Guide · Address labels

How to Print Address Labels at Home (Step by Step)

Printing your own address labels takes about fifteen minutes the first time and five after that. Here's the whole process — what to buy, how to get your addresses into shape, and the two printer settings that make the difference between crisp labels and a wasted sheet.

1. What you need

• A sheet of peel-and-stick labels. Sold at any office-supply store, most grocery stores, and online. The classic choice for envelopes is the 30-per-sheet address size — see our label size chart if you're not sure which to buy.
• Any home printer. Laser and inkjet both work; just buy the matching pack (it says laser or inkjet on the box).
• Your address list — on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in your head.

2. Pick your label size

For holiday cards, invitations, and everyday envelopes, the standard Avery 5160 size (1″ × 2⅝″, 30 per sheet) is right for almost everyone. Bigger mailings — padded envelopes and packages — call for the wider shipping sizes, and there's a tiny 80-per-sheet size made for return addresses. The full chart compares them all.

3. Get your addresses into a list

Each label needs a name plus the address lines under it. If your list lives in a spreadsheet, you're ahead of the game. If it lives on last year's envelopes or in a battered notebook, just type each one as a little block — name on the first line, street on the next, city and state on the last.

4. Make the PDF

Three ways to turn that list into a printable page, from fastest to most manual:

• Paste into a free tool. Our free label maker takes pasted addresses and gives you a print-ready PDF for one sheet — no sign-up, nothing stored.
• Keep a real address book. With a free Penmark account you keep up to 50 addresses in one place, tick the people you're mailing, and download the PDF — this year and every year after. Spreadsheets import in one step.
• Word mail merge. Built into Word (Mailings → Start Mail Merge → Labels), fed by your spreadsheet. It works, but expect to spend a while in merge-field settings, and keep good notes for next year.

5. Printer settings that matter

1. Paper size = US Letter. Label sheets are 8½″ × 11″. If the print settings say A4 or another size, the printer repositions or scales the page and the grid no longer matches the sheet.
2. Scale = 100% ("Actual size"). Turn off "Fit to page" and "Shrink to printable area". The PDF already matches the sheet exactly, so any scaling moves the labels.
3. Test on plain paper. Print the first page on ordinary paper and hold it over the label sheet against a light. Text inside the outlines? Move on. If not, use the clues below before printing on label stock.
4. Check loading and the paper guides. Load the sheet the way the tray marking shows (print side up or down), snug the guides against it, and don't send a label sheet through the printer twice.

If the labels don't line up

The pattern of the error is a clue to where to look, not a guaranteed cause. Check the matching items, then re-test on plain paper.

• Everything shifted by about the same amount: page alignment, margins, paper positioning, or a printer offset setting.
• Error grows farther down or across the sheet: scaling, paper size, incorrect template geometry, or feed variation.
• First column fine, later columns off: the wrong label format selected, horizontal spacing, or scaling.
• Different from one print run to the next: paper guides, loading, or feed consistency.

The 5160 guide has the same checks as a table plus what to inspect if the test still fails.

Related reading

• The Avery 5160 template, explained
• Avery label sizes: a quick comparison chart
• Make a Christmas card address list you'll actually reuse