Racquet Labels and printers and such

 # Printing is Hard

Actually, more accurately, printing sucks. *For so many reasons*. I can't believe it is 2026 and there is still not really good solution for making any of this stuff work. I initially settled on the Brother P-touch format because the labels are really great. They're the perfect size, they come in a bunch of colors to match tennis rackets, etc. But those printers are still finicky. They jam like any other printer. Changing the tape can be a hassle. Changing Windows print settings is even worse. Also, they just don't work with mobile devices. Well, they do... but only with their very limited app

Fast Forward to the last couple of weeks in tackling my desire to get more printing flexibility into StringBiz. The picture above is just a sample of the test prints made to get everything *just so*.

Firstly, I researched the options out there for common printer types, and label sizes and what other stringers might be using to print labels. It seems the Zebra/Dymo/Brother mailing label printers are the top dog for their flexibility, so I went down that path. I got myself an inexpensive model and went to town.

First, I just wanted to replicate what I had for the P-Touch QR labels with a similarly sized 1x3" thermal label, and when I was able to get that to more or less work, I decided to add a ton of flexibility... and then I extended that to job slips as well, for those of you that want to have a hard copy to keep with your customer's racquets. Since no two users have the same needs, I added the ability to get super custom with all of these labels.


Use a preformatted size, or add your own custom size, and then choose whatever you want to put on the label. You can even use two-columns and just about squeak all the info you need onto a 1"x3" label as long as your eyes are good enough


The font will automatically scale to fit whatever you've chosen onto your label, small size be damned.

*On the other hand*, you can choose 8.5x11 (letter) or A4 size for a bit of an Easter egg. Job slips will print full packing list style output


Great for technicians who might ship racquets to players for custom jobs and such and want to have all the info on the invoice in one easy place.

So, do let me know if you like the system or if you're using it. I still haven't solved mobile yet, but everything I've looked at seems to be that it comes down to getting an **Airprint** capable printer, and using that as the solution. In that way, nothing changes on StringBiz, you can just use it natively. I'll look to get one, and that will be my 5th printer to test...