Label Properties editor selects the printer, sets label dimensions, and defines the printing paper properties.
The label properties settings are listed below and appear as dialog tabs:
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Label Property |
Description |
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Selects the preferred printer. |
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Defines the Unit of measure and label dimensions. |
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Defines the printing paper properties. |
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Selects the stock type. |
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Defines the label style parameters. |
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Inserts the label description. |
Tip
To open the Label Properties Editor, double-click the design surface.
Printer tab lets you define the printer to print the labels on, and to set printing behavior.
Printer dropdown menu lets you select a printer from the currently available printers.
Tip
To set the printer settings, select a printer and click Printer properties. This button gives direct access to the selected printer's driver and its settings.
Note
For additional information on the installed printer drivers and their settings, read the Printer Drivers Installation Guide.
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Always use the default printer: select the default system printer to be used for the current print job.
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Use printer properties saved in: This setting allows you to define where NiceLabel 10 takes the printer settings from while printing. There are two options available:
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Printer Driver: When printing, NiceLabel 10 takes the printer properties that you define in the printer driver. This means that all labels that share these settings print equally. E.g., if you change printing darkness in the printer driver dialog to 10, all labels print with darkness set to 10.
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Label: When printing, NiceLabel 10 takes the printer properties that you save in the label. This means that the way how this label prints is independent from how you configure the printer driver. E.g., if you change the darkness for the label to 10, only this label prints with darkness set to 10.
Read more about how to manage printer settings in knowledge base article Defining default printer setting for all users (including network users).
Example 4. Example for settings saved in printer driver
The ribbon in your printer is ending its life period. As a result, the quality of printed labels is decreasing. To enhance the quality before you receive a new ribbon, you must temporarily increase the printing darkness for all labels at once. Configure darkness level in your printer driver and all your label print with increased darkness.
Example 5. Example for settings saved in label
If you are designing a label on a remote computer that currently does not have access to your designated label printer, you can still design your label, save the printer properties within your label, and take this label to the computer that can access your label printer. The saved printer settings make your label "portable".
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Label Dimensions tab specifies label dimensions and defines whether its size should adapt to the changing size of the objects or not.
Unit of measure defines the unit to be used while designing the label. There are four available units: cm, in, mm, and dot.
Label Dimensions group defines the label's Width and Height. Label dimension settings become active if manual label dimensions are enabled.
Note
When manually inserting the unit of measure, this also changes the currently defined Unit.
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The Processing order option sets Horizontally - start at top left to portrait orientation or Vertically - start at top left to landscape orientation.
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Horizontal gap and Vertical gap settings in Labels Across sections are set to 1mm.
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The Optimize vinyl usage option in the Printer tab is enabled (if your printer supports it).
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Vertical radius and Horizontal radius settings in the Radius section are set to 0.
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The Maximum length setting appears under the Automatic labels across option. This setting defines your maximum paper length.
Margins group sets the distance between the edge of the printing surface and the edge of the label (left/right, top/bottom).
Tip
Most laser and other non-thermal printers cannot print over the entire label surface. There is usually a non-printable label area of about 5 mm from the border of a page. In Desktop designer, this area is marked by a red line. Any object on or beyond the red line is not printed entirely.
Radius group enables you to make the label corners rounded.
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Vertical radius: adjusts corner roundness value in the vertical direction.
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Horizontal radius: adjusts corner roundness value in the horizontal direction.
Labels Across defines the number of labels to be printed on a single label sheet.
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Horizontal count: number of labels in a row.
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Vertical count: number of labels in a column.
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Horizontal gap: horizontal distance between labels on a sheet.
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Vertical gap: vertical distance between labels on a sheet.
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Processing order: defines the direction in which labels are printed. Set the starting corner in which printing starts, and the horizontal/ vertical directions of label positioning.
Paper tab sets printing paper properties.
Unit selects the Unit of measure to be used in a label.
Paper Type group defines paper dimensioning type – automatic or manual.
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Automatically set page size based on the label dimensions (labels on a roll): page size is defined by the printer driver.
Note
If a thermal printer is selected, this option is enabled by default.
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Manually set page size (sheets of paper): page size is set manually.
Note
If a regular office laser printer is selected in the previous wizard step, this option is enabled by default.
If the page size is defined manually, additional options appear:
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Paper: selection of standard paper formats.
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Width and Height: custom paper dimensions.
Orientation group sets the new label layout as Portrait or Landscape.
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Rotated: Printer Layout is rotated by 180 degrees.
Preview displays current label screen and print layouts.
Label stocks are a time-saving alternative to designing labels from scratch. Use stock templates when designing labels for a specific printer type and when optimizing the label designing process.
Stocks group defines which stock type should be used when designing and printing a label. Stock types are usually associated with printer vendors or stationery suppliers.
Note
Here defined stock properties override the manually set label properties.
Stock defines the exact stock to be used for label designing and printing. Stocks are sorted by vendors and media formats. Expand stock provider and select a specific stock type.
Tip
Use Search... to easily find the requested stock. A partial search is available – enter a sequence of characters and all stocks which contain that sequence will be listed. If the selected stock is not compatible with the selected printer, a warning appears. The previously selected stock becomes active again (if it was defined) allowing the printing to continue.
Note
If the selected stock is not compatible with the selected printer, a warning appears. Previously selected stock becomes active again (if it was defined) allowing the printing to continue.
Stock information displays the selected stock's properties:
Style tab is used for defining label style properties.
Background color: sets the color of label background.
Background picture: sets the label background picture.
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Picture file name: defines the image file to be used as background picture.
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Embed picture in a document: saves picture into the label file.
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Save embedded picture to file: the embedded label picture is saved to a separate file.
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Remove embedded picture: embedded picture is removed from the label file.
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Picture position: sets picture position on the label.
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Center: centers the picture on the label with its original dimensions. A picture larger than the label will display only the central part leaving the rest out of view.
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Fit: resizes the picture to fill the label while keeping the original aspect ratio.
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Stretch: stretches picture to make it fill the entire label.
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This option ignores the original aspect ratio of the picture. The picture might appear distorted on the label.
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Rotation: allows you to rotate the background picture in steps of 90 degrees.
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Print background picture: background picture is printed.