Trellis

Label printers

The label printers that work, choosing your label size, getting it connected, printing a test label, and printing with no dialog from a laptop.

Check-in prints a name tag for each child and a stub for the parent on a label printer. Labels print from the web browser, so there's no Trellis app to install.

Printers that work

Check-in prints on three kinds of label printer:

  • A Brother QL-820NWB with DK-2205 tape. It prints over Wi-Fi, from a laptop or an iPad, and costs about $150 with tape.
  • A DYMO LabelWriter with 30256 labels, or with 30334 labels for the smaller tag.
  • A Zebra desktop printer with 2.25 × 1.25 in labels.

Tell Trellis which one you have. Open Check-in, then Settings. Under Labels, pick your Label size, then press Save:

  • Brother QL, 62 mm tape: each label is 62 × 100 mm, its own page on 62 mm tape.
  • DYMO LabelWriter, 2-5/16 × 4 in: each label is 59 × 102 mm, on DYMO 30256 labels.
  • Zebra or DYMO, 2.25 × 1.25 in: a smaller tag, on Zebra 2.25 × 1.25 in labels or DYMO 30334.

The tags, stubs, test label and family cards all print at that size. Until you pick one, they print for the Brother QL.

What prints

For each child, a tag with:

  • your church's name, and the day and time, across the top
  • their first name, large
  • their last name and room
  • "ALLERGY: peanuts" in a black block, when they have one
  • the family's code

For each family, one stub for the parent, with:

  • the code, large
  • each child's first name and room (the small label leaves the rooms off)
  • "Show this to pick up. Keep it until you do."

The stub has no last names, allergies or notes, so a dropped stub tells a stranger nothing.

A very long allergy is cut short with "…" on the tag, and the room's roster shows all of it.

On the small label:

  • The tag's first name gets smaller as it gets longer.
  • The allergy takes at most two lines.
  • When a family has more than three children, the stub reads like "Mateo, Lucia and 3 more".
  • The family card has no note.

A family card is one label, at your church's label size. It has your church's name, the family's name, a QR and the card's code, and no children's details. See Self check-in.

  1. Open Check-in, then Children, and pick one of the family's children.
  2. Under Family card, press Print the card. If the family has no card yet, press Make a card first.

It prints the way the tags do: with no dialog on a laptop set up for it, or from the print sheet on an iPad. If it says "The card didn’t print. Check the printer, or make a new card.", check the printer first. If the printer is fine, press Make a new card and print that one.

Set up the printer

  1. Load the tape or labels for your size: DK-2205 tape, DYMO 30256 labels (or 30334), or 2.25 × 1.25 in labels.
  2. If the printer has Wi-Fi, put it on the same Wi-Fi as the laptop or iPad, following the maker's own setup steps. A printer that plugs in by USB connects to the laptop with its cable.
  3. On a laptop, add the printer in the computer's printer settings, with the maker's driver if it asks for one.
  4. In the computer's printer settings, make the printer's default label the same size as the one you picked in Settings.
  5. Print a test label.

At the station, press Print a test label in the bar at the top. A sample tag and stub print, for "Test Child" with the code TEST, at your label size. Once a test label has been sent to print, the bar says Printer ready on that laptop or iPad. That doesn't mean the printer is on now.

You can also print one from Settings: under Labels, press Print a test label, then Print.

On a laptop, Chrome can print each check-in's labels with no print dialog. Make the label printer the laptop's default printer, then start Chrome with --kiosk-printing:

  • On Windows, right-click Chrome's shortcut, choose Properties, and add --kiosk-printing to the end of Target, after a space. Open Chrome from that shortcut.
  • On a Mac, quit Chrome, then open Terminal and run open -a "Google Chrome" --args --kiosk-printing.

Use that Chrome for the station only, since it prints everything without asking.

On an iPad

An iPad shows its print sheet each time the station prints, so each check-in takes one extra tap on Print. For a busy door, a laptop is quicker. At a self-serve station, the parent makes that tap.

Before you buy a printer for an iPad, check the printer's box or the maker's page for AirPrint.

If the labels don't print

  • The check-in is saved anyway. If the labels couldn't be sent to print, the station says Saved. The labels didn't print, with a Reprint.
  • The station can't tell when the printer is off, out of tape, off the Wi-Fi or unplugged, or when someone presses Cancel on an iPad. If nothing comes out, fix the printer, then press Reprint on the green card, for 25 seconds after the check-in. After that, open the family and press Reprint tag beside the child. Someone from the office prints the stub with Reprint stub.
  • Check the printer is on, has tape, and is on the same Wi-Fi, or plugged in.
  • If a label comes out cut short, or one tag prints across two labels, the printer's label size usually doesn't match the one in Settings. Change one so they match.
  • Print a test label.
  • At the station and on the roster, Reprint tag prints the tag only. A lost stub is reprinted at the station by someone from the office, with Reprint stub. See A lost stub.

Next

Still stuck? Ask Silas

Read next