Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with labels

Bulk printing for bottle labels

echo target — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:26:13 -0800

Looking for recommendations for a bulk printing shop for liquor bottle labels. I'm looking for a good print shop to do some labels for a microdistillery. It'll be a run of about 2000 labels to start with. I'd like to get 3.5x6" or so, and I'd very much prefer roll stock rather than sheets. I'll also want to order online, of course.

Can you tell me about your print shop experiences? Good, bad, or just okay.

I'm comfortable with the design end and I should have no trouble matching whatever file requirements the shop has.

I want my right-side Gmail labels back

flabdablet — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:30:46 -0800

Are there any Google insiders here who can persuade the Gmail team to reinstate right-side labels? Google broke Gmail for me a couple weeks ago, screwing labels up by (a) hiding most of them by default and making it so you have to Do Stuff to get them all visible again and (b) removing the Right-Side Labels feature from Labs.

There's been a torrent of protest about the loss of the old functionality (e.g: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) but no sign visible to me that Google is moving to reinstate any of it, and no evidence that I can find to back up Google's claim that they're getting more positive feedback about their new label features than negative feedback about breaking right-side labels.

Are there any MeFites with an inside track to the Gmail team, who could gently let them know that suddenly breaking things with no warning is edging dangerously close to Being Evil?

Not really interested in user script workarounds. I just want Gmail to be configurable to work the way it did before, with all labels visible on the right-hand side of the screen, on any browser anywhere.

Is Protestant considered a derogatory label?

snachodog — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:26:53 -0800

Is the name/label "Protestant" generally considered derogatory by non-Catholic/non-Eastern Rite Christians? My fiancée is Assemblies of God. I was raised Catholic and have always referred to n-C/n-ER Christians as Protestant, and this is the first time that I've heard that Protestant is deregatory.

Make my fantasy a reality!

val5a — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:58:43 -0800

Help me find classification stickers for library books, specifically for "fantasy" books. Librarians and friends of libraries everywhere: I am searching for online stores where I can purchase classification stickers for library books. Specifically, I am looking for stickers for "fantasy" books. You know, the kind you see on the spine of a book or somewhere on the cover. They usually have the text "Fantasy" and a picture of a wizard or a unicorn or some other magical being. I am prepared to buy stickers in bulk because this is for an art project that will involve multiples. I have already found the Gaylord Brothers store. Are there any others?

Recurring text box in Word?

Shepherd — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:03:17 -0800

I need to make a sticker sheet in MS Word updatable -- all the stickers on the sheet look the same, but if I type "Q" in the first sticker, "Q" will appear on all the other stickers. Is this possible? Working on making an Avery-compatible label sheet for a company that only sells eight different things, but in a range of varying sizes. So ideally, he'll be able to print label sheets one sheet at a time, with the same product type on every label on the sheet (say, GRAPPLEGROMMET ALPHA), and then a space to the left of the first GRAPPLEGROMMET ALPHA sticker, where he can type an XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL or XXL and see every other sticker on the sheet update automatically.

Idea being this saves (a) the time-consuming process of typing S on every single sticker on the sheet when he needs a bunch of "S" stickers for GRAPPLEGROMMET ALPHA, and (b) saves the time-consuming process of doing that ourselves, and then creating 64 label templates when all we really need are 8.

I would think that there's a simple way of doing this, but everything I look at veers abruptly into Visual Basic programming and odd form-driven functions that don't really work. Is there some way of just making a text box whose contents will be copied in linked text boxes across the same document?

What indie labels should my band pursue?

thedaniel — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:20:58 -0800

What indie labels should my band pursue? My band just finished an EP, and we're trying to figure out promotion / licensing. There are a million and ten labels out there, and it's hard to know just which ones to send copies of the record to. I won't link directly to the band in the question, because I don't want this to seem like a post to promote the band, but if you want a link, you can mefi mail me (or do minimal sleuthing).

