Printing Labels

It never ceases to amaze me at how what should be simple turns into complicated when computers are involved. Today's case in point is trying to print a single sheet of labels.

Thinking about the new year, I decided that I would print up a sheet of some return address labels. I started with an Avery 8160 sheet that seemed just right for the task with 30 labels per sheet. I remembered the there are Word templates designed to do facilitate this, but I run OpenOffice these days (and you should try it as well) so that wasn't going to work.

I went on over to the Avery website, and they had a Windows program, Design Pro 5, that can work with all of their labels. Perfect! After a 50+ meg download, I gave it an install, wondering if it could really be this easy. It wasn't, as after installing and reinstalling, the program wouldn't open on my Windows XP Home notebook and I was back to the drawing board (or more accurately googling for a better solution).

I searched for a freeware labelmaker, and found no shortage of expensive programs. However, the free stuff was in short supply. I stumbled into Paper Label Maker, but unless you make a living in typesetting and such, don't waste your time. Rather than work through known Avery labels and such, it allows you to customize things to the hundredth of an inch,and offers no guidance. Clearly there was a better way than this margin setting nightmare.

I did find templates for OpenOffice. They're put out by WordLabel, a competitor to Avery that I've not heard of before. They did nicely have their products cross referenced by the more standard Avery numbers, and they opened in OpenOffice with no problem. You can find them here. This was the first solution that was viable. However there is even a simpler way.

When I opened the package of labels, I figured out that the Avery website offered the easiest way for the occasional label printer. It's an online service that allows you to select the label, a template, type in an address, choose an image from a gallery, and this all gets rolled into a PDF that's downloaded, and then printed.

Now this was as easy as it gets! However there was one gotcha. When I went to print the PDF, the printer software decided to be "helpful" and downsized the image to 96% of the original. While the printing ended up on the labels, they are not perfectly spaced, and the monogram letter gets cut in a few spots by a hair.

Still, all things considered, this is a fun and easy project that can make your mail more professional in an hour or so of time invested.

Happy 2008!

Jonas

PS: One TechNudger is suggesting Maestro Label Designer, an online software tool similar to Avery tools. I gave it a quick look, and unfortunately it doesn't have the templates listed by the Avery code number. Other than that, if you can match it up it looks fine, but I see no advantage over Avery's online offering. Thanks for the tip!