Last updated: 26 September 2026 · All guides
You do not need a thermal printer to start selling online. If you pack a handful of orders a day, an ordinary inkjet or laser printer works fine. The catch is paper: Flipkart and Meesho give you one label per A4 page, with an invoice filling the rest. Printed as it is, every order uses a full sheet. Put four labels on each sheet instead and you use a quarter of the paper.
Step 1: Make a four-per-sheet PDF
Open your label file in the Flipkart label crop tool or the Meesho label crop tool and choose A4 sheet: 4 labels per page. The tool removes the invoices and arranges the labels in a 2×2 grid, each one centred in its own quarter of the page.
If you have several label files from the day, add them all at once. The sheets keep filling up across files, so you do not end up with half-empty pages. Selling on both marketplaces? Crop each set, then join the results with Merge PDF and print everything in one job.
Step 2: Use the right print settings
- Paper size: A4. Some computers default to US Letter, which is a different shape and shifts the grid.
- Scale: Actual size / 100%. "Fit to page" shrinks the labels and thins the barcode bars.
- Orientation: portrait.
- Quality: normal, not draft. Draft or "eco" modes print grey barcodes that scanners struggle with.
- Double-sided printing: off.
Step 3: Choose plain paper or sticker sheets
Plain paper
The cheapest option. Print, cut along the middle lines of the sheet, and fix each label to the parcel with tape around its edges. Keep the tape off the barcode itself: shiny tape reflects scanner light and can make it unreadable. A transparent pouch stuck to the parcel is a neater alternative.
A4 sticker sheets, four labels per sheet
Self-adhesive A4 sheets divided into four labels are sold by most stationery suppliers. Each label on such a sheet is a quarter of A4 (105 × 148 mm, the A6 size), which matches the grid the tool produces.
Always do a test print on plain paper first. Hold the printed page against a sticker sheet up to the light and check that each label sits inside its sticker. Most home printers cannot print right to the edge of the paper, and sheet brands differ slightly, so it is worth checking before you use up a pack.
Inkjet or laser?
Both work. Laser toner is dry the moment the page comes out and does not smudge or run if a parcel gets damp, which makes it the more reliable choice for labels. Inkjet prints can smear if handled straight away and can run in the rain, so let the ink dry for a minute before cutting, and keep parcels dry.
When to move to a thermal printer
Cutting and taping takes a few minutes a day at low volume. As orders grow, that time adds up, and a thermal label printer starts to pay for itself: it needs no ink or toner, prints each label in a second or two, and the label is already sticky. The switch is simple because the same tools also produce label-sized pages. See how to set up a thermal printer.
Common problems
- Labels come out smaller than a quarter page: scaling is set to "Fit". Change it to Actual size.
- The grid is shifted down or sideways: paper size is set to Letter instead of A4.
- An edge of the outer labels is missing: your printer's minimum margin is larger than usual. Check the printer's borderless or margin settings, or use plain paper and cut.
- The barcode does not scan: see 8 common causes and fixes.