After 14 days, you can choose between a one-time license or an inexpensive monthly label software subscription that you can cancel at any time. Try it out and see how easy label printing can be.

14 Day Free Trial

No risk, no credit card—design labels today

It's easy to learn our software so you can get the job done. Label LIVE has just 4 menus—each with a specific purpose. We've simplified label printing.

Fun and Easy to Learn

Like cooking in your own kitchen—everything has a place

Fun and easy to learn

Label LIVE is the only label printing software that works out of the box on both Windows and Mac. Print labels with flexibility and ease, no matter your operating system or printer model.

Works on Windows and Mac

Finally, effortless labels in both worlds

We are available every day by email and phone. Since we're a small independent shop, you get to talk directly to developers and entrepreneurs who live and breathe label printing.

Same Day Support

Our customers rate our support the best in the industry

Same day support

Anyone can download and use Label LIVE to print labels. It's easy to use, priced right, always available without Internet, helpfully supported by humans when you need us, and constantly improving based on your feedback.

Trusted Worldwide

A complete label printing solution that works perfectly with Label LIVE on Windows and macOS. The mydpi direct-thermal printer features 300 dots-per-inch, ideal for barcodes and tiny text. Easy replacement and alternative to DYMO 450/550.

Recommended Label Printer

Need a new label printer? Bundle and Save

Bundled with mydpi

It can be a pain to fire up your spreadsheet program to print a set of labels. To work faster, just pop open Label LIVE's built-in spreadsheet editor. Add as many columns and rows as you need.

Built-in Spreadsheet

Edit data and print labels without leaving Label LIVE

Create thousands of label variations based on data from Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers or plain CSV text files. Use your own serial numbers, prices, descriptions, weights and dates.

Excel and CSV Integration

Turn a spreadsheet into individual labels

Use variables to control text, barcodes, images and even colors across a whole set of unique labels. Label LIVE connects smoothly with your spreadsheets to determine how and where your data gets printed. 

Variables

Data Forms enable operators to get the job done with less error. Each Form is progressively simpler. Choose the level of detail your operators feel the most comfortable using.

Forms

Three different ways to view your data and print labels

When you need a serial number, you can handle it in a few clicks with Label LIVE. Each time a label prints, the number will change by an amount you specify. You can count up or count down.

Serial Number Generation

If your spreadsheet lists time in one format, but your labels need to use another, Label LIVE can translate. Our data tools can even handle adding time onto dates.

Date and Time Support

Calculate and print date and time in the formats you need

Convert effortlessly between weight units and display the weight in a format that makes sense to your customers.

Weight Calculation

Price-computing label machines can be cumbersome to use. Label LIVE makes it easy to set up and maintain beautiful custom label designs that use existing prices for bulk repack.

Price Calculation

Multiply quantity and price-per variables

Round currency, define precision, and format prices with leading or trailing zeros. There's a lot you can do with a spreadsheet and formulas. For everything else, use Label LIVE.

Price Formatting

When data on your label needs to toggle between a few known values, you can add them as a list, making them easily selectable.

Simple Lists

When it's time to print, a simple arrow points in the direction that the label will be come out. Design labels in the orientation that makes sense to you, without waste or confusion.

Size and Orientation

Take the guesswork out of clunky "landscape" and "portrait" modes

Label Size and Orientation

Label LIVE automatically scales text size to fit within your label width, anchors text fields to corners, and deletes blank lines. When you need to incorporate a lot of information into your label, our design tools keep it neat and consistent.

Complex Text

Complex Text Handling

Label LIVE lets you customize your design with squares, circles and lines. Each object has separate fill and outline colors. Outlines can sport custom dash-dot patterns and squares can round their corners for a professional look. Read more in our guide below.

Shapes and Lines

Full control over dashes, dots, thickness and color

Label LIVE handles high-resolution images both large and small. Add any image you want to your design—you can make it work with full-color printers and black-and-white low DPI models alike.

Images

What you see on the label designer screen is what prints on the label

Generate just about any kind of barcode. As you input your data, labels update instantly. All of our supported barcodes integrate seamlessly with your business workflow.

Barcodes

Beautifully boring UPCs to magically mundane QR Codes

Save all of your custom Label LIVE designs to your computer for future printing. Need to make a new label based on an old design? Duplicate a saved design template with a single click, then keep customizing. Read more in our FAQ below.

Saved Label Files

Save and re-use designs on Windows and macOS

Saved Design Files

When you're printing labels from a spreadsheet, text and barcodes can grow larger or shrink smaller. Anchor points help you rein in the complexity of dynamic data.

Anchor Points

When text or barcodes change size, make sure they stay put

Non-printable objects let you set aside space in your layout to incorporate what's already on your labels. Check out the related guide below.

