A 100×150mm shipping label is a layout that divides one side of a box so the carrier, the recipient and the sender can each find the information they need at a glance. GoodLabel Designer includes a shipping notice shared template in this size, so there's no need to create a blank document; the shortest route is to add a tracking number barcode and Excel-linked fields to it.
100×150 vs. 4×6 inches vs. A6
| Size name | Width × height | Where it's used |
|---|---|---|
| GoodLabel fanfold labels 100×150 (4x6 in the product name) | 100×150mm | Same size as the designer's shipping notice template |
| 4×6 inches | 101.6×152.4mm | Shipping label layouts in inches |
| A6 | 105×148mm | Small size for GS1 logistic labels |
The three sizes differ by 1.6–5mm in width or height. If a layout file you received is based on 4×6 inches or A6, don't enter those numbers as is in a new designer document; create the document at the size of the media you actually load, 100×150mm, and then move the elements into place.
Default layout of the shipping notice template
When you open the shipping notice from the shared templates on the start screen, three objects sit within an 88mm width inside 6mm margins on the left and right.
- A 20pt bold title reading "Shipping notice" (in Korean) starts 6mm from the top.
- From 29mm, a 78mm-tall box holds four lines in 13pt text: recipient, address, phone number and sender.
- At 126mm comes one line of 11pt caution text; there's no barcode object, so you need to add one yourself.
13pt text has a font box about 4.6mm tall. On GS1 logistic labels, human-readable text under a barcode should be at least 3mm, and printing the sender's name and address in smaller type than the recipient's is recommended. When you edit the template, too, keep the recipient line the largest and the sender line one step smaller.
Dividing zones from top to bottom
A GS1 logistic label follows a basic zone order from the top: carrier, customer (recipient), then supplier (sender). If the box will also get a courier's own shipping label, leave the carrier zone empty; for labels used for your own deliveries or transfers between warehouses, divide the 150mm in this order.
| Zone | Example vertical position | Content | Example text size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier | 6–40mm | Tracking number CODE128, postal code, route code | Number 11pt or larger |
| Recipient | 44–100mm | Recipient, address, phone number, order number | Name 16pt, address 13pt |
| Sender | 104–144mm | Sender, return address, items and quantities | 10–11pt |
The vertical positions are an example that keeps the 6mm margin of the shipping notice template. The GS1 guideline also strongly recommends including the postal code, so writing it once more in large type in the carrier zone, apart from the address line, lets sorting staff read it right away.
Calculating the width of a tracking number CODE128
When you first add a CODE128 in the tracking number area, it's 7mm tall, and each narrow bar is 2 dots on a 203dpi printer or 3 dots on a 300dpi printer. The designer sets the symbol width by multiplying the number of modules actually generated from the tracking number you enter by the dot count, so if you know the number of characters and their type, you can work it out in advance.
| Example tracking number | Symbol modules | Width at 203dpi, 2 dots | Width at 203dpi, 3 dots |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 digits | 101 | 25.3mm | 37.9mm |
| 12 characters, letters with a digit or two mixed in (e.g. AB12C3D4E5F6) | 167 | 41.8mm | 62.7mm |
When digits come in a run of an even number, CODE128 packs every two digits into one symbol character (11 modules), so a 12-digit numeric number comes to 101 modules including the start, check and stop characters. When letters are mixed in, each character is one symbol character, so even at 12 characters it grows to 167 modules. Even adding a blank quiet zone of 10 times the bar width on each side, a numeric number at 3 dots fits easily within 88mm, so on shipping labels print it at 3 dots rather than 2 and make it taller than the initial 7mm. The Height slider in the Properties panel accepts 5–100mm in 0.5mm steps. A GS1-128 carrying an SSCC needs bars at least 31.75mm tall on their own, so with human-readable text over 3mm it exceeds the 34mm carrier zone in the example above; for zone layout and bar width in that case, follow How to make GS1-128 and GS1 DataMatrix labels.
Linking an Excel order list
- Put recipient, address, phone number, tracking number and quantity columns in the Excel order list.
- Select the recipient, address and phone number text objects and the tracking number CODE128 object one at a time, change the data source on the Data tab of the Properties panel to Connect Excel data, and choose a column.
- To join the postal code and address on one line, put a single space as fixed text between the two columns in Combine data.
- If you set the quantity column under Print quantity settings in the Print window, an order with 2 boxes prints 2 copies of the same label.
The Wrap text switch for the address field is set to wrap by word from the start, so building and unit numbers don't get split across two lines. Move the longest address row in Excel up to the first data row and do a test print of 1 label to see how many lines it wraps to in the 88mm-wide box. Cell formatting for tracking number columns that start with 0 and choosing a row range are covered in Bulk printing variable labels from Excel or CSV.
Printers and output size
The shipping notice template uses the full 100mm width, so load it on a 4-inch-class model with a maximum print width of 104–108mm. As a dot image, a 203dpi head receives 800 dots across and 1,199 dots down for each label, and a 300dpi head receives 1,182 and 1,772 dots. How to load a fanfold stack through the rear slot and the direct thermal setting are on the direct thermal fanfold labels 100×150 page, and models for bulk shipping label printing are covered on the BIXOLON SLP-DX420 and Zebra ZD421T pages.
