Complete QR Code Labels Overhaul

[tankerkiller125]

Right now the QR code labels are extremely limited, and I think that it needs correcting. Below is a list of key categories of things I think need correcting.

Labels for All
Labels for every type of item, location, etc. should be supported.

Layout Templates

• Should allow users to create unique templates for their specific labels and save that information.
• Should support multiple-templates
• Should have some pre-built templates (in both US Letter, and A4 sizes).

Options

• Should be able to configure what shows up on a label (just QR code, QR Code + ID, QR Code + ID + Write in line, etc.)
• MicroQR Code support (ability to print tiny labels for tiny objects)

In general, I really like the way Snipe-IT handles label generation, and I think it would be a good example to try and follow in terms of actual generation and options.

[icanc0]

How would a template be structured?

There's this library that does decently flexible PDF generation: https://github.com/johnfercher/maroto

My original plan was "code as templates", a simple function that takes in parameters + data and outputs a Maroto PDF. Except it's hard to make it pretty since we're directly manipulating PDFs. Considering the learning curve for Maroto, an extra dependency, and basically requiring a recompilation, I gave up on my last PR attempting to do this.

Any input on the overall architecture? We can do a custom generation workflow, but it's gonna be a lot of work. Wonder if Snipe-IT has something that we can learn from.

[tankerkiller125]

I've always been about to use F12 and edit the HTML and CSS for the barcodes on Snipe-IT, so I'm 90% sure it's just HTML.

Quite honestly I don't see the value in using PDFs for this, it's just an extra unneeded step IMO. But maybe there is a use case for it that I'm not aware of.

[victorhooi]

Are you sure about the HTML part? Or it's possible there's multiple ways to print labels in Snipe-It?

If you look at my comments in #55 (comment) - I added several screenshots there that walk through the user-flow for printing and customising labels.

If you go the Snipe-It demo page - and try to print a label it does appear (at least to me) to be a PDF file. I did try what you suggested (F12 - or opening up Chrome DevTools), and it does seem like a PDF file:

Or is there another method you were using to print labels in Snipe-It?

To my mind - a PDF is definitely superior when you want to actually print the output to paper/labels. You get better control over how things are positioned, as well as how they are rendered to the printer - which is pretty important for printed content.

Also, consistency/control over printing aside - a PDF file can be easily shared around, particularly to non-tech savvy people, and it's basically idiot-proof for them to get it wrong when printing =). (e.g. I output the labels I want printed, and send it to say, my parents, who know how to print a PDF file).

Finally, I find that despite best intentions, HTML/CSS and how it looks when printed can change between browser, or even between browser versions (e.g. I test between Chrome Stable, and Chrome Canary - and there are rendering differences. If you just want the text on a page, it may not be a big deal if say, the offsetting or the kerning change - but when you're printing labels, it may be the difference between half the text getting chopped off each label, or the label being entirely blank).

Having direct label printer support is also pretty useful, particularly at any kind of real-world scale - if you need to pump out 50 or 250 labels, you aren't going to sit there loading in label sheets to the manual feed tray, then peel off individual stickers from an A4 sheet - you're going to spool it to a label printer, then have them come out on a nice pre-cut roll ready to use. That's why Snipe-It and InvenTree have inbuilt templates or layouts for all of the popular label printers:

Even just at home - I find the Brother P-Touch labels invaluable for just pumping out ad-hoc labels quickly, without mucking around with loading in sticker sheets, or peeling them off, then worrying about wasting the other 23 labels on that sheet of paper.

And for a work context, real label printers (e.g. Brady) have much better resistance to fading, peeling, temperatures etc. (Had a fun time once, where we decided to be cheap, and use standard Brother office printer labels on some fiber/Ethernet cabling - it was near the hot exhaust side for some servers, and within 6 months, all the text had faded - which made the labels completely useless. Brady makes labels that are good for say, 15 years outdoors in UV.).

[icanc0]

I believe the original intent for PDF generation on the backend is so we can have full access to everything on the backend without going through a ton of APIs. PDF generation also ensures that the browser environment isn't going to affect how things are printed, it will print exactly what is shown on your computer.

We could also just use a templating system on the backend, but that comes with its own hurdles.

[tankerkiller125]

Are you sure about the HTML part? Or it's possible there's multiple ways to print labels in Snipe-It?

Maybe there are multiple options, I just tested and it's 100% raw HTML at least on the version I'm running (which honestly might be old at this point) Version v6.1.2 - build 10938 (master) and I don't see any options to use PDF in this version.

In general, regardless of PDF or HTML, in my view a template system for the page layout is 100% required to make it as easy as possible for people to get started with printing. It looks like the easy way to pull this off overall might be to use something like https://github.com/speedata/bagme to first create the page in HTML, and then convert on the fly to PDF.

[victorhooi]

Yeah, as mentioned, I simply tested on the Snipe-It public demo for the screenshots I attached to:

https://snipeitapp.com/demo
https://demo.snipeitapp.com/login

At time of writing it's version 7.0.7 build 14172 (ge50296870).

(I think 6.1.2 might be quite a few years old?)

I couldn't find any HTML label printing functionality - but not sure if I missed it somehow?

If you look at the Snipe-It issue tracker (circa 2018), you can actually see a bunch of issues about people complaining about the printing being off on their printers etc.

snipe/snipe-it#6161

but printed with a shift to the left on a different copier (both Ricoh copiers, both have the same settings, same tray, same browser, same version, etc)

You can see how this is an impossible situation for us to troubleshoot, right? If it prints fine on one and not the other, the issue is with the printer settings somewhere. That page is just HTML.

snipe/snipe-it#2555

snipe/snipe-it#3526

I assume this is around the time (2018-2020) when Snipe-It moved to PDF style label printing?

I do like the idea of a template system (although definitely get some out-of-the-box templates for the most common label brands - e.g. Avery/Brady/Brother - happy to contribute there, and do some testing for you with real labels).

Inventree has a pretty good writeup of how they do their label printing system:

https://docs.inventree.org/en/stable/report/labels/#extend-base-template

[saschabrockel]

Can somebody tell me how I can create QR codes in the current version v0.12.1 anyway? I saw this Reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1aqmgo0/feel_like_ive_been_looking_for_something_like/ where somebody has at least a label under the QR code but when I hover in the app to a QR code I have no chance to add any text.

I mean we have this label overview function but how can I really say I want a list of all locations for example and print them all at once? Am I missing something?

[danielrosehill]

@saschabrockel

That Reddit posted was me.

I used Ptouch Editor to format the labels.

It wasn't a very efficient process and could have been made better by connecting an API to a database and printing in batches but ... hey it worked.

Happy to answer any questions about the process. It was a hell of a lot of work but I got there.

[saschabrockel]

Oh damn... I want to do it for the locations like you did. How did you even find my post here 😄

Is it necessary to have a Brother Label Printer then? A friend would print them for me and I don't know what kind of machine he has.

[danielrosehill]

Haha. I was just trying to keep up to date with how the project is progressing.

Just wrote up an updated "how I did it" type post. It might help. You could do it without a dedicated label printer but if you have a large inventory it would be a bit of a PITA.

Another option (as I mentioned) is to go down the NFC route. In which case you could even potentially just use your phone to create the tags on the fly:

#163

[OBoudreaux]

I love the idea of being able to print location labels as well. Not so useful for "Office Shelf" but super useful for the mystery "attic box 21"

[tbgilbert]

I would be happy to support a bounty on this. Its the only thing I do not like about the package.

[dcnoren]

I'd also happily support a bounty on this. Is this possible?

[corwin007x]

If I may, would it be possible to define the sheet and label measures in non-freedom units as an option please?

[tankerkiller125]

You will use freedom units and you will like it!!!

All joking aside though, this is something we need to look into being a switchable thing.

[rickthegeek]

There are some Brother printers that connect directly to the network via Ethernet, can a label generation / QR function etc be added to directly print the asset label as the item is added? Sadly, I don't know enough about programming to do any work on this...

[OBoudreaux]

It would be nice to customize the text where it says "Homebox" to any text of your choice.

[TheCodeingPadawan]

There is one quick fix that would be good. The text needs to be black by default. Being an off black/gray may look nice, but thermal printers hate it. They have to try and dither to approximate the colour, and that kills the fine text and lines.

Just did it on a 4x6' label, with a Jadens JD-168BT label printer. The dithering made the id too light and spotty, and the text looks like the printer just gently whispered to the paper. The QR code, however, was perfect and crisp.

Further more, There also needs to be a function where if a ID is not yet set to an asset, Scanning the QR code should bring up a page to add a new asset with the ID of the label, Rather than just getting an error saying that ID is not found. This will allow you to print a bunch of blank labels to then add the data in as you go, sticking them to your things and then entering them into the inventory.

It would be nice to also have an option for random ID's, rather than sequential. In my opinion, It just looks better than having a bunch of zeros and then 1, 2, 3...