Non-Printing Objects

Design around die-cut borders or pre-printed label art

You can "program" your label based on spreadsheet data. Label LIVE gives you easy-to-use variables for advanced label printing. Read more in a guide below.

Dynamic Color

Change the color of text, shapes and barcodes using spreadsheet data

Until now, generating labels with dynamic images would have involved a programmer. With Label LIVE, you can use your data to pull up the right image for each label, via URLs or filesystem paths on your computer.

Dynamic Images

Printing to sheets of labels should be easy, but without Label LIVE it's a nightmare. Label LIVE puts the adjustment power in your hands to craft pixel-perfect PDFs. Use the Sheet Setup feature to align your sheets precisely, without tedious trial-and-error.

Multiple Labels on Sheets

Render multiple labels per page and align with popular sheets from Avery and U-LINE

You choose the best printer for the job and Label LIVE will make it work. You can easily take a design from one printer and modify it to work on another, totally different printer.



Full Color or Black & White

Works with one-color thermal printers and full-color inkjet and laser printers

AirPrint is a technology that lets you print wirelessly without the need to download or install drivers. Using an AirPrint printer with Label LIVE is the gold standard in label printing.

AirPrint Support

Automatically detect and print to AirPrint printers

Label LIVE's powerful features help you design for low-DPI printers. Design preview allows you to modify images to look pixel-perfect.

Dithering for Low-DPI Printers

Optimize the dithering (dot-detail) of your label images with two clicks

Trigger your label printing from the command line, across your network, or by saving spreadsheets/CSVs to special batch folders. Read more in our guides below.

Nerd-Friendly Integration

Nerd Friendly Integration

Use a spreadsheet to control how many labels print. Select the variable on the Print tab and Label LIVE will adapt smoothly to your data.

Dynamic Copies

Flexible data controls for label duplication

When you need to print tons of unique barcodes, just get your data and design set up, and Label LIVE will generate and save a set of images in one PDF or PNG file. Read more in our guide below.

Batch PDFs or PNGs

Generate Batch PDFs or PNGs

Once you've created the label design you want with Label LIVE's powerful, intuitive tools, you can keep it consistent. Lock design elements, or freeze out certain buttons to prevent unintentional changes.

Locked Designs

Minimize operator error by locking or freezing a design

Locked and Frozen Designs

No need to install pesky drivers for our supported thermal printers—just connect your computer and printer and start printing. Label LIVE is compatible with dozens of leading thermal printer models.

Driverless Thermal Printing

Label LIVE directly supports popular thermal printers via USB

FEATURES ORDER

Formatting date and time can quickly become a chore. Label LIVE variables can be configured to parse an input date and format it to conform to your exact needs.

, you might want extra functionality. Label LIVE supports "DATE" variables. Create a new DATE variable by choosing the 

. For this example we will create a DATE variable named EXPIRATION.

If you already have variables (via importing) all variables will default to 

Change an existing variable's type by clicking on the variable Setup (gear icon).

Once changed to DATE, you will see a default date format and a calendar icon near the variable name.

Like other variables in Label LIVE, the input is used to determine what is printed on the label. Date variables expect some kind of date or time as input. These can be either absolute dates or relative dates.

Absolute inputs are an exact date or time such as January 1st, 2020. Common input formats are supported such as:

Note: Beware using formats where the day/month can be unintentionally swapped. The United States is one of the few countries that uses the 

Relative inputs are short phrases that represent a date or time relative to the current date and time. Examples include:

Output formats use "tokens" to create the desired output. The simplest example of a token is 

 which is the year, or 2023. If you only need the last two digits of the year, then the token is 

. Tokens are available for every part of a date and time, including day of week, month (e.g. January, Jan, 1, 01). The full token format list is available by clicking the DATE variable's calendar icon, and clicking inside the Format field:

Formatting a Julian Date, Other Lot Codes

A julian date is the "Day of Year" and is formatted with the token 

Similarly, "Week of Year" is formatted with the token 

. While they may seem identical for inputs such as 20, they are different when the input is < 10, for example, the 9th month (September) is formatted 

 is the last two numbers of the year: 2023 and 23, respectively.

Zero padded formats are useful for barcodes that require a fixed length.

 are common formats that change based on the locale setup in Label LIVE Settings. Locale may impact the name of months, days of week. Here's an example of Spanish.

Dates and times may seem easy, but there are many gray areas that you should consider.

Locales will re-arrange the day and month placeholders for the common shorthand... be careful because these are not 100% distinguishable. For example, is "1/2/23" referring to "Jan 2" or "Feb 1"?

Do not use seconds as a unique field because multiple labels can be printed in under one second.