Our sound is pop-rock, very slightly proggy, and fun. Some people have compared our sound to The Faint, Muse, The Killers, etc. If you have any suggestions for small indie labels that I should court, please share.

Save me from a night of ctrl c ctrl v

demon666 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:11:12 -0800

Label Printing Pros: I need help coming up with the most efficient way to print a series of labels. I need to print a series of labels for some specimens. There are 90 unique sample sources. Each unique sample will be split up into 35 or so pieces. I would like to be able to load the blank labels into the printer, and have them print out in order.

Here is an example of what the labels for one sample would be:

Project Name
Sample #
Date / Identifier

Throughout the entire 3150 label series, the project label would stay the same. The date would need to be one of 5 dates. The sample number would change every 35 labels. The identifiers will be varied, but each sample number will contain the same number of occurrences of each identifier.

Is there a better program for doing what I want to do than something in the Microsoft Office Suite? My current plan involves a lot of copying and pasting, and I'd like to avoid that.

Help me find old-school decals!

fracas — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:08:53 -0800

What are these labels/decals called? Where can I get some? I occasionally see a particular type of label on old typewriters and other vintage made-of-metal objects. They're often used to identify a dealer, seller, or service center, and they're sometimes obscenely beautiful: intense reds, shimmering metallics, and distinctive period layouts.

Some of them appear to be waterslide decals of some sort, but they're a lot thicker and more durable than what I used to put on model airplanes when I was a kid. I want some, but I don't want to print out crappy inkjet approximations -- I want the real deal!

I assume that somewhere there's an old-school print shop that would know what I meant if I called and asked for [some of those old decals that they used to use to identify the local Royal service center in the 1930s]. But what do I ask for, and who do I call?

Examples here and here. I assume that the "Royal" lettering is of the same ilk, just clearcoated, right?

I'm in Chicago, but getting the real thing is more important than where I get it.

Thanks!

Really, I've culled a lot out already.

Medieval Maven — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:58:37 -0800

Organization Filter: How do you organize a bunch of definitely weird and sometimes incredibly disparate STUFF? Or, theater filter. I have at this point a few bins of stuff from the theater that I'm trying to store/sort/use-reuse-recycle better than currently. Our biggest problem is that we are all the time losing things and rebuying them and then finding them. We are gypsies, essentially- we pack into our rehearsal/staging space 2x/year and then we pack out. Everything is stored in our garage. Here are our categories so far:

Kitchen & Concessions - coffee urn, tea, chips, nonperishable foodstuffs, signs, baskets, paper plates, etc.

Craft - hot glue, spray paint, that sort of stuff

Set and Tech - electrical stored separately, tools, fasteners, odds and ends from construction

Makeup & Costume - make up that is reusable, hairspray, curlers, shoes, wigs, and so far five Shakespeare casts' worth of costumes

We are making a costume closet in a storage space in the house, so the clothes are covered and the wigs all have wig boxes. Our biggest issue is losing track of the small items in the bigger bins. We need a system wherein we lose much less of those small things but also store stuff in a very portable way. That's why we have the bins going. We are open to non-bin solutions. Ziplock bags of stuff in the larger bins tend to get lost under bigger stuff (hammers, rope, hair dryer, etc) - I am not sure if better control of the bigger items is really the solution or not. We have thought of posting lists on the outside of the bins, but I am afraid of bin-list upkeep. Ideas?

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books?

Flunkie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:27:32 -0800

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books? A while back, I took the plunge into a big project that I've wanted to do for a long time: organizing my books. My plan went like this:

First, separate books by their physical height, into four groups: (1) Bigger than will fit (standing) on any of my shelves; (2) Smaller than that, but bigger than will fit on any but my largest shelves; (3) "Normal"; (4) Mass market paperback and smaller. This allows for minimal wasted shelf space.

Second, within each of those four broad categories, look up the Library of Congress call number for each book, write it on a piece of masking tape, stick it on the spine, and store the books in that order.

