Label Templates and the Builder
Label templates let you design a fully custom product label — combining text, nutrition facts, barcodes, and more — and export it as a print-ready PDF. Templates are reusable: design once, apply to any product.
Go to Labels → Label Templates to manage your templates.
Creating a template
- Choose New Template.
- Enter a template name in the header (e.g. "4×6 Retail Label"), or leave it blank — selecting a Preview Product will fill it in with that product's name automatically (only if the name field is still empty).
- Set the canvas size in millimeters — width and height. Common sizes:
- 4×6 inch (101.6 × 152.4mm) — standard shipping/product label
- 2×4 inch (50.8 × 101.6mm) — small product label
- 3×3 inch (76.2 × 76.2mm) — square label
- Optionally set a background color.
- Add elements, arrange them, and choose Save.
A brand-new template doesn't start blank — it's pre-loaded with a starting layout that follows FDA labeling conventions (product name and brand up top, Nutrition Facts and ingredient/allergen statements, net weight in the bottom third of the label, a barcode, and your Company Logo next to a "Distributed by" line). Product Name, Ingredients, Allergens, and Net Weight also come with sensible default text styling (e.g. Product Name is 26pt bold and centered by default) whenever you add them, whether from the starting layout or the Add Element palette. Every element is still fully editable or removable — it's a starting point, not a fixed format.
Adding elements
Click any element in the Add Element palette to place it on the canvas:
| Element | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Product Name | The product's name |
| Brand | The product's brand name (set in the product's Brand field) |
| Company Logo | Your business logo (set in Settings → Company Profile) |
| Net Weight | The product's net weight |
| Nutrition Facts | A live Nutrition Facts panel (requires a nutrition profile — see Element Properties) |
| Ingredients | The ingredient list, built from the product's recipe (see below) |
| Allergens | The allergen statement you type directly into the element — never auto-filled (see below) |
| Custom Text | Any freeform text you type |
| Barcode | A UPC-A, EAN-13, Code 128, or QR code — from a saved profile or entered inline |
| Lot Number | The lot number of a specific completed production run — not the product (see below) |
| Best By Date | That same production run's expiration date |
| Lot QR Code | A scannable QR code encoding that same production run's lot number — for warehouse and customer-facing lot lookup (see below) |
Previewing with real product data
Select a Preview Product from the dropdown in the left sidebar. When a product is chosen:
- Product Name, Brand, Net Weight, and Company Logo elements update on the canvas to show the real values from that product and your business profile.
- The preview is for design purposes only — the actual values used when generating the PDF come from the product you select at export time.
Previewing Lot Number and Best By Date
Lot Number, Best By Date, and Lot QR Code don't come from the Preview Product — they come from a specific batch. Use the Preview Production Run dropdown (below Preview Product) to select a completed run and see its real lot number, expiration date, and a live QR code on the canvas. Leave it unselected to see placeholder content instead.
The Lot QR Code element always encodes just the lot number itself (e.g. LOT-MNG-2026-01) — the same value shown by the Lot Number element — so scanning it and looking that number up under Compliance → Lot Trace gives the full batch history. Resize it like any other element; it scales proportionally so the code stays scannable.
Where Ingredients and Allergens come from
- Ingredients is built automatically from the selected product's recipe — it lists the name of each recipe ingredient, and shows "Ingredients: " in front of the list. Ingredients are ordered descending by quantity (the largest-quantity ingredient first), matching the FDA predominance-order convention — note this compares raw quantity values and doesn't convert between units, so a recipe mixing e.g. kilograms and liters is only approximated. A product with no recipe (e.g. a resold finished good) shows no ingredient statement; recipes are managed under Production → Recipes.
- Allergens is never auto-filled from product or recipe data, by design. A missing allergen on a printed label is a recall risk — so rather than assembling a statement from data that may be incomplete (an ingredient product with no allergen info on file would silently be treated as allergen-free), you type the allergen statement directly into the Allergens element itself: select it and use the Allergens statement field in the Element Properties panel, the same way you'd type into a Custom Text element. It's saved with the template, so you don't have to retype it every time you open the builder — but if you reuse a template for a different product, remember to update the Allergens text to match, since it isn't derived from the product automatically.
