Label Planet
Learn the basics of how to print label templates.
While you might be tempted to think “all I need to do is press print”, the fact is YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER JUST PRESS PRINT. EVER.
What most people don’t stop to think about is just how many different elements are involved in the process of printing a document. While it might seem like a simply one step process (you press print and a printer prints your document), there are actually a LOT of different elements involved and all of them have to interact in just the right way to create a perfectly printed template.
The Printing Process
Your software (the application you are using to design your label template) sends your template to another piece of software called a printer driver; the driver converts your template into a Page Description Language (which basically describes the content of a page and how that page is arranged or constructed as a series of geometric lines and shapes defined by mathematical equations) that can be understood by your printer – this vector-based language is then converted by a Raster Image Processor into a bitmap image (a rectangular grid of pixels) that your printer then recreates on your labels (using, of course, the print settings that you have selected – or a default set of print settings stored in your printer driver, if you haven’t indicated any printing preferences for your template).
Elements Involved In The Printing Process
Looking through the printing process, therefore, you can see that your software has to communicate properly with your printer driver, and you have to select the correct print settings to get the best possible print alignment and print quality on your labels – which doesn’t take into account the fact that your printed template can also be affected by the print tray you use and how you load your labels into that print tray, the starting print position of your particular printer model, the fact that all labels are made to a tolerance (i.e. an allowable deviation from the stated measurements), and that some labels are designed specifically for ONE printing process (i.e. they are “laser labels” or “inkjet labels”).
Of course, this isn’t to say that you won’t get lucky if you do just press print – it may be that your software, hardware, and labels are all set up in a way that allows you to achieve a decent print alignment and quality without making any adjustments at all.
The problem, of course, is that there is no guarantee that “just pressing print” will work and taking that risk can result in a massive waste of time and money (not to mention a waste of labels, toner or ink, as well as your own patience/sanity).
It is far, far wiser to take the time to load your labels correctly and to set up your printer with the optimum print settings so you KNOW that you will achieve the best possible print alignment and quality.