Guide
How to print Avery sheets with a compatible printer
Avery sheets are just precise geometry: BarcodeStack lays your design out N-up with the exact margins and gaps for the layout, and exports a Letter/A4 PDF for a compatible driver. Calibrate and test against your stock. Any other sheet stock works too — enter its columns, rows, margins and pitch as a custom size.
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Pick the Avery layout
5160 (30-up address), 5163 (10-up shipping), 5167 (80-up return), L7160 (A4 21-up)… Not an Avery number? Label size → Custom size → “Lay these out on a sheet” takes the columns, rows, margins and pitch of any Letter or A4 stock.
- 2
Design one label
It repeats across the sheet — or merge a spreadsheet so every position is a different row.
- 3
Export the sheet PDF
Export → “PDF — full sheet”. Start at any position to use up a partially used sheet.
- 4
Print at 100%
Letter/A4, no scaling, no margins added by the print dialog.
- 5
Correct any drift once
If the first sheet lands a millimeter or two off, measure it and enter under Printer alignment in the same dialog which way the labels need to move — positive is right and down. It's saved for every sheet you print afterwards.
Good to know
- Always print at 100% / “Actual size”. “Fit to page” rescales the PDF and breaks both label dimensions and barcode scannability.
- Print page 1 on plain paper first and hold it over the label sheet against a light to verify alignment.
- The alignment nudge is per-browser, not per-design: set it once for your printer and every sheet and spreadsheet batch uses it.
- Color-coding a sheet? Set the label background in the label panel — a color, an image, or both — and it's saved with the design, so the whole team's returns labels are the same yellow. Export → “Print the background” decides whether the color and the image go on the paper, so one design covers both white stock and pre-printed colored stock.
- Laser printers keep label adhesive happier than high-heat settings — use the “labels” media type if the driver has one.
Sizes used in this guide
Frequently asked questions
- My print is drifting a few millimeters — why?
- First check the print dialog: “Fit to page” scaling or a driver-added margin causes most of it, so set scale to 100% and disable any “shrink to printable area” option. If it still drifts, your printer feeds slightly off — that's normal, and you correct it rather than fight it. Open Export → “PDF — full sheet” → Printer alignment and enter which way the labels need to MOVE, not which way they drifted: positive is right and down, so a print sitting 2 mm too low takes -2 down, and one sitting 1 mm too far left takes 1 across. Up to 10 mm each way. The preview shows where the labels will land, and the correction is saved in this browser for every sheet you print.
- My sheets aren't Avery — OnlineLabels, Herma, Sheetlabels, store brand.
- Use Label size → Custom size, tick “Lay these out on a sheet”, and enter the page, columns, rows, margins and pitch from the vendor's spec (or measured off a sheet). It gets the same N-up export, start-at position and alignment nudge as the built-in layouts, and it's saved with the design.
- Can each label on the sheet be different?
- Yes — import a spreadsheet and the batch export fills each position with the next row.
- Can I print colored labels on a color laser?
- Yes — that's what a color laser is for. Set the label's background in the label panel (a color, a full-bleed image, or both) and leave Export → “Print the background” switched on. One thing to expect: die-cut sheets feed a millimeter or two off, so the background can stop just short of one edge and leave a white hairline. The alignment nudge under Export → “PDF — full sheet” corrects a consistent drift, and colored label stock avoids it entirely. Switch the background off and the same design prints on stock that's already colored — that switch leaves off the color and the background image together.
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