- Net Weight shows the product's weight in the format
NET WEIGHT 12.3 oz (350 g), converted automatically from the product's Weight (kg) field. - Any text element containing the literal tokens
[Company Name],[Address], or[City, State ZIP]is automatically replaced with your tenant's business profile info (Settings → Company Profile) — this is how the default "Distributed by" text block works. It also comes with a Show "Distributed by:" label checkbox (in the Element Properties panel, shown only when the text starts with "Distributed by:") — leave it unchecked (the default) to print just your company name and address with no "Distributed by:" label, and check it only when the label is for a product manufactured on behalf of another company.
Moving and positioning elements
Drag to move — click and hold any element, then drag it anywhere on the canvas. It follows your cursor in real time.
Precise positioning — select an element and use the X, Y, W, and H fields in the Element Properties panel to set exact coordinates and dimensions in millimeters.
Drag to resize — a selected element shows three small blue handles: one on the right edge (resize width), one on the bottom edge (resize height), and one on the corner (resize both together). Nutrition Facts, barcodes, and company logos all scale proportionally as you resize them, so the content stays legible instead of getting clipped or leaving empty space.
Element properties
Select any element to see its properties in the left sidebar:
- X / Y — position from the top-left corner of the canvas, in millimeters.
- W / H — width and height in millimeters.
- Font size — text size in points (applies to all text elements except Nutrition Facts, Barcode, and Lot QR Code).
- Align — left, center, or right (applies to all text elements except Nutrition Facts, Barcode, and Lot QR Code).
- Weight — normal or bold (applies to all text elements except Nutrition Facts, Barcode, and Lot QR Code).
- Content (Custom Text only) — the text to display. Supports multiple lines and multiple spaces.
- Show "Distributed by:" label (Custom Text only, shown when the text starts with "Distributed by:") — unchecked by default.
- Allergens statement (Allergens only) — the text to display; always typed manually, never derived from product or recipe data.
- Nutrition Profile (Nutrition Facts only) — pick which nutrition profile to render in this element. Each Nutrition Facts element can use a different profile.
- Barcode Source (Barcode only) — pick a saved barcode profile, or select "enter value inline" and type the code type and value directly.
To delete an element, select it and click Remove Element at the bottom of the properties panel, or click the × button that appears on the element itself.
Layers panel
The Layers panel on the right lists every element on the canvas in stacking order (top of the list = front). Click any layer to select that element on the canvas.
Exporting
Choose Download PDF to generate a print-ready PDF of the label. The product and nutrition data used in the PDF are determined by:
- The product you choose at download time (via the Preview Product selector or from the product detail page).
- The nutrition profile assigned to each Nutrition Facts element.
Choose Download PNG or Download JPG to save the canvas as an image instead — useful for pasting the label into a listing, packaging mockup, or document that doesn't accept a PDF. The image is a snapshot of exactly what's on the canvas, including your current Preview Product selection, at the canvas's on-screen resolution (2x, for a crisp export).
Generating a label from the product page
You can also generate a label directly from any product's detail page without opening the builder:
- Open the product under Inventory → Products.
- Scroll to the Generate Label section at the bottom of the page.
- Choose a Label Template and, if your template includes a Nutrition Facts element, choose the Nutrition Profile you want to use.
- Click Download Label PDF.
The nutrition profile list is pre-filtered to profiles linked to that product, so you see only the relevant options.
Printing a label for a specific production run
If a template includes a Lot Number, Best By Date, or Lot QR Code element, generate it from the batch itself rather than from the product page:
- Open the completed run under Production Runs.
- Click Print Label.
- Choose a template, and if it includes Nutrition Facts, choose a nutrition profile.
- Click Download PDF.
Nothing about this is one-time — you can reprint the same run's label as many times as you need; it's generated fresh each time, not saved anywhere.
Can a product have more than one label?
Yes. You can create as many templates as you need and generate any of them for any product. For example:
- A "Retail Product Label" for individual units
- A "Case Box Label" (larger, with different information) for shipping boxes
- A "Plain Ingredient Label" (simplified) for internal production
Each template is independent. Select whichever one you need when generating the PDF.
Duplicating a template
Click the Duplicate icon on any template card to create a full copy — layout, dimensions, and all elements included. Useful for creating size variants or seasonal versions of a label without starting from scratch.
Using the builder on a tablet or phone
The Label Builder requires a tablet or larger screen (768 px wide or more). On a phone, the builder is replaced with a message explaining this — use a tablet or desktop to design and edit templates.
Tablets work well for the canvas. If you're working on a production floor tablet, consider installing Iraca as a PWA (see Installing Iraca on a Tablet or Phone) for full-screen access without the browser chrome.