Printing & exporting

Every control on the print tab, what it does, and the settings that decide whether a barcode scans.

The basic sequence

Products — tick the products you want
Send to print — queues them
Print tab — choose a printer and copies
Preview — check the finished sheet
Print

Every control on the print panel

Control	What it does
Printer	Every printer Windows knows about. Your default is pre-selected.
Copies of each label	Multiplies per product. Ten products at three copies gives thirty labels, grouped by product rather than interleaved.
Start at label position	Skips positions on the first sheet so a part-used sheet is not wasted. Counting starts at 0 in the top-left, running left to right then down.
Direct thermal (ZPL)	Sends printer commands straight to a Zebra-compatible printer instead of rendering an image. Professional plan and above. See below.
Preview	Renders the actual PDF that would be printed. Worth doing on any new template.
Print	Sends the job.
PDF / PNG / JPG / SVG	Export instead of printing.

The summary box

Between the settings and the buttons, a panel shows how many products are queued, the copies setting, the resulting total labels, and how many sheets that needs. Check the total before a big run — it is the number that turns into paper.

Using a part-printed sheet

Sheet label stock is expensive and most jobs do not fill a sheet. If eight labels were used off a 65-up sheet last week, set Start at label position to 8 and printing begins at the ninth.

Count from 0, not 1. The first label on the sheet is position 0, so to skip the first row of five you enter 5, not 6.

Thermal printers

Zebra, TSC, Citizen, Argox, Brother and DYMO printers all work through their normal Windows driver with no setup beyond installing that driver. This is the most compatible route and what the app uses by default.

Direct thermal output

On Professional and above, Direct thermal (ZPL) sends printer commands rather than a rendered image. It is dramatically faster on long runs, because the printer does the work instead of Windows rasterising every label.

For this to work, the printer must be shared in Windows under the exact name shown in the app: Printer properties → Sharing → Share this printer.

Direct mode has limits, and the app warns you about them. Images are not sent. Rotated elements print upright. Gradients and shadows are ignored. Some barcode types are unsupported. For a text-and-barcode label it is ideal; for anything decorative, use the standard path.

Export formats

Format	Use it for
PDF	Vector, prints identically anywhere. The right choice for emailing to a print shop or keeping a record.
PNG	Raster with sharp edges. Web listings and proofs.
JPG	Smaller files, slight compression. Fine for a quick proof, not for print.
SVG	Vector, editable in design software. Exports the first label only — which is what "give this to a designer" usually means.

After exporting, a Show in folder link appears so you can find the file without hunting.

Trial exports carry a watermark. Any paid plan removes it.

Getting the alignment right

If labels print consistently shifted, your printer's physical margins differ from the template's. Adjust the page margins in the designer.

Never fix alignment by scaling. "Fit to page" or 95% changes barcode bar widths and can make a perfectly good code unreadable. Always print at 100%.

The fastest method: print one sheet on plain paper, hold it against a real label sheet against a window, and adjust. Two attempts is usually enough, and it costs a sheet of paper rather than a sheet of labels.

Print quality

Setting	Effect
Draft mode	Thins barcode bars. Use normal or best quality for anything that will be scanned.
Low toner	Same effect. A barcode that scanned last week may not today.
203 dpi thermal	Fine for most retail barcodes.
300 dpi thermal	Noticeably better for very small barcodes and Data Matrix on small items.

Print history

Every job is recorded and shown under Settings → Recent print jobs — when, which project, which destination, how many labels, and whether it succeeded. The first place to look when someone asks what was printed yesterday.

If printing fails

Symptom	Likely cause
Nothing happens	Check the printer is on, online, and not paused in Windows. Try printing a test page from Windows first.
"The printer refused the job"	Usually a driver problem. Reinstall the printer driver from the manufacturer, not the generic Windows one.
Direct thermal fails	The printer must be shared under exactly the name shown in the app. The error message includes the name it tried.
Preview works, printing does not	The design is fine — the problem is between Windows and the printer. Export a PDF and print that to confirm.