Printing labels at home is a snap with your desktop laser or inkjet printer. Just think of the possibilities. Of course you can make clean, clear, easy-to-read mailing labels that the post office will love. But home-printed labels can add flair to all sorts of household tasks—from labeling boxes to pricing garage sale items and personalizing homemade jams and jellies.
Adorn gift bags with beautiful labels. Guests and gift recipients will feel special when you customize gift bag labels to match your party, holiday, or special celebration.
Organize seasonal decorations in containers decked out with custom labels. Use fall foliage for Thanksgiving garnishes, snowflakes for winter ornaments, or hearts for Valentine decorations.
Add elegance to a dinner party or organize your child’s birthday bash by using labels to create customized place cards.
Embellish bottles of homemade flavored olive oil or jars of preserves with personalized labels. Experiment with colors and fonts. Then print onto label sheets and trim to fit.
Create custom party favor gift tags for bridal showers, weddings, or other special events. Personalize the labels with your own words.
Spruce up everyday address labels by adding tiny photos of yourself or your pet.
Add extra security to luggage. Simply print out a label with your information, adhere it to a solid backing, trim to fit, and place into your baggage ID case.
Save time and money by printing a test sheet on a blank piece of paper before printing on the labels themselves. Place the test sheet behind a blank sheet of labels and hold it up to the light to see how the text lines up.
HP labels are suitable for both inkjet and laser printers, but other brands may not be. Check to be sure the package you’ve selected will work properly with your printer.
Read your printer manual for loading and feeding recommendations. Many printers have special instructions for loading labels. For easier feeding in most printers, place labels in the paper tray on top of about 25 sheets of plain paper.
Avoid printing mailing labels with small type (under 8 points). Post offices use optical character recognition equipment to sort mail, which may fail if you use too small a font.
Make sure, when using background colors or images on your labels, that the text is a contrasting color for an easy read. Busy background images can interfere with the post office’s automatic address recognition.
If black text looks blocky or grey, try using dark magenta or maroon. Also, thinner fonts will print better than thicker fonts.
Ensure trouble-free label printing by regularly cleaning your printer.
Printable version
