Labels and printing

You can download two kinds of copy labels as PDFs to print onto a sheet of labels or a label printer’s roll: barcode labels (the scannable barcode, optionally with the title) and spine labels (the call number for the shelf). This page covers both, and the several places you can print them from. (For library cards, see Barcodes and cards.)

Barcode labels

From Library level navigation path: Catalog then Items, you can download barcode labels from either tab:

tab: By copy — labels for individual copies.
tab: By item — the same, scoped to items (one label per copy of each item).

Spine labels sit right next to barcode labels (see below). Where you choose them decides the scope:

button: Download ▸ menu item: Barcode labels… in the toolbar downloads a label for every copy in the current filter.
button: Download ▸ menu item: Barcode labels… in the selection band — which appears once you’ve checked at least one row — downloads labels for just the copies you’ve selected, or for everything the filters match once you select all matching.

Label options

Before the PDF downloads, you can set:

field: Label sheet — which label stock you’re printing on, so the layout matches your sheet. See Label stock for the sheets Lyra lays out.
field: Start position — which label on the sheet to begin at, so you can use a partially-used sheet without wasting labels. Select a cell in the sheet grid, or type a number into field: Skip first. A roll has no start position, so the field is hidden when you choose one.
setting: Include title — print a truncated item title above each barcode.

The options flow straight through to the downloaded PDF.

Saving a default

The dialog opens on the library’s saved sheet and title setting, or on Avery 5167 with no title if none is saved. When you change either, button: Save as default appears beside field: Label sheet; it saves your choice for everyone printing barcode labels in this library, without downloading anything. Spine labels keep their own default the same way. Saving a default is a library-manager or admin action; other staff can still pick any sheet for the print in front of them.

Label stock

Each sheet in the field: Label sheet list is a product you can order by its number:

Printing	Sheet	Labels per sheet	Label size (W × H)
Barcode labels	Avery 5167 (default)	80	1.75” × 0.5”
Barcode labels	Avery 5160	30	2.625” × 1”
Barcode labels	Avery 5163	10	4” × 2”
Spine labels	Demco 169548 (default)	98	1” × 0.75”
Spine labels	The Library Store CN16-0750	50	1.5” × 1”
Spine labels	Avery 5160	30	2.625” × 1”

If your school buys stock that isn’t listed, set it up as one of your school’s own sheets. Those appear under their own heading in every sheet list. Library managers and admins see button: Set it up in School Settings under the sheet list in every print dialog; it opens School settings with a new sheet ready to fill in.

Label printer rolls

A dedicated label printer, such as a DYMO LabelWriter, prints from a roll one label at a time. Choose a roll from the field: Label printer rolls group and Lyra makes each label its own page, cut to the label’s size, so the printer never has to place one label among many.

Printing	Roll	Label size (W × H)
Barcode labels	DYMO 30346 Library Barcode	1.875” × 0.5”
Barcode labels	DYMO 30336 Small Multipurpose	2.125” × 1”
Barcode labels	DYMO 30252 Address	3.5” × 1.125”
Barcode labels	DYMO 30334 Multipurpose	2.25” × 1.25”
Barcode labels	DYMO 30330 Return Address	2” × 0.75”
Spine labels	DYMO 30347 Book Spine	1” × 1.5”
Spine labels	DYMO 30332 Square Multipurpose	1” × 1”
Library cards	DYMO 30856 Badge Card	3.375” × 2.125”

A roll whose label reads along the roll, as an address label does, prints its page turned a quarter turn, because the printer’s paper size is as wide as the roll; the label still reads the right way once it’s peeled off.

A label printer can’t print right up to the edges of a label, and least of all at the end it feeds first: a DYMO LabelWriter leaves almost a quarter inch blank there and a few hundredths of an inch along the other edges. Lyra keeps everything on a roll label clear of those edges (about a third of an inch at the end fed first, a tenth at the other end, and 0.08” along the sides), so a title, call number, or barcode number is never cut off. On a label that prints turned, the end fed first is the label’s left end; otherwise it’s the top.

On a label too short for both a title line and the barcode number under the bars, such as the 30346, the title shares the number’s line, shortened to fit.

To print on a roll:

Open the PDF in Preview (Mac) or Adobe Acrobat or Reader rather than printing from the browser.
Choose the label printer, and choose the paper size named for the roll (for example 30252 Address).
Set Scale to 100%, or choose Actual size in Acrobat. On a Mac, also open Paper Handling and turn off Scale to fit paper size.
On a printer with two rolls, such as a LabelWriter Twin Turbo, choose the roll you loaded instead of leaving it to pick one.
On a DYMO LabelWriter, set Print Quality to Barcodes and Graphics. In the Mac print dialog it’s under Printer Options, then Printer Features. At the default, Text Only, barcodes on small labels such as the 30346 often don’t scan. Chrome’s print dialog doesn’t offer this setting: its Quality option (300×600 DPI) is a different one and doesn’t help.

