How to print barcode labels at home or in a small business
You do not need an industrial printer to make barcode labels that scan reliably. A normal office printer and label sheets work for small runs, and an inexpensive thermal printer is worth it once you print labels every day. These are the details that decide whether your labels scan first time.
Barcodes · Published 2026-10-14 · By Vinayak Chandran
Option 1: label sheets on an office printer
Adhesive label sheets in A4 or US Letter size come in many layouts, such as 21, 24 or 65 labels per sheet. They are ideal for a few hundred labels at a time.
- A laser printer gives the sharpest bar edges. Inkjet works, but ink can spread slightly on some label paper.
- Use the label manufacturer's template in your word processor or design software so each barcode lands inside a label.
- Print one test sheet on plain paper first and hold it against a label sheet to check alignment.
Option 2: a thermal label printer
If you print labels every day, for shipping, stock or a shop, a thermal label printer is faster and cheaper per label. There are two types of thermal printing:
- Direct thermal: prints on heat-sensitive labels with no ink or ribbon. Cheap and simple, but labels fade over months and darken in heat or sunlight. Good for shipping labels and short-term use.
- Thermal transfer: uses a ribbon to transfer ink onto the label. Labels last for years and resist scratches. Better for products, assets and anything stored for a long time.
Most small-business thermal printers print at 203 dpi, which is fine for standard barcodes. Choose 300 dpi if you need very small labels or dense codes.
Print at 100% scale
The most common mistake is letting the printer shrink the barcode to fit the page. Many print dialogs default to Fit to page or Shrink to fit, which changes the width of every bar.
Always print at 100% or Actual size. A small change in scale can stop a retail barcode such as EAN-13 or UPC-A from meeting its size limits, and very small bars become hard to scan.
Leave the quiet zone empty
Every barcode needs blank space to the left and right of the bars so the scanner knows where it starts and ends. Do not let label edges, borders or text cut into it. For Code 128 the quiet zone should be at least ten times the width of the narrowest bar. If a label is too small to keep that space, use a larger label or shorter data.
Choose the right barcode type
- Products sold in shops or on marketplaces: EAN-13 or UPC-A with numbers from GS1.
- Internal stock, asset tags and bin locations: Code 128.
- Systems that specifically require it: Code 39.
Test before printing hundreds
- Print a few labels on the real label stock.
- Scan them with the scanner you will use every day, and with a phone scanning app.
- Check the scanned value is exactly right, including leading zeros.
- Stick one where it will really be used, such as on a curved bottle or cold box, and scan it again.
- Only then print the full run.
Making the barcodes with Zonlet
Zonlet's barcode generator creates Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, EAN-8 and UPC-A barcodes. For many labels, upload a CSV or Excel file with one value per row and download a ZIP of PNG or SVG files to place into your label template, or a PDF sheet for quick printing. The spreadsheet is read in your browser and never uploaded.
About the author. Vinayak Chandran is the developer behind Zonlet, based in the United Arab Emirates. Vinayak builds and maintains Zonlet's free invoice, QR code, barcode and NFC business card tools for freelancers and small businesses, and writes these guides from what building, testing and supporting those tools has taught.