# How to print unique QR code labels

A QR code label that's the same on every item can only tell you what something is. A label with its own code tells you which one it is. Here's what it takes to print them well.

## Why each label needs its own code

Give every item its own code, and a scan can open that exact item: when it was made, where it is, whether it's been used. One code repeated on every label can only open a page about the product.

## Make codes people can read

- **Never reuse a code.** Keep a record of every code you've handed out, so two labels can't clash, even years apart.
- **Don't count up.** Codes like 0001, 0002 are easy to guess and easy to mistype into someone else's item. Random codes avoid both.
- **Mind the look-alikes.** 0 and O, or 1 and I, are easy to mix up when someone types a code from a label. Leave them out of your codes, or print codes in a font that tells them apart.
- **Keep them short.** Eight characters in two groups of four, such as `HKT4-4K7Q`, are quick to read aloud and to type.

## Print a sheet at the right size

A4 sticker paper with 24 labels, each 63.5 × 33.9 mm, fits a QR code and a few lines of text, and works in any home or office printer.

1. Choose A4 as the paper size.
2. Print at actual size (100%) and turn off "fit to page", or the labels drift off the stickers.
3. Print one test sheet on plain paper and hold it against the sticker sheet to the light before you use sticker paper.

## Make the scan land on the right thing

Put a link in the QR code, not just the code, so any phone camera can open it. The page it opens looks the code up and shows the item it's attached to. When the label moves to a new item, attach it again and the same scan opens the new one.

## Or let Nomstash Labels do it

[Nomstash Labels](https://nomstash.com/developers) makes the codes, keeps them unique, prints them at home or prints and posts them for you, and finds the right thing when one is scanned. It's what labels every container in [Nomstash](https://nomstash.com/how-it-works). Make a test key in [API keys](https://app.nomstash.com/developers/api-keys) and try it now.

Source: https://nomstash.com/developers/unique-qr-code-labels