Avery 5366 template
Avery 5366 is a file folder label, not an address label. It is long and shallow — three and seven-sixteenths inches wide by two-thirds of an inch tall — sized to wrap a folder tab.
Dimensions
- Label size
- 2/3" x 3-7/16"
- Labels per sheet
- 30 (2 across × 15 down)
- Sheet size
- US Letter, 8.5in × 11in
- Top margin
- 0.5in
- Side margin
- 0.5313in
- Horizontal pitch
- 4in
- Vertical pitch
- 0.6667in
Geometry source: LibreOffice label database, Avery Letter Size 5366 (2 x 15, 4in x 0.6667in pitch).
Check the fit before you print on stock. Print the blank template on plain paper, hold it against a sheet of Avery 5366 up to the light, and check the boxes land on the die-cuts. That is worth doing with any label template on any printer — paper size, driver margins and print scaling all shift a sheet, and one sheet of plain paper is cheaper than one sheet of labels. It is worth doing here in particular: these measurements are taken from an open label-template database and checked arithmetically on every build, and that same database’s Avery 5160 entry reproduces our own print-verified geometry exactly — but Avery 5366 has not itself been confirmed against physical stock.
Why the shape is unusual
A manila folder tab is a narrow strip. A label for it has to be wide enough to hold a readable title and short enough not to overhang, which is why the 5366 is proportioned so differently from the address formats.
The sheet holds thirty in two columns of fifteen, with wide side margins — over half an inch on each edge — and rows that butt directly against each other. It looks sparse next to a 5160 because the labels are packed vertically and inset horizontally.
What people use it for
Filing systems: client files, case files, patient records, project folders, archive boxes. Anywhere a physical cabinet needs consistent, legible tabs that were not handwritten.
The typical source data is a two-column spreadsheet — a reference code and a name — which maps cleanly onto two lines. Some people print the code larger than the name so it reads from across a room; per-line sizing handles that.
Printing 5366 labels from a spreadsheet
Two lines is the practical maximum at two-thirds of an inch. The tool will fit three, but the type drops small enough that it defeats the purpose of labelling a folder.
Barcode mode is available but tight here: there is only room for a short symbol and one caption line. If you are barcoding an archive, a taller format such as the 5163 gives a far more reliable scan.
Making a drawer readable
File labels are read edge-on, at an angle, in a drawer where thirty of them are visible at once. That is a different reading problem from an envelope, and it rewards consistency far more than it rewards detail.
Put the part that distinguishes one folder from its neighbours at the start of the line, not the end. A drawer of labels all beginning "Project — " and differing in the last two words is genuinely hard to scan by eye; the same labels with the distinguishing word first are easy.
Sort the spreadsheet into the order the folders will sit in before printing. Labels come off the sheet in reading order, so a sorted list means you can peel and apply straight down the drawer without hunting, which on a few hundred folders saves a surprising amount of time.
Print Avery 5366 labels
1 Your spreadsheet
.xlsx, .xls or .csv. The file is read inside this tab and never uploaded.
2 What goes on each label
Drawn as a Code 128 symbol in vector, not as an image.
Assign a column to each line. Lines you leave unused are skipped, so the remaining lines close up rather than leaving a gap.
Pick a column holding a count to repeat each row that many times.
3 Label sheet
Skip labels you have already peeled off a part-used sheet.
4 Preview and print
Single label
First page
Print at actual size. Never use “Fit to page” or “Shrink to fit” — either one moves every label out of alignment with the sheet.
Other Avery formats
Sizes, uses and a full comparison are on the Avery template index.