QR code labels from Excel

A module is one square of the pattern. A QR code grows in steps as you add data, and the tool fits the whole code, clear margin included, into the same square on every label. So each step up in data makes every module smaller. An ID such as IT-0412 is 7 characters; a link such as https://example.com/a/IT-0412 is 29. These are the module sizes the tool’s own encoder produces for links of each length, on the 30-per-sheet Avery 5160 and on the tiny 80-per-sheet Avery 5167:

A mil is a thousandth of an inch. Below 10 mil the tool warns that some phones may struggle, and below 7.5 mil it refuses to build the PDF, so a list that is fine on 5160 can be stopped on 5167.

Encode a full web address, starting with https://, when a phone should open a page. Encode the bare ID when the code will be read into a spreadsheet or an inventory app, which wants the ID itself rather than a page.

If you use links, keep them short at the source. A path on your own domain such as example.com/a/IT-0412 beats a long address full of tracking parameters. A link shortener also works, but then every printed code depends on the shortener’s redirect staying up.

Text is encoded as UTF-8, so accented letters and other scripts come through intact, but each of those characters takes two or more bytes where a plain letter or digit takes one.

A scanner finds a QR code by the clear margin around it. DENSO WAVE, which holds the QR Code trademark, states that a code needs a four-module margin on all sides. The tool reserves that margin inside the square it places on the label, and neither text nor ink goes into it.

Error correction adds redundant data so a damaged code can still be read. DENSO WAVE describes level M as restoring about 15% of the code’s data and as the level most often chosen. Higher levels restore more, but they also make the code bigger, and on a label of fixed size that means smaller modules.

Before it builds the PDF, the tool looks at every value in the column you encode. The longest makes the biggest code and therefore the smallest modules, so that one decides. The readout under More options shows its size in modules and in mil. Under 10 mil you get a warning; under 7.5 mil nothing is generated, and the message suggests a shorter value or a taller label.

Every dark module is drawn in the PDF as a filled black rectangle, one per run of modules along a row, never as an embedded image. Edges land exactly where the geometry puts them at any printer resolution, and the PDF stays small.

On Avery 5167 the code is only 0.42 in square, which suits a short ID but not much more: a link of about 60 characters is the most it takes without a warning.

Avery 5163, two by four inches and ten to a sheet, puts a 1.68 in code on the left with room for three or four lines of text beside it. It is the easy step up from 5160 when codes have to be read from further away.

Avery 5164 is four inches wide and 3-1/3 tall, six to a sheet. The label is close to square, so the code is centered at the top, 1.93 in across, with the text underneath. That suits the face of a storage bin, a shelf edge or the side of a box.

For a thermal label printer, the roll layouts print one label per PDF page at the roll’s exact size; see thermal labels from Excel for driver settings.

The sample list the tool starts with is an asset register of exactly that shape: an Asset tag column, an Item column, a Location column and a Link column. The label shows the tag, item and location, and the code holds the link.

In QR mode, a column named URL, Link, Website or QR is chosen for the code automatically. Failing that, a column named like an ID is used, such as SKU, Asset tag, Serial number or ID. For anything else, pick the column under More options, “Column to turn into a QR code”. The encoded column is left off the text lines, so a long link does not print beside its own code.

To build links from IDs, add a column in Excel with a formula such as ="https://example.com/a/"&A2 and fill it down. Each row then carries its own link, and your IDs stay the source of truth.

For bin and shelf labels, encode the location code itself, such as A-03-07, and set a large text size with a bold first line so the location reads from the aisle. If an item needs two tags, say one on the device and one on its case, add a column holding 2 and choose it under “Copies of each row”.

A QR code needs a camera or a two-dimensional scanner to read it. If your team uses scanners that read only ordinary barcodes, print Code 128 barcode labels instead, from the same list.

Some QR services make what they call dynamic codes. The printed code holds a short link on the service’s own server, which forwards each scan to your page. That lets the destination change after printing and lets scans be counted, and it means every printed code depends on that forwarding continuing to work.

The codes Print Labels From Excel makes are static. Scan one and you get exactly what was in the cell: an ID, a line of text, or your own link. Print Labels From Excel is not in the path, so it cannot see or count scans.

If you want the flexibility of a dynamic code without the dependency, encode stable paths on your own domain, such as example.com/a/IT-0412, and change what those pages show, or where they redirect, on your own site.

The usual next step is a Word mail merge with picture fields, a design tool, or placing the images by hand. Desktop Word can also draw QR codes itself: Microsoft documents a DisplayBarcode field code for Word 2016 and later, with a MergeBarcode field for mail merges.

Print Labels From Excel skips the image files. It reads the spreadsheet, draws each code as vector shapes next to the text from the other columns, and lays the labels out on the sheet you chose, in one PDF.

Some online generators also build the codes on their own server, which means your list is sent there first. Here the spreadsheet is read, and the codes are drawn, inside your browser tab. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and there is no limit on how many PDFs you make.