Label Planet
Whenever we give printing advice, we always end with - and make sure you do a test print first!
A test print means that – instead of printing onto your sheets of labels straight away – you test your template by printing it onto a blank sheet of paper. You then place this test print beneath a sheet of your labels and hold them up to a light source.
This allows you to get a rough idea of how your template will align on the actual sheet of labels – and gives you a chance to make any necessary corrections BEFORE you load all of your labels and attempt to print them in one go.
While it’s tempting to try and save time by simply setting up your template, loading your labels, and pressing “Print”, the time (and money) you save by doing a test print is well worth it compared to the nightmare of returning to the printer and finding that all of your labels are badly printed or, worse, completely unusable.
You may think “it won’t happen to me” or “but I’ve set my template up perfectly” BUT there’s more than one place where things can go wrong, which means that even if your template is the most perfect template in the history of templates you still won’t necessarily get the perfect alignment when you press print.
Why? Simply because there is more than one element at play. Remember, to get the perfect print you need:
- A well designed template
- The correct print settings selected in your document AND in your printer’s properties
- [We’d probably add in a dollop of good luck for good measure!]
Doing a test print means you have the chance to make sure that your template AND your printer are both set up to produce the perfect print – because both the software and hardware you use will have its own set of limitations and accuracy that will influence how your design sits on your sheet of labels.
Doing a quick test print can save you HOURS of time – and the cost of replacing any sheets that end up being wasted.
[For more printing advice, please visit our Help & Advice pages.]