Labels and printing

A label is created when you send a shipment. That is the step that hands the shipment to the carrier. Until then the shipment’s Documents section is empty. After a successful send, the label (and any other documents the carrier or a shipping rule created) appears on the shipment, ready to view, download or print. For every document type and print job, see Documents and labels and Printers.

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Get the label

Open Shipments, find the pending shipment and open it. The button at the top is Send shipment. You can also click Send on a pending row in the Shipments list. It does the same as Send shipment. Each sent shipment counts toward the shipments included in your plan. See Shipments and your plan below.

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View and download

On Documents, each row is one document. Click a row to open it. The ⋯ menu on the row has View, Download and Print. View opens the document in a window titled with its type (for example Label). Under the title you see the format, size and date. PDFs open as pages; image formats show as a picture. Download saves the file to your computer (for example label.pdf). You can print that file from your computer like any other file. That does not go through Zippendo Printer. In an order’s Shipments section, the ⋯ menu on each shipment card can also download the label (for example Label (PDF)) and the other documents.

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Formats and other documents

The Format column shows what the carrier or Zippendo produced: pdf, png, jpg, zpl or svg. A ZPL file is a set of instructions for a label printer, not a page you can preview. Download it for a Zebra-compatible printer. The Type column can show:

• Label
• Customs invoice
• Commercial invoice
• Proforma invoice
• Packing slip
• Certificate of origin
• CN22 customs declaration
• CN23 customs declaration
• Other

Packing slips and invoices are created when the matching options are turned on in the shipping rule (Generate packing slip, Generate proforma invoice, Generate commercial invoice). Some carriers send their own customs declaration with the label instead. If Documents only shows Label, nothing else was created for that shipment.

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Print with Zippendo Printer

Print and Print all do not open your browser’s print window. They send the documents to Zippendo Printer, a small app you install on the computer next to your printer. It prints on a label printer or a document printer connected to that computer. When it works, a message says how many print jobs were created (for example “1 print job created”). If it fails, the message says how many documents failed to print. The usual reason is that no active printer of that type exists. On a Pending shipment you can choose printers in advance: in the Printer settings section, click Configure. Until you do, the section says No printers selected yet. Add them so Zippendo knows where to send labels and documents. In the window, the label printer is the one labels go to when the shipment is sent. Open a printer and click the Jobs tab. The counts at the top are Pending, Processing, Failed and Completed. You can retry a failed job from the list. The printer shows Offline when Zippendo Printer is not running on that computer. Jobs wait until it comes back.

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Turn wide labels

You can’t turn a label in the preview. Turning is a printer setting: click Edit on the printer and switch on Rotate wide pages to portrait. The hint reads Turns landscape (wide) pages 90° when printing. Useful for wide carrier labels on portrait label rolls.

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Print automatically when a shipment is sent

On a shipping rule, click Configure on the Automatic printing card:

• Print labels automatically: Automatically print labels when a shipment is sent. Pick a Label printer.
• Print documents automatically: Automatically print documents (invoices, customs declarations) when a shipment is sent. Pick a Document printer.

The printer must be Active. If nothing prints, check the rule, check that Zippendo Printer is running, and look at Printer jobs.

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When sending fails

If the carrier does not accept the shipment, its status becomes Error and the button at the top changes to Retry sending. A box titled Shipment failed to send shows the carrier’s reason. Request logs shows what Zippendo sent to the carrier and what came back. Support may ask you for it. Fix what the message points at (the address, the product, or your carrier credentials) and click Retry sending. More help: Labels not generating. Sometimes the carrier accepts the shipment but no label comes back. The box is then titled Shipment sent with a warning and has a Fetch label button. Click it to ask the carrier for the label again. Don’t create a new shipment: that would send the parcel twice. Zippendo has no button to cancel a label with the carrier. You can Delete a shipment while it is still Pending. Once it is sent, treat the label as valid with the carrier. If you need another copy, print it again from Documents.

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Shipments and your plan

Each successful send counts as one shipment on your plan. Under Settings → Pricing plans, Current usage shows Shipments this period and how much of your included amount you have used. If overage is turned on, extra shipments are billed. If it is off, sending stops when you reach the limit. Downloading or printing a label again does not count as a new shipment. Sending does, and so does a Retry sending that works.

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Next

Field by field: Set up Zippendo Printer · Add a printer · Printer jobs · Auto-print · Shipment printer settings