Calibration and Sheet Alignment

Misaligned labels are the number-one frustration with barcode printing — a 1 mm offset accumulates down the sheet and prints over the die-cut edges. The calibration sheet lets you verify alignment on plain paper before committing a real label sheet. Calibration prints are always free and never count toward your monthly quota.

What the calibration sheet is

A single page for your chosen sheet preset with:

a border around every label cell, drawn exactly where the preset says labels go, and
a number in each cell (0, 1, 2, …).

Hold it against your label sheet against a light: the borders should sit inside every die-cut label. If they do, your real print will land inside the labels.

When to print one

First print with a new paper size.
First print on a new printer — this is the important one: alignment follows the printer, not the paper. The same Avery 5160 sheet can print perfectly on one printer and drift on another, depending on its margins and paper-feed.
After changing paper tray / feed settings.

How to print a calibration sheet

You can trigger it from three places — all produce the same result for the chosen sheet size:

From the Home setup guide (first run):

In the Get started guide, step Check your sheet alignment, click Print calibration.

From the Home “Sheet alignment” card (any time):

On Home, find the Sheet alignment card — it lists every sheet size your templates use.
Click Check next to the size you’re about to print.
Print the PDF that opens on plain paper, at Actual size (100%).

From a print job (job detail page):

Open any job and find the Free checks card.
Click Print calibration.

Roll presets (Dymo, Zebra) show No sheet to align — there’s no grid to check.

If the grid doesn’t line up

Confirm the sheet preset matches your paper exactly — same “up” count and page size (Letter vs A4). See the preset table.
In the browser print dialog, verify Actual size / 100% scale is selected — “Fit to page” scales everything and misaligns the whole sheet. Also turn off headers/footers and set margins to none/default per your browser.
Try the printer’s other tray or paper path.
If the drift is small but consistent, contact us (see Get help) with the printer model and paper — we can look into a preset adjustment.

Test render (also free)

Next to calibration, the Test render button (template editor: Test render (free); job detail: Free checks) renders a real label PDF with sample data so you can check content layout — text sizes, barcode height, fit — on plain paper. It doesn’t count toward your quota either. Only one calibration/test render runs at a time per shop; if one is already running, try again shortly.

Get help

Still misaligned after these steps? Use Contact us in the app to send the printer model, paper brand/code, and a photo of the printed calibration sheet — it helps us respond with a fix.