You can always use Microsoft Excel to format the date into text. Label LIVE will then proceed as normal, printing exactly what is specified in input data. Just remember to change your Variable Type back to "Plain Text."

Embed dates and times in different formats for your exact labeling need. Label LIVE makes it easy to generate Julian dates and reference future dates with natural language.

Date and Time Formatting

Label designs can quickly become complex with multiple objects to edit. Data variables can help simplify the design by creating placeholders that get replaced with the variable's value.

Let's check out an example. Here's a customer (or patient) file label.

. The customer ID is used twice, once for the human-readable text and again for the barcode. We have to remember to edit both the text and the barcode every time – or else there's a risk they will be out of sync. Not good.

Let's go a step further. This design requires a label to be "double-sided" – folding over the file. Now we must edit the design in four(!) places. Even worse!

This is the problem Data Variables were made to solve. To add a variable, click on the Data tab and click the plus (+) button to Add a Data Variable. Type in a name for the new variable: 

Here's what it looks like when you create a variable. It is 

Note: I changed the value to "12345" for demonstration purposes.

Click on a text object and delete "01234567", click Data, and then click 

 into the Text object. The variable's value "12345" is shown on the label design.

 format? It's just a special way for Label LIVE to know that 

 should be replaced with the value of the "ID" variable. Pretty smart.

You can do the same for all four occurrences of the customer ID.

Feel free to hop back over to the Data tab and change the variable value. Watch it update... LIVE. Do you feel the power? Yes, you do!

This is where we make the joke: "We put the 

Sometimes it's easier to create variables from an existing text object. To do that, click on a Text object and click on the 

Click the Data tab and change NAME to something else. It works.

Hint: You can reorder the variables (and design objects) by clicking and dragging.

Change the mirrored bottom name to use the new 

Variables are powerful. You can declare your 

 "finished" – and continue most of your day-to-day work from the 

You can go one step further and change to "Form" view. Click the Data tab (possibly twice) and click Form.

A nice simplified form to edit when you need to print a new label. Hover over the blue print button to see additional options like automatic printing on pressing ENTER (useful for barcode scanning). You can also have Label LIVE clear the form on each print.

Prevent accidental changes to the design by locking the design elements. This isn't a security feature, but more just a simple protection against someone unknowingly undoing your work by editing the Design directly.

Now that you know the basics of variables, there is a lot more to explore. For example, when you import a spreadsheet or CSV file, you'll see that variables are created for every column in the imported spreadsheet. Read more about importing data in our Guide.

Using variables helps speed up label editing and minimize errors.

Understanding Data Variables

Printing horticulture tags or plant stakes on your thermal transfer printer is made easy with Label LIVE's multi-tag paging.

This template is a generic 1x10" tag 4-across. The total "page" size is 4" wide by 10" tall. 

Your tags are likely slightly different. Don't worry, 

From here, you're ready to follow our other guides about customizing and learning how to use Label LIVE's amazing features to print from spreadsheets, use variables, automatic date codes and more!

Printing batches of horticulture tags from a spreadsheet is made EASY with Label LIVE's built-in multi-tag paging features.

Printing Horticulture Tags and Plant Stakes

Today, Label LIVE can import data from files: Excel and CSV. We are hard at work bringing you a more seamless experience. If you'd like to be a part of the upcoming beta please 

Until we release our new Google Sheet Add-on, please follow these simple instructions to export a Google Sheet as a CSV file.

After importing, you can begin to follow our guide on print labels from a spreadsheet.

Label LIVE automatically watches previously imported data files for changes. This is great if you're editing a local spreadsheet because changes are automatically synchronized. 

With Google Sheets, you have to download a new CSV to sync your changes. To avoid this extra step, you can use a service like 

 to automatically export a CSV to Google Drive or Dropbox. When synced, the file will update automatically on your local computer and Label LIVE will reload the data.

You might also be interested on how to trigger print jobs programatically.

We are working hard on a Google Sheet Add-on that will allow you to trigger print jobs directly from Google Sheets. If you're interested in participating in an early beta please 

Much of our world's data lives in Google Sheets. Learn how to easily print custom labels from this popular online spreadsheet.

Print Labels from Google Sheets

There's an old saying, "the problem with computers is that they do exactly what we tell them." Indeed, printers in general, and label printers especially, are fussy little robots being told exactly what to do.

Most label printer problems boil down to a few simple points. Follow along in our guide to label printer troubleshooting to resolve your label printing problems.