Print at actual size

Label sheets only line up when the PDF prints at its own size. A print dialog that scales the page to fit shrinks it, and every label then lands off its die cut. The PDF asks viewers not to scale it, but the setting in the print dialog wins, and each app names it differently:

Printing from	Choose	Never choose
Chrome or Edge	Scale: Default, or Custom at 100	Fit to printable area, Fit to paper
Preview (Mac)	Scale: 100%	Scale to Fit
Adobe Acrobat or Reader	Actual size	Fit, Shrink oversized pages
Firefox	Scale: 100	Fit to page width

When a label won’t fit

Before anything downloads, Lyra checks every label against the sheet you chose. A barcode needs bars at least 0.15” tall and wide enough to scan, with blank space on either side; a spine label needs its call number to fit at the smallest type size. If any label fails, the dialog names the copies and turns off button: Download labels rather than printing a label that won’t scan or read. Choose a larger sheet, or for barcode labels turn off setting: Include title to give the bars more room.

Your school’s own sheets

The card: Label Sheets card on screen: Settings lists sheets and rolls your school has set up for stock Lyra doesn’t list. A sheet belongs to the school, so every library in it can print on it, and it’s offered for barcode labels, spine labels, and library cards alike; the fit check above is what stops a sheet too small for what you’re printing.

A school admin, or anyone who manages one of the school’s libraries, can add, edit, clone, and delete them. button: New sheet opens the sheet form. field: Format chooses between a Letter sheet and a label printer roll, and the fields below it follow. For a Letter sheet:

field: Start from copies the measurements of a built-in or existing sheet, so you only change what differs.
field: Name must be unique in your school. field: Product is a note for reordering; nothing reads it.
field: Units switches every measurement between inches and millimeters. Inches take fractions the way a ruler reads them, so 1 3/16 and 1.1875 are the same length.
field: Spacing decides which measurements you enter. Most sheets are centered on the page, so you only need the margins or the pitch, and Lyra works out the other. Measure the margins, the default for a new sheet, takes the top and left margins, measured from the page edge to the first label. Measure the pitch takes the pitch, as a vendor template states it. Enter every measurement takes both, for a sheet whose labels sit off center.
field: Labels across and field: Labels down, then the label size and the top and left margins.
field: Across pitch and field: Down pitch are the distance from one label’s edge to the same edge of the next. A pitch smaller than the label would overlap the labels, so one you enter is raised to the label’s size when you leave the field.
field: Move right and field: Move down shift every label on the sheet, for a printer that prints a little off. See Adjusting for your printer.

The preview draws a Letter page with every label where it would print. A layout that runs off the page, or labels that overlap, is drawn and named under the preview, and the sheet can’t be saved until it fits.

For a Label printer roll, field: Start from lists the DYMO rolls too, and the form asks for:

The label’s width and height, measured the way the label reads, in inches or millimeters.
field: Orientation — As the label reads or Rotated for feed. The preview shows the page the printer receives, so you can match it to the paper size in the printer’s dialog.
field: Inset — a blank border inside each edge, since label printers can’t print to the very edge. Lyra keeps content clear of the edges the printer can’t reach even when the inset is narrower, and the preview shades them.
field: Move right and field: Move down — shift everything printed on this roll, the same as on a sheet.

button: Download test label under the form prints one label with its edge, the inset, a crosshair, and TOP marked, using what’s in the form now, saved or not. Print it, compare it with a real label, adjust, and print again before you save. A saved roll’s row menu offers the same download.

To make a sheet the library-card default without printing, a school admin can open its row’s menu and check menu item: Library cards under setting: Use by default for. The row then says it is the default for library cards, and unchecking hands cards back to the built-in sheet. Barcode and spine defaults belong to each library, so they’re saved from a print dialog with button: Save as default.

Deleting a sheet removes it from every library in the school. If it’s a saved default anywhere, the confirmation says how many, and those defaults go back to the built-in sheet.

Adjusting for your printer

Check that you printed at actual size first; a scaled page is the usual reason labels miss their die cuts. If they still land a little off, the printer is shifting the page, and it shifts it the same way every time. Correct it on the sheet you print on: edit the sheet on the card: Label Sheets card and set field: Move right and field: Move down, up to an inch each. Every label printed on that sheet moves by that much, whether it’s a barcode label, a spine label, or a library card. Enter a negative number to move left or up.

Built-in sheets and rolls carry no adjustment. To adjust one, choose button: New sheet, pick it under field: Start from, set the adjustment, and save; then print on your copy instead of the built-in.

Spine labels

Spine labels download from the same two tabs (menu item: Spine labels… in either menu), with field: Label sheet and field: Start position options. Demco 169548 is the default spine stock; the other sheets are listed under Label stock.

Labels right after adding or importing

You usually want labels for copies you’ve just created, and Lyra puts the label action right where you finish:

From the Add Items feed. After adding items by hand, the feed’s button: Download menu offers menu item: Barcode labels… and menu item: Spine labels… for every copy added in the last hour.
From an import’s Added copies. After a catalog import, the tab: Added copies tab downloads labels for the whole import from the toolbar’s button: Download menu, or for just the copies you select from the selection band’s button: Download menu.
From an import’s Ready to add tab. You don’t have to wait until records are added — the tab: Ready to add tab downloads labels for the pending drafts too: per row, for the whole view from button: Download, or for a selection from the button: Download menu.