Custom WooCommerce labels, without copying order details by hand

If your shop needs a label with an order number, a product name and a barcode, getting those details onto paper should be straightforward. It gets fiddly when your labels need a particular size or layout, or you end up copying the same information into a separate design tool for every order.

I've built DawsonyWeb Print Label Designer to handle that inside WooCommerce. You design a template, connect it to your order data and generate a PDF ready to print. The free version includes the designer and manual printing. A separate Pro add-on handles automation.

Build the label you actually need

The designer lets you place text, images, shapes, barcodes and QR codes on a label with your own dimensions. You can move and rotate elements, adjust colours, line things up with a grid and snap to millimetres. Undo and redo are there for the inevitable bit of nudging things around.

The useful part is connecting those elements to WooCommerce. An order number, shipping address, product name or SKU can come straight from the selected order. Custom metadata can be used too, provided that information already exists in your store.

Start with a free template

You don't have to start with a blank canvas. I've put together four simple downloads: an order label, a product label, an address label and a thank-you sticker. They all work with the free plugin, and you can change the text, colours and dimensions after importing.

Download the JSON file, open the designer in WordPress and click Import JSON at the bottom. It creates a new template without overwriting your existing designs. Choose a preview order, check the fields and generate a test PDF.

Browse all four free templates and the import guide →

Check one order before printing a batch

Start with one of the included templates or create your own. Choose a preview order, connect the fields you need and generate a sample PDF. You can create a label per order, per line item or per whole-number quantity, depending on what you're packing.

For example, a shop packing several products into one order might want a separate label for each item, showing its name, SKU and order reference. Save that layout once and use it again when the next order comes in.

You can use custom label dimensions or arrange labels on A4 and Letter sheets. There's also a starting position for partially used sticker sheets, so you don't have to throw away a sheet because the first few labels are gone.

Print your first PDF at actual size, usually shown as 100% in the print dialog. Check it against your label stock before running a batch. Printer margins and scaling still matter, whatever software creates the file.

Let order events handle the repeat jobs

Pro adds rules that generate labels when a matching order event happens. You could prepare a template for orders reaching Processing, set the conditions and let the background job produce the PDF.

Generated documents appear in a private history, with retention settings and retry controls. Pro also includes email attachment workflows and manual print tracking. It doesn't send jobs straight to a physical printer: you still open and print the PDF yourself.

The PDFs are generated on your WordPress server. You don't need an external PDF service to create them.

Free versus Pro

• Free: the visual designer, order-data fields, barcodes and QR codes, sheet layouts, template import and export, and manual PDF generation. No licence key is needed.
• Pro: order-event rules, background generation, private document history, retention controls and email/manual print workflows.

Pro is £79 a year for one site, £149 for five sites or £299 for 25 sites. The annual licence covers updates and support. Installed Pro features keep working if the licence expires, and you can cancel renewal through your account.

A couple of things to know before installing

This makes custom labels, including dispatch-address labels. It doesn't buy postage or create carrier-approved shipping labels. If you need batch numbers or best-before dates, those need to be available in your product data and configured in the template.

You'll need WooCommerce, WordPress 6.8 or later, and PHP 8.1 or later with mbstring. As with any plugin that touches your order workflow, try it on staging and check a printed sample first.

Make your first label today

Install the free plugin, pick a template and try it with one order. You can get the layout right before deciding whether you need Pro automation.

Choose a free template or follow the installation guide. The plugin page has the full feature list and Pro options.

If your store needs a particular layout or something more involved around its order process, see the plugin page. Tell me what you're printing now and what you need on the label.