Label designer

The Rich Text Box object is a graphically rich object that can contain formatted text and simultaneously use various fonts, tables, pictures, and symbols; you can also include shading effects and colors. The underlying rich text code (RTF) is processed by the external component (DevExpress).

The new Desktop Designer includes the latest version of the RTF component. The new RTF component supports new design capabilities in the Rich Text object (see the topics on hyphenation and multi-column support). On the other hand, the new component might change the layout of the Rich Text object in the existing label templates. The developers of the external component add enhancements in the layout calculation engine that influence the overall RTF result.

We have detected changes in printing the table objects included in the Rich Text object. The common use of tables is printing nutritional facts on the labels. The width of columns in the table might differ in the new version of the Desktop Designer compared with the previous release. The Desktop Designer will show the label template in WYSIWYG mode so you can quickly detect discrepancies.

The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. Hyphenation is often a mandatory functionality on "busy" labels, where a lot of text must be printed in a confined area on the label template. When you don’t break words by syllables, you end up with much white space in lines, expanding text over more lines than using hyphenation.

For example, chemical labels have hazardous and precautionary statements provided in several languages. You have a predefined amount of label real estate reserved for these multilingual statements, and you must fit all text content into that area.

The Rich Text Box object supports the soft hyphenation. In this case, you can include metadata with positions of soft hyphens in the input data. Soft hyphens specify the syllables in the words where NiceLabel can break works apart. The default syntax for a soft hyphen is a sequence of characters “\-“, but you can change it to your requirements.

In most cases, you provide soft hyphens with the input data, but you can also manually type in soft hyphens in the Rich Text Box editor with Ctrl + “-“ keyboard shortcut.

For example, the soft-hyphenated data for the English text in the screenshot would be provided as:

P301 + P304 + P317 IF SWAL\-LOWED OR IF IN\-HA\-LED: Get me\-di\-cal help. P301 + P316 + P330 IF SWAL\-LOWED: Get e\-mer\-gen\-cy med\-ic\-al help im\-me\-di\-ate\-ly. Rinse mouth. P301 + P316 IF SWAL\-LOWED: Get e\-mer\-gen\-cy med\-ic\-al help im\-me\-di\-ate\-ly. P301 + P317 + P330 IF SWAL\-LOWED: Get me\-di\-cal help. Rinse mouth. P302 + P316 IF ON SKIN: Get e\-mer\-gen\-cy med\-ic\-al help im\-me\-di\-ate\-ly. P302 + P317 IF ON SKIN: Get me\-di\-cal help. P302 + P334 IF ON SKIN: Im\-merse in cool wa\-ter or wrap in wet band\-ages.

The Rich Text Box object can split the content into columns. The data will flow from one column to the next. The Text Fit option will make sure your data optimally fits into the columns by adjusting the font size. The columns are only visible inside the Rich Text Box editor when the view is set to Print Layout view. The columns are always visible in the label design area.

Use the columns feature with labels where a lot of text content must be provided to the consumer, typically for hazardous material. The columns better use the available area for text content and make text more readable.

Rectangular Micro QR Code extends Micro QR Code with a new fixed set of rectangular symbol sizes. Use rMQR Codes in narrow spaces where conventional QR Codes can't be printed, and you want to store more information than with Micro QR codes.

Like with QR Code, rMQR Code employs Reed-Solomon error control coding to detect and correct errors if the rMQR barcode is dirty or damaged. rMQR Code uses variable error correction levels and can handle all types of data. rMQR Code is capable of storing up to 361 numeric characters and 219 alpha-numeric.

By default, NiceLabel prints grayscale images differently than monochromatic ones. Monochrome images provide color depth with 1 bit per pixel, while grayscale images provide 8 bits per pixel. Monochromatic images are printed as black and white images. Grayscale images are dithered – NiceLabel converts different shades of gray to monochromatic dots of various sizes and densities, keeping the impression of shades but printing the image as monochrome.

When building dynamic label templates, your Picture objects on your labels might contain images of various types during the print process. You can force the received images to monochromatic printing. Use this option when printing to a monochromatic printer, such as label printers with on-color ribbon.

You can enable this functionality by adding the EP_BLACKANDWHITE_ prefix to the Picture object name or enabling the Force picture color option.

You can mirror Picture objects in the label templates horizontally and vertically. The new option is available in the Style tab of the object properties.

The processing order refers to the sequence in which the labels are processed for a label media, where multiple labels are defined in horizontal or vertical directions. Imagine a page of labels (A4 / Letter page format), where label templates are positioned in rows and columns.

A default processing order is set based on the paper orientation:

Multicolor print gap adjustment is a functionality that prevents white gaps between objects of different colors in the label template. You can set up print gap adjustment for each color – this is the amount of bleed edge, the extra print size that extends beyond the dimensions of the label object.

The new functionality is available in the Printer tab in the Label Properties dialog box only for Lighthouse MAX printers.

You can define a custom corner radius for the Inverse object, effectively reshaping the object into an ellipse or circle. Your printer must support this functionality.

The GS1 published the new version (V24.0), the GS1 General Specifications. Loftware Designer supports the following updates and changes: