How to print labels on a sheet

Getting labels to line up is the whole problem. Print one test sheet on plain paper first.

Label sheets come in fixed layouts, and the printing must line up with the die-cut labels. Being two millimetres out means every label is skewed.

Step-by-step

1. Choose a layout matching your sheets.
2. Enter your text, the same on every label or different per label.
3. Print a test on plain paper and hold it against a label sheet.
4. Print for real once alignment is right.

The test sheet is not optional

Label sheets are expensive and a misaligned run wastes all of them. One sheet of plain paper held up to the light against a label sheet shows immediately whether the layout is correct, and it costs nothing.

Turn off scaling

The usual culprit. "Fit to page" shrinks the layout slightly, which is invisible on ordinary printing and fatal for labels — everything drifts progressively further out across the sheet. Set 100% or actual size.

Feeding the sheets

• Use the manual feed where possible; label sheets are stiffer than paper.
• One sheet at a time avoids two feeding together.
• Do not reuse partly used sheets in a laser printer — the exposed adhesive can come away and stick inside.

The same label code is two different layouts

Label sheets are usually specified by a manufacturer's code, and the codes are regional in a way that catches people out. An Avery 5160 and an Avery L7160 are both thirty address labels in three columns of ten, and they are not the same sheet: the first is on US Letter, the second on A4. A4 is narrower and taller, so the margins and the gaps between rows differ.

Pick the layout that matches the paper in the drawer rather than the label that looks familiar. If the first row prints correctly and the error grows as it goes down the page, this is almost certainly what has happened — a constant offset means the origin is wrong, while an error that accumulates means the row pitch is wrong, and a mismatched paper size produces the second.

Keep the content off the edge

No printer registers perfectly. Sheet feed varies by a fraction of a millimetre from page to page, and across thirty labels that is enough to make text that sits flush to the die-cut edge appear off-centre on some labels and clipped on others.

The fix is a safe margin: keep text and anything that must not be cut at least two or three millimetres inside the label boundary, and treat the outer edge as a region you do not use. This is also why full-bleed backgrounds do not really work on die-cut labels — to guarantee ink to the edge you would have to print past it, onto the backing sheet, which the die cut does not allow for. A background that stops just inside the edge looks deliberate; one that misses by half a millimetre looks broken.

Frequently asked questions

Why are my labels shifting down the page?

Print scaling is on. Even a small reduction accumulates down the sheet, so the top labels look nearly right and the bottom ones are badly out. Set scaling to 100%.

Can I put different text on each label?

Yes — enter them individually, or repeat one address across the sheet.

Can I reuse a partly used sheet?

Not in a laser printer. Exposed adhesive can detach inside the machine. Inkjets are more forgiving but still risky.