The five settings that decide where the label lands
| Setting | Choose | What goes wrong otherwise |
|---|---|---|
| Scale | 100% or "Actual size" | "Fit to page" or "Shrink oversized pages" makes everything a little smaller, so labels drift off the cut lines |
| Paper size | Letter (8½ × 11 in) | A4 is narrower and taller, so the printer rescales or shifts the page |
| Paper type | "Labels", or Heavyweight or Cardstock | Thick label sheets can feed poorly in plain-paper mode |
| Tray and side | The tray your manual names for labels, print side the right way up | The label prints on the backing, or the sheet skews |
| Quality | Normal or best, never draft or toner saver | Thin rules and small type print faint or broken |
Scale is the one that hurts most on a food label. Our files already have the label at its true size, and Nutrition Facts type has legal minimums. Our nutrient lines are set at 8 point, the minimum. Print at 94% and the label still looks fine to the eye, but those lines are now about 7.5 point.
How to change printer settings to labels
Menus differ by printer and computer, but the settings live in the same two places: the print dialog, and the printer's own options inside it.
Many print dialogs let you save all of this as a preset. Name it "Labels" and you only set it up once.
Run a plain-paper test sheet first
A sheet of labels costs more than a sheet of paper, and a misprint wastes every label on it. One test tells you both the alignment and which way your printer feeds.
- Draw an arrow on a plain sheet, pointing into the printer, on the side facing up
- Print the page with your label settings
- See where the print landed: same side as the arrow, or the other side, and which edge went in first
- Lay the printout on top of a label sheet and hold both up to a window or lamp
- Every label should sit inside its box with an even border
- If it lines up, load one label sheet the same way and print
Then measure one printed label with a ruler. A standard Nutrition Facts label from our tool is exactly 3 inches wide. If yours measures less, a setting is still scaling the page.
What a bad print tells you
| You see | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Labels smaller than on screen, drifting toward the middle | Scaling on | Set scale to 100% or "Actual size" |
| The whole page shifted the same amount | Paper size wrong (often A4), or the sheet sits loose in the tray | Set Letter; slide the paper guides snug against the sheet |
| Fine at the top, worse toward the bottom | The sheet slipped or skewed while feeding | Feed one sheet at a time; use the tray your manual names for labels |
| Printed on the shiny backing | Sheet loaded upside down | Repeat the arrow test and flip the sheet |
| Smudged or smeared text | Inkjet ink on laser-only sheets, or labels touched before the ink dried | Use sheets made for your printer; let inkjet labels dry before stacking |
| Faint hairlines or broken small text | Draft or toner-saver mode, or a low cartridge | Switch to normal quality; replace the ink or toner |
Settings for our PDF, print sheets and PNG
Our files are built to need as few settings as possible. Each one keeps the label at its true size:
| File | Page | Print settings |
|---|---|---|
| One label on a US Letter page, with an actual-size reminder under it | 100%, Letter, plain paper or a full-sheet label | |
| Print sheet for Avery 5126, 5168, 5164 or 5163 | US Letter, one label centered in each label space | 100%, Letter, paper type Labels, the matching Avery sheet |
| Print sheet, plain paper | 4 labels on US Letter with light cut lines | 100%, Letter, any paper; cut along the lines |
| PNG, 600 dpi | The label only, no page | Place it at the label's real width in inches, then print at 100% |
The same settings work for shipping and address labels on sheets. Labels on a roll are different: the size is set in the label printer's own software, not in the page setup.
Which Avery sheet fits your label →Get a label that prints right the first time
Make your Nutrition Facts label from your recipe, preview it free, and download a print sheet that already matches your label paper. The tool tells you before you download if your label is too big for the sheet you picked.
Make my label →Free blank templates, also at actual size →