Garden Center Loop Tags (Tree Tags)

Loop Tag Formats

There are three main formats of loop label.

Tag with holes to the right	Tag with holes on bottom (exits the printer first)	Tag with holes on top (exits the printer last)

These labels come in several sizes. The most common being 7 inch long by 1 inch wide, or 10 inch long by 1inch wide.

In this example you can see that even though the tag is 10 inches long, the actual printable area is only about 6 3/4 inches . 2 1/4 inches for the tear off, and 4 1/2 inches for the main tag. The rest is part of the loop. In this, you are limited to the width of the print head which is usually 4 or 5 inches wide.

In the case of the tags with the holes on the top or bottom, they usually come in a 4 across or 5 across configuration. Again, this is because most printers have either a 4 inch or 5 inch wide thermal print head.

Also, In most cases these labels are 1 inch wide regardless of their orientation. However, if you need loop tags that are wider than 1 inch, you would be limited to a 3 across or 4 across depending on the width of your thermal print head.

A Warning About Colored Stock

While colored label stock can draw attention to the label, it can have a big drawback as well. If you are planning to put barcodes on your labels, you will need to stay away from any mid to dark colored stock. This is because the barcode scanners are designed to read black markings on white stock. So the scanner will not be able to differentiate between the black print and the colored stock. Some colors to stay away from would be Dark Greens, Reds, Browns, Blues, etc. Light colors like Yellow, Light Tan, Light Gray, or Light Pink should work OK. An easy way to tell is to test by putting one of those colors on a photocopier and make a black and white copy. IF it barely shows up on the photocopied image, then it will be ok. If it comes out Gray it MIGHT work. But if it comes out Dark Grey or Black, it won't work.

You can see by the examples on the left and right here, that the tan and light blue stock might work, but the red definitely will not work as a barcode label.