Label Planet
It's time for another FAQ special! This week, we're focusing on compatible codes!
DO YOU SELL A PARTICULAR BRAND OF LABEL PRODUCTS?
No. All of our labels are manufactured independently in the UK. However, some our of products use "standard" label sizes, which are compatible with those supplied by other brands, manufacturers, and suppliers.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “COMPATIBLE”?
This means that our products use the same label size and layout as labelling products supplied by different manufacturers. This means you could use a compatible template for another manufacturer's labels to print on labels from Label Planet.
ARE YOUR COMPATIBLE LABELS THE SAME AS THOSE SUPPLIED BY OTHER COMPANIES?
Yes and no. As mentioned above our compatible labels are just that – compatible – rather than the same as labels produced by other manufacturers. Our labels are manufactured using the same dimensions and layout, but they are not manufactured using the exact same materials and tools as other companies use.
THERE ARE SO MANY CODES INVOLVED. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LABEL PLANET CODES AND OTHER PRODUCT / TEMPLATE CODES, AND WHICH ONES SHOULD I USE?
All companies have their own ways of creating product codes and template codes for their labels, which does make things a bit confusing. Here's a quick explanation of how some of these codes work.
Some companies allocate unique alphanumerical codes for each unique product they supply based on the size, material, and intended type of use for those labels. That code is used to refer to one particular product and the template for that product. This means that labels made in the same label size but using different materials can be printed using the same basic template, but both the labels and their templates will be referred to using two unique codes.
For example: say a company supplies the standard label size of 99.1mm x 139mm, which features four labels per A4 sheet. They supply this product in two materials; one is paper labels for inkjet printers (this product has the code ABC1) and one is paper labels for laser printers (this product has the code XYZ2). The templates for these products are exactly the same (because the labels use the same size and layout) BUT, because they are named after their matching product, they each have their own unique template code (template ABC1 and template XYZ2).
At Label Planet, instead of applying one unique alphanumeric code per product, we use a coding system in which product codes are determined by the specifications of a label.
To use the example above: our standard product (paper suitable for laser and inkjet printers) with 4 labels per sheet, each measuring 99.1 x 139mm is given the code LP4/99. LP stands for Label Planet to indicate that this is our code, 4 stands for 4 per page, and 99 refers to the width of the labels (99.1). If a label is made of a material other than our standard matt white paper then additional sections will be added to the basic size code. Therefore our version of BlockOut labels – which we call Opaque Labels – have the code LP4/99 OPQ.
This means that we have one template per size (not per product) and we use the basic size code (LP4/99) to refer to this template.
So, which code should you use?
We try to stick to our own codes where possible to make things simpler for our customers. We may refer to compatible codes for two key purposes:
- When a customer has previously purchased labels elsewhere and wants to know if we can supply a compatible product.
- When a customer is using software with built-in templates and needs to find out if our labels are compatible with the templates avaialble in their software.
If you have a label code or template code and you want to know if we supply a compatible product you can: - Use our Label Finder or Search By Height and Search By Width pages to see if we supply that label size - then use our template information pages to make sure we use the same label layout.
- Contact our Customer Service Team who will be able to confirm if we supply a compatible product.