Barcode printing too small/tight for scanner to read it - Using Dymo LabelWriter 450 Turbo

[lmangs]

I have a Square for Retail subscription and am having trouble printing my barcodes. I've purchased a Dymo LabelWriter 450 Turbo with Dymo label 1738595 (3/4 x 2 1/2) - both compatible per Square, and am using my Mac laptop and printing via the Square dashboard.

The barcode is too small/too tight for our barcode scanner to recognize it. I've followed all troubleshooting steps here and continue to have an issue: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6093-create-and-print-bar-code-labels-with-square-for-retail HELP!

Two other side notes:

- I find it odd that Square recommends this label as it has a strip along the bottom of the label for file folders. Is there another label that someone has had success with for tagging retail items?

- I was on the phone with Square Support a little while ago and was told you're able to print labels from the Square app on our iPad in the Square Stand, although I've been told by my sales rep and implementation specialist that this is not the case and can only print from a laptop/desktop. What's the deal?

[AshleyK]

@lmangs Welcome to the Seller Community and thank you for this post! I've merged your post to an existing thread that may help get you moving in the right direction. It may be an issue with the paper itself, even though you said you purchased a Dymo label, make sure the barcodes aren't smudging or printing too closely together. 

I'm also curious if you're able to try printing a label on another size just to see if it will scan then. 

Also, to answer your question about printing labels from the app, you should only be able to do that via the Dashboard. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. I'm happy to keep working with you on this. 🙂

[lmangs]

Thanks! After speaking with Square Support, we figured it out. There are backend settings that can be updated to change the density of the barcode to make it scannable. Would love to share the steps as I think it would be super helpful for anyone looking to use the Dymo printer, but am not seeing the thread that you merged. Message & steps below. 

The engineering team found an article on the internet that gave the following troubleshooting for the bleeding effect on the label, likely causing the issue with scanning the barcode.

Dymo printers in particular have different quality settings and laser strength settings that can cause barcode images to look like they are bleeding, blurred, or otherwise make them unscannable.

If you are experiencing issues like this, they can often be solved in your computers default Devices and Printers settings by changing setting the print quality to "highest" and strength to "light" print density.

Windows

1. From the Control Panel, click View Devices and Printers.
2. Right-click on the DYMO printer and select Printing Preferences.
3. Click the Paper/Quality tab.
4. Click Advanced.
5. Change the Print Density to Light, click OK.

Mac

1. Click the magnifying glass on the top right menu bar.
2. Search for and open Terminal.
3. Enter the following text into Terminal:
   cupsctl WebInterface=yes
4. In a new web browser window, navigate to http://localhost:631/printers.
5. Select your DYMO printer.
6. Click the Administration drop-down menu and choose Set Default Options.
7. Change Print Density to Light, then click Set Default Options.
8. If prompted, enter your computer's admin username and password and click Log In.