail.
• Print Station 2022 and later now launches more quickly.
• When both the production and provisional license servers are visible to a BarTender client machine, the client automatically connects to the production server. When switching from a production license to provisional license manually, the provisional license connection is maintained until the license is again switched manually.
• When importing an SVG image, the image now renders correctly in BarTender Designer.
• Performance in the Designer no longer degrades when working with a label using a Layout Grid or Table Object, which includes several Text Objects or Named Data Sources and images.
• BarTender's OneDriver now installs correctly in all versions of BarTender. Previously, the feature was installed under the name Universal Driver in some versions, which is incorrect.
• The Administration Console no longer displays an error when the SQL authentication password contains a semi-colon (;).