Avery 5160 labels from Shopify products
If you don't own a label printer, the Avery 5160 is the cheapest way to print barcode labels for your Shopify products: a standard letter-size sheet with 30 labels (3 columns × 10 rows) that runs through any ordinary laser or inkjet printer. Each label is 2.625" × 1", comfortable room for a barcode, product name, and price.
The catch with sheet labels is alignment. A DYMO printer only has one label to hit; a 5160 sheet has 30, and a couple of millimeters of drift at the top of the page becomes a badly clipped label by row ten. This guide covers the exact layout math and the print settings that keep everything in its cell.
The Avery 5160 layout, in numbers
A 5160 sheet is 8.5" × 11". The labels are laid out like this:
| Measurement | Value |
|---|---|
| Label width | 2.625" |
| Label height | 1" |
| Columns × rows | 3 × 10 = 30 labels |
| Top margin | 0.5" |
| Bottom margin | 0.5" |
| Left/right margins | 0.1875" |
| Horizontal gap between columns | 0.125" |
| Vertical gap between rows | 0" (rows touch) |
The math checks out both ways, which is a useful sanity test for any template you build:
- Width: 0.1875 + 2.625 + 0.125 + 2.625 + 0.125 + 2.625 + 0.1875 = 8.5" ✓
- Height: 0.5 + (10 × 1) + 0.5 = 11" ✓
Two things trip people up: the rows have no vertical gap, the 1-inch labels stack edge to edge, and the side margins are a slightly odd 0.1875" (3/16"), not a round quarter inch. If a template uses 0.25" side margins, the third column will hang off its labels.
Step 1: Set up the template
In your label app, create a sheet template with the numbers above: page 8.5 × 11, label 2.625 × 1, 3 columns, 10 rows, 0.5" top margin, 0.1875" side margins, 0.125" column gap, zero row gap.
Shopify's own Retail Barcode Labels app includes an Avery-style sheet option but no custom sizing, so if your layout is even slightly off on your printer, there's nothing to adjust. An app with custom dimensions lets you nudge the template to match reality.
LabelFast (LabelFast) supports custom label sizes and sheet layouts, and templates are stable, once your 5160 layout is dialed in, it stays dialed in rather than resetting between sessions. It's free for 200 labels a month (over six full 5160 sheets), which is plenty to set up and verify the template at no cost, and it uses read-only access, so it never writes anything to your store.
Step 2: Choose products and quantities
Select the products to label and set a quantity for each. On sheet labels, quantities directly control the layout: 30 labels fill a sheet, so a batch of 45 labels is one full sheet plus a half sheet.
If you're labeling stock on hand, the quantity you want is usually your inventory count, one label per unit. In LabelFast that's the default (quantities pre-fill from inventory on hand); in other apps, have your stock counts handy and enter them per product.
Tip: batch products so full sheets come out full. Partial sheets are fine, but note that re-feeding a partially used 5160 sheet through a printer is unreliable (the sheet can jam or the remaining labels can peel inside the printer). Treat partial sheets as spent, or accept a few blank labels per run.
Step 3: Print settings: the alignment step
Load plain paper first, not label sheets. Then in the print dialog:
- Paper size: Letter (8.5 × 11).
- Scale: 100%. Turn off "Fit to page" and "Fit to printable area". This matters twice on a 5160: scaling shifts every row progressively further from its label and distorts barcode bar widths so scanners misread them. Even 96% scale ruins the bottom rows.
- Margins: none / default-off. The template supplies its own 0.5" and 0.1875" margins; the print dialog must not add more on top.
- Headers and footers: off, a browser-added page title steals vertical space and pushes all ten rows down.
Step 4: The plain-paper overlay test
Before spending a label sheet:
- Print page one of your batch on plain paper.
- Hold the printout on top of a blank 5160 sheet and line up the page edges.
- Hold both up to a bright light. Every printed label should sit inside its sticker's outline.
Check row 1 and row 10 specifically. If row 1 is aligned but row 10 has drifted, something is scaling the page, revisit step 3. If everything is shifted uniformly (all rows off by the same amount, same direction), your printer's feed is slightly offset; compensate by adjusting the template's top or left margin by that amount, which is exactly why a custom-size template beats a fixed one.
Step 5: Print on labels and verify a scan
Load the 5160 sheets (check your printer manual for label-side orientation, usually face down in bottom trays, face up in rear feeds). Print the batch with the identical settings. Then scan one label from the top row and the bottom row with your actual register scanner. If both scan, the whole run is good.
Troubleshooting quick hits
- Rows drift downward toward the bottom of the sheet: scaling is on somewhere. Scale must be 100% with all "fit" options off.
- Third column clipped on the right: side margins set to 0.25" instead of 0.1875", or an extra printer margin added in the dialog.
- Everything off by the same few millimeters: printer feed offset, shift the template margins to match.
- Labels look right but won't scan: scaling distorted the bars, or the barcode value itself is invalid (UPC-A is 12 digits, EAN-13 is 13). Reprint at true 100% and re-check the value in Shopify.
- Sheets jamming: don't re-feed partial sheets, fan the stack before loading, and use the straightest paper path your printer has (rear feed if available).
Recap
The 5160 is unforgiving about numbers but completely reliable once they're right: 2.625 × 1 labels, 3 × 10 grid, 0.5" top margin, 0.1875" sides, 0.125" column gap, zero row gap, printed at exactly 100% on Letter paper. Do the plain-paper overlay test once, save the template, and every future batch is just "select products, print."