How to Print MRP Labels
A practical guide to printing pre-packaged product labels — not legal advice. See our MRP rules guide for the declarations themselves.
Once you've designed an MRP label, printing it well comes down to three choices: what you print on, how many labels fit per sheet, and whether your printer and label size actually line up. This guide walks through each.
1. Choose your printing method
Most small businesses use one of two approaches:
- Sheet labels on a regular printer. You print a grid of labels onto pre-cut adhesive sheets (or plain paper you cut yourself) using an inkjet or laser printer. This is the cheapest way to start and works well for low volumes.
- A thermal label printer. A roll-fed thermal printer prints one label at a time, which is faster for ongoing use but needs a dedicated device and label rolls sized to match.
2. Match your label size to your printer's grid
If you're printing on sheet labels, the sheet manufacturer specifies exact label dimensions, margins and gaps — your PDF layout needs to match those numbers precisely, or the barcode and text will drift off each sticker as you go down the page. In the Sticker Maker's Print tab, set the margin and gap values to match your label sheet's specification sheet, not just an approximate size.
If you're printing on a thermal roll, set the label width and height to match the roll (for example 50×30mm), and set copies to however many labels you need — the tool will lay them out one after another rather than in a grid.
3. Print a test page first
Before printing a full batch, print one page and hold it against a blank label sheet (without peeling the backing) to check alignment. Small printer-driver differences in scaling can shift a grid by a millimeter or two, which is enough to misalign a barcode on a small label. Most printer dialogs have a "fit to page" or "scale" option — turn this off and print at 100% scale, since scaling changes your label sizes.
4. Check the barcode prints cleanly
A barcode that looks fine on screen can still fail to scan if it's printed too small, at low print quality, or on a low-contrast surface. As a rule of thumb:
- Keep barcode height generous relative to the label — a squashed barcode is harder for scanners to read reliably.
- Print at your printer's highest quality setting for barcodes, even if you use draft mode for text-only pages.
- Leave the barcode's quiet zone (the blank margin around it) intact — don't crop or place other content right up against it.
- Scan a printed sample with a phone barcode scanner before committing to a full print run.
5. Keep a master copy
Save your label design (or the CSV, for bulk runs) so reprints or corrections don't mean starting from scratch, especially if a batch number or expiry date needs to change between runs.