If I couldn't find the LCCN for a particular book, I would classify it under the LOC system myself, to the degree that I was reasonably confident, additionally marking it so that I would know the number on the book's spine was not official.

This was a fairly tedious process, so I would only do a few books at a time, and it therefore took quite a while. But, in general, I am happy with the results, and want to keep my collection this way. I am quite willing to keep tagging my new books as I obtain them

Unfortunately, by the time I was finishing up, the labels on the first books that I dealt with were already fading, some of them to the point of illegibility.

So, I want to do this again. But I want to do it in a manner such that I'll never have to do it a third time.

I don't know whether the fading was due to the ink that I used, the tape, both individually, or both in combination.

So, what should I use?

In addition to the permanency of legibility, I would also like the label to be something that, like masking tape, stays on well, but comes off easily and cleanly if you want it to, without damaging the book or leaving significant residue.

Finally, I've read some other AskMe posts about organizing bookshelves that showed up when I searched for this, and I'm already well aware that a lot of people think this is overkill and/or a waste of time. So if you were going to chime in with that, thanks, but not interested. I know exactly what I'm getting into.

What kind of labeler should I buy

alms — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:00:14 -0800

Should I buy a stand-alone labeler (with built-in keyboard) or a labeler that attaches to my Macintosh? Recommendations for specific models would be great. Yes, I'm reading Getting Things Done. That means I want a labeler that is very easy to use. It should have low overhead for making "just one label that I need right now" as well as for making a set of thirty labels when I reorganize my files. Maybe I'd use it for spice jars and christmas letters, too, but that's less important.

It should be plug-in, not battery-operated, and it should take up a minimal amount of desk space.

Thank you for helping me reclaim my file drawers, and along with them the rest of my life.

Label problem in Blogger

GaelFC — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:33:42 -0800

How do I get Blogger to show more than 20 posts with the same label? I suspect this is a simple question, but I searched through Blogger Help and couldn't figure it out.

I have a family recipe blog that uses Blogger. I've set it up to show all the labels automatically on the front page. It automatically tells me how many recipes (posts) I've tagged with each label, for example: "Chocolate: 10."

But for the labels that are used more than 20 times, I run into trouble. The automatic list says, for example, "Main courses: 36." But when I click on that label, only 20 are shown.

Is there any way to get it to show all 36? Or a workaround? I've tried tagging my newest posts all with "new," but that's not really what I want.

I thought I read somewhere that this was a known bug that would be fixed, but I'm sure that was over a year ago.

Thanks for any help.

How do I make professional-looking homemade lip balm labels?

starsnstars — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:39:11 -0800

How do I make semi-professional, waterproof labels for handmade lip balm tubes? I am looking for a way to make labels that will fit on .15oz (4.25g) lip balm tubes. The labels need to be approximately 2 X 2 inches, have permanent adhesive to stay on the plastic well, need to be water resistant so the ink does not rub off, and have the ability to print on an ink jet printer. I have tried Avery 6572 Permanent labels, however the ink smeared and rubbed off the label. I then tried Avery 6578 Durable I.D. labels that are water-resistant, then I realized they were for laser printers only and will not work on my ink jet printer. I am seeking the most effective, best-looking way to create a durable label for the lip balm I make or an attracive, professional way to water proof permanent labels. I appreciate any suggestions.

StupidExcelQuestionFilter: Adding x and y axis labels

peacheater — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:59:36 -0800

How do I add x and y axis labels to a chart in Excel 2008 for Macs? I've been trying to do this for about an hour and am just about ready to tear my hair out. The whole thing should be ridiculously simple but I'm just not seeing it. So I have two columns of data which I want to plot against each other. So I did that. Now I want to add an x axis label and a y axis label (e.g. 'Voltage' and 'Time'). I just can't figure out how to do it. No matter where I click on the chart the box for adding these labels doesn't open up. There doesn't seem to