Print Brother labels from Excel or Google Sheets on a QL

You can print Brother labels from Excel or Google Sheets on a QL printer without building a P-touch database. Load the list, connect its columns to a label the size of your DK roll, tick the rows you want, and print through the Brother driver. A bulk run of address labels and a stack of shelf labels are the same few steps. No signup.

How it works

Every row in your spreadsheet becomes a label

sample-products.csv5 rows

	A	B	C
1	SKU	Product	Variant
2	00123	Linen tea towel	Natural
3	00124	Linen tea towel	Sage
4	A-203	Stoneware mug	Ash
5	A-204	Stoneware mug	Moss
6	A-205	Stoneware mug	Clay

5 rows5 labels

Your list, on a DK roll

Open the DK-1201 equipment label with the sample list, tick two rows and see how the batch prints.

Print a Brother batch →

Make a customer or stock list useful at the printer

A Brother QL tends to sit on a desk and do three kinds of jobs. The lists below are made up, but the jobs are common:

• Addresses on DK-1201. Your customer list is in a spreadsheet and ten parcels go out today. Each row becomes one 29 x 90 mm address label.
• Equipment IDs on DK-1201. The IT sheet has an asset ID, what it is and where it lives. Each laptop dock and monitor gets a label with its ID as a barcode.
• Shelf labels on DK-2205. The stockroom list has a shelf, its contents and a SKU. These need more room than an address label, so they go on the 62 mm continuous roll.

Here's the equipment list behind the asset example:

Two new things arrived at the shipping bench? Tick IT-0420 and IT-0421 and print those two. The rest of the office is already labeled.

Brother QL label examples you can open

Real renders from the editor with fictional data. Each one opens the same layout with its sample list loaded, so you can see a long description or a two-line address before you load yours.

Brother DK-1201 addressDK-1201, 29 x 90 mm. Name and address columns. DK-1201 equipment IDsDK-1201, 29 x 90 mm. AssetID, Description, Location columns. DK-2205 shelf labels, 100 mm longDK-2205, 62 mm continuous set to 100 mm. Shelf, Contents, SKU.

Die-cut DK-1201 or continuous DK-2205

DK rolls come in two kinds, and they change how you set the label size:

• Die-cut, like DK-1201. The labels are already cut to 29 x 90 mm on the roll. That size is fixed, so the design and the driver both have to say 29 x 90 mm. Don't set a die-cut roll to continuous in the driver.
• Continuous, like DK-2205. One long 62 mm strip. The width is fixed; the length is up to you. The shelf example is 100 mm long. Make it 80 mm or 150 mm if that suits the shelf, as long as the design and the driver use the same length.

This page is about QL printers. A QL-800 takes DK rolls up to 62 mm wide, so a 4 x 6 shipping label won't fit on it. The Brother label sizes page lists the other DK rolls.

Bring Excel, Google Sheets or CSV

Click Data in the editor and choose a tab. Upload reads Excel files (.xlsx, .xls, .xlsm), CSV and TXT directly, so there's no need to save a special format first. Google Sheet takes a published CSV link. Paste takes rows copied from a sheet. Whichever you use, put plain column names in the first row (Name, Street, City, State, ZIP for addresses).

For a customer address list, skip publishing the Google Sheet. Download it as CSV and upload the file, so the list stays private.

Map an address or an asset ID

1. Open https://app.mylabelmaker.com with the DK-1201 equipment label. The list above is already loaded. No signup.
2. Click Data and upload your own sheet, or load your Google Sheet.
3. Click the description on the label, then Variables, and pick Description. It becomes {{Description}}. Do the same for the location line.
4. Click the barcode, then Variables, and pick AssetID. CODE128 (alphanumeric) in the Format list handles IDs like IT-0412.
5. For addresses, start from the DK-1201 address label instead and bind the name and address lines the same way.
6. Step through the rows with next and previous. A 29 mm label is short, so watch the longest street name or description.

Select rows and copies

After an upload every row is unticked. Open Edit row, search for the asset, shelf or customer you need, and tick those rows. The bar counts them ("2 of 5 selected").

Click Print and set Copies. The number applies to each ticked row: two rows at Copies 3 makes six labels, and the editor spells it out as "Each of the 2 checked rows prints 3 times." Every ticked row gets the same count. Print this prints just the label on the canvas, with its own copies, when you only need to replace one.

Match the driver and print at actual size

A Brother QL prints through This computer in the top bar, which means through the Brother driver installed on your computer and the normal print dialog. Pick the QL, then choose the paper size that matches your roll: 29 x 90 mm for DK-1201, or 62 mm wide at your chosen length for DK-2205. Print at 100% with fit-to-page off.

If a label comes out sideways or shrunk, compare the orientation in the print dialog with the design. If the QL doesn't show up as a printer at all, it may still be in Editor Lite mode. The QL-800 setup guide shows how to turn that off and load the roll.