A lot can go wrong if your label printer doesn't understand how "long" each label is. Learn how to calibrate like a pro: 

When computers "print" they always print to "pages." Makes sense. However, label printers use "labels" but the system printer driver still treats each label as a separate "page". This can lead to labels printing too small or large. To fix, you must setup your driver's default page size. Learn how, here:

There is nothing more frustrating than a label printer that skips labels. Learn how to fix the issue here:

Use Label LIVE's Print Preview feature to verify that the label looks correct before printing:

Try these easy fixes when Label LIVE seems slow, doesn't respond, or won't open.

Need to figure out how to fix your printer so your labels print perfectly? Check out our curated list of frequently asked questions.

Ultimate Guide to Label Printer Troubleshooting

If you've ever tried to scale a barcode to fit on a small label you've probably been met with frustration. If you don't respect the limitations of the printer, you'll end up with "failed" barcodes that will not scan. Software like Label LIVE can help by preventing you from breaking the barcode, but you might still end up being limited by your printer's DPI. Having an understanding of thermal printer dpi can help.

Thermal label printers create images using small dots. The quality is measured by how many dots fit in one inch (25.4mm), commonly known as DPI. The industry has standardized on 200 and 300 DPI. Why should you consider one over the other when printing? A higher DPI will yield higher quality, but more dots means more flexibility, especially with scaling small barcodes.

" and is the standard in retail barcoding. Generally, UPC standards require the UPC barcode to be at least ~1.5" wide for reasons you will soon see. In this example, we will push the limits of the UPC to show differences in 200 vs. 300 DPI.

Using Label LIVE, we put together a few "tiny" label designs measuring 1" wide and 0.5" tall. First, we demonstrate the smallest UPC barcode possible using 200 DPI, where the narrowest bars are exactly 1 "black" dot wide, and separated by exactly 1 "white" dot.

The blue background shows each individual dot.

Since it is physically impossible for the printer to print anything other than 1 dot at a time, the next "size up" from this barcode means we have to represent the narrowest bar with 2 dots.

Now our barcode hangs off the label's edge. We have a few options...

Again, we use Label LIVE to print the same 1" wide and 0.5" tall label. Here's the same design at 300 DPI, where, just like the first image above, the narrowest bars are exactly 1 "black" dot wide, and separated by exactly 1 "white" dot.

Note how small this barcode is. It's the "same" dot pattern – effectively shrunk because it's built with smaller dots. In reality, it's probably "too small" to be reliably scanned. Let's try the next size up.

Ahhh, perfect! The size doubled but since we started smaller, the doubling gives us a great result.

Let's take a closer look at the dots. Yep, the same pattern as before and everything fits properly.

These examples demonstrate how a 300 DPI printer can give you more flexibility in managing the size of barcodes on your label design. This is why the 300 DPI mydpi printer is our 

The same dot limitations apply to every other barcode type. And remember, if you're actually printing UPC barcodes you should aim to have a minimum width of 1.5" (per the UPC spec).

What is the difference between 200 and 300 DPI thermal printers? More dots per inch gives you quality and flexibility in scaling barcodes.

Understanding Thermal Printer DPI

Wouldn't it be nice if you could save a copy of a spreadsheet into a special folder and Label LIVE would takeover and handle the entire print job? You can easily batch import and print with data files. Find out how to set this up with Batch Data Import.

We won't sugar coat this: batch data import is an advanced topic

You're going to trigger print jobs by simply saving a spreadsheet. Here is the situation:

If this type of batch import sounds like something you need, read on!

Automatically print an entire spreadsheet of labels by saving a copy of the spreadsheet (or CSV) to a special folder. When Label LIVE sees the new file, it will import and print the data.

The intricacies of label printing peeled back

Guides to using Label LIVE and common label printing solutions

Date and Time Formatting

Understanding Data Variables

Printing Horticulture Tags and Plant Stakes

Print Labels from Google Sheets

Ultimate Guide to Label Printer Troubleshooting

Understanding Thermal Printer DPI

Batch Import and Print with Data Files

Scan Barcodes And Save Barcode as Image

Easy to Use Barcode Duplicator

Integrate Printing With Production Processes

Bold, Underline and Italic Text Style Using Markup

Label Templates for Tear-off, Full Bleed, Speciality Shapes or Preprinted Art

Dynamic Data (and color!) Using the Built-in Spreadsheet

Side-by-side or 2 up printing

GTIN-14 Barcode Generator (ITF-14) and EAN and UPC Barcodes for Point of Sale.

Optimizing Print Quality

Bulk Barcode Generator for PNG/PDF Labels

Print Address Labels Using VCF Files

How To Add A Barcode Prefix

Mail Merge With Spreadsheet And Labels

How to Print Labels From an Excel Spreadsheet

Create Food Rotation Labels With Automatic Relative Dates

How to Create Barcodes Without Printed Check Digit

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