What is label design software?
Label design software is a software layer used to create and manage label layouts within a wider labelling process. Depending on the product, licence and integration, it may also support print management and data-driven printing. It remains separate from the physical printer or applicator.
Quick summary:
- It provides the label-design function as a software layer, separate from the printer or applicator that performs the physical production task.
- Additional software functions can include print management and data-driven printing, depending on the selected product, licence and integration.
- Variable-data needs, existing equipment and controls, changeovers and integration help define whether design alone or a broader software scope is required.
- A label printer produces physical labels for later use or wider process integration; it does not itself apply those labels to products.
What functions can label design software support?
Label design is the core function. The software provides the environment for creating and managing the label content that will later be produced by printing equipment.
Print management and data-driven printing can form part of a broader software requirement. These functions should be specified separately rather than assumed whenever label design software is requested.
The software scope should therefore state whether the requirement is limited to label design or also includes data handling, print management or integration with other systems. Physical printing and label application remain equipment functions. A label applicator handles the application stage.
What should shape a label design software requirement?
Define the software requirement around label content, variable data, existing equipment and controls, changeovers and integration. Loftware NiceLabel is one label design software option, but the required functions should be specified before the product is selected.
Variable data, existing equipment and controls
Start by defining which label content is fixed and which content is variable.
If variable data needs to feed the label during the printing process, data-driven printing becomes part of the software scope rather than a printer-only consideration. The requirement should identify the information the software needs to handle without treating the physical printer as the source of the label design.
Where the software forms part of wider labelling automation, the requirement should also define how data connects with the production workflow.
Next, identify the existing printers and controls that the software needs to work alongside. This establishes the boundary between the software layer and the physical equipment without implying that label design software performs printing or application.
Changeovers and integration
Record changeovers as a separate operational input when defining the software requirement. State which label design software or print-management functions, if any, need to form part of the required changeover process.
For integration, identify the systems or data sources with which the software needs to exchange information. This turns integration into a defined software requirement rather than a general project term.
The selected product and configuration then determine which of those software functions and connections are available.
How does label design software differ from a label printer?
Label design software creates and manages label content within the software layer. A label printer is the physical equipment that produces the label.
ALS Identify’s industrial label printers can print labels for later use or integration with a wider labelling process. They do not perform the same function as the software used to create or manage the label design.
Label application is another separate function. A system may combine printing and application, but that does not remove the distinction between label-design software, printing equipment and application equipment.
ALS Identify label design software for integrated labelling requirements
ALS Identify supplies and integrates label design software as part of wider industrial labelling requirements. Discuss the required design, data, print-management and integration scope with ALS Identify.
