How do I change the label size settings for my Zebra label printer?

If you’re having trouble printing thermal labels, this guide will be useful in the following situations:

  • Print takes up less than a full label
  • Prints out a blank label
  • Prints out over two labels

1. Calibrate the printer itself

The printer’s own calibration process only takes a few seconds. The printer will feed a few labels through without printing and will be “looking” for the “gaps” between the labels.

Zebra GK420D

With the Zebra GK420D printer, the quickest and easiest way to calibrate is to hold the green Feed button down. The light on the button will flash once then it will double-flash. Let go of the button after the double-flash and the printer will start to feed labels forward slowly.

Zebra ZD420

With the Zebra ZD420 printer, you simply need to press and hold the Pause and Cancel buttons for 2 seconds. Here is a video guide.

2. Check your printer settings

Before performing the steps below, you will need to know the width and height of your labels first. Ideally, you’ll be using our recommended label sizes, in which case the sizes can be obtained from Label printing and barcode scanning but if you’re using slightly different sized labels, please be sure to ensure the actual size of your labels (measure them if you’re not sure).

First of all, please follow the steps below for the version of Windows that you’re using (click to expand), and then follow the steps in “Subsequent steps for all versions of Windows”.

(We don’t have a guide for Mac at the moment, but please look for similar steps and post a reply below if you’re struggling and we’ll do our best to help.)

Initial steps for your version of Windows (click to expand)


Steps for Windows 10

Steps for Windows 10

Click on the Windows start button.

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Type Printers and Scanners. Select the item in the search results to open the window.

Select your Zebra printer in the list and click Manage.

Click Printer properties.

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Click Preferences….

Under Size, change the label size to match the with of your thermal labels. You can change the unit under Paper Format, if required. Click OK when you are done changing the label sizes.


Steps for Windows 8.1

Steps for Windows 8.1

Click on the Windows start button.

Type Devices and Printers. Select the item in the search results to open the window.

Right-click on your Zebra printer and click Printer properties.

Click Preferences….

Under Size, change the label size to match the with of your thermal labels. You can change the unit under Paper Format, if required. Click OK when you are done changing the label sizes.


Subsequent steps for all versions of Windows

Click Advanced.

Click Printing Defaults….

Under Size, change the label size to match the with of your thermal labels. You can change the unit under Paper Format, if required. Click OK when you are done changing the label sizes.

Click OK to exit the window. You’ve successfully changed the label size on your Zebra printer.


We hope this is useful to help ensure your labels print out correctly and please post below if you have any questions.