QR Code Label Maker

What this tool does

Lays QR codes out on a printable sheet at real millimetre sizes. Choose a label grid, paste your values, set how big the code should be inside each label, and print — or choose "Save as PDF" in the print dialog to keep a file. The printed page contains the sheet and nothing else: no site header, no navigation, no ad slots.

Sheet templates and custom sizes

Presets cover the common Letter and A4 label grids, described by their actual measurements so you can check them against the packet in your hand. Manufacturers do revise sheets, so every preset is a starting point — the custom fields let you set columns, rows, label size, margins and gaps to the tenth of a millimetre, and they always win.

Print one alignment test first

Printers place the page slightly differently, and a 2 mm drift ruins a whole sheet of labels. Print the alignment test, hold it against a real label sheet, then use the shift controls to nudge everything without touching the layout. Set scaling to 100% in the print dialog — "Fit to page" silently rescales the millimetres and undoes all of this.

Keeping the codes scannable

The tool warns when a code would print below about 20 mm, which is roughly where phone cameras start to struggle. Longer values make denser codes that need more size, so shorter links label better. Each code keeps its full quiet zone inside the label. Cut guides can be switched off for pre-die-cut stock and on for plain paper.

Same code or different codes

Paste one value per line for a sheet of different codes — table numbers, room keys, asset tags. For one code repeated across a whole page, the printable QR code sheet is set up for exactly that. Building the list from a spreadsheet? Generate it with the bulk generator first.

Privacy

The codes are drawn as vector SVG in your browser and placed straight into the print document. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no server rendering step — which also means the layout works offline once the page has loaded.

Letter, A4, and why the sheet matters

The two standard sheets are close enough to look interchangeable and different enough to ruin an alignment.

A4 is 6 mm narrower and 18 mm taller. Print an A4 layout on Letter stock and every label drifts progressively down the page; print Letter on A4 and the bottom row falls off. Pick the sheet that matches the labels in the tray, not the one that matches your habit.

Label products are equally region-specific: Avery US and Avery Europe use different product numbers for different grids. Match the physical measurements rather than the product code.

Printing at true size — the setting that breaks everything

Every browser print dialog defaults to something like Fit to page or Shrink oversized pages. It typically scales output to about 94–96% so that nothing is clipped by the printer's unprintable margin. For an ordinary document that is invisible. For a label sheet it moves every label a few millimetres off its die-cut, and for a barcode it silently reduces the X-dimension below what you specified.

Before printing:

1. Set Scale to 100% — explicitly. Not "Fit", not "Default", not "Auto".
2. Set margins to None or Default, whichever the layout expects; do not set custom margins.
3. Turn off headers and footers, or the URL and page number print across your labels.
4. Confirm the paper size matches the stock in the tray.

Then use the alignment test page before committing a sheet of labels. Print it on plain paper, hold it against a label sheet up to the light, and check the marks land inside the die-cuts. Blank labels cost more than plain paper, and a misaligned sheet cannot be fed twice.

"Save as PDF" from the print dialog produces a file at the exact page size, which is the reliable way to send a layout to a print shop or to a different machine.

Choosing paper, and the thermal-printer difference

Laser fuses toner onto the label — durable, water-resistant enough for most uses, and the best choice for anything handled repeatedly. Inkjet works but the ink sits on the surface; it smudges when damp and fades in sunlight, so seal it or avoid it for outdoor or freezer use.

If you are printing labels in volume, a dedicated label printer is a different proposition, and the two kinds are not interchangeable:

• Direct thermal uses heat-sensitive stock and no ribbon. Cheap and simple, but the image fades with heat, light and time — a shipping label is fine, an asset tag that must last five years is not. It will also blacken if left in a hot car.
• Thermal transfer melts a ribbon onto the label. It costs more per label and lasts years. Use it for asset tags, chemical labels and anything that has to survive.

Common label printers run at 203 dpi, where one dot is 0.125 mm. A module or bar has to be a whole number of dots, so aim for sizes that divide cleanly — 0.25 mm, 0.375 mm, 0.5 mm — and expect a printer to round anything else, which distorts the pattern. At 300 dpi one dot is 0.085 mm and there is more freedom.

Check before you print the whole box

• Scale is 100%, headers and footers are off.
• Paper size in the dialog matches the sheet in the tray.
• Alignment test printed on plain paper and checked against a real sheet.
• One label printed on real stock and scanned with a phone at the distance it will actually be used.
• The quiet zone is intact — no border, cut line or adjacent label crowding the code.
• Contrast is genuine black on white, not grey on cream.
• A photocopy of the test label still scans. If it does, the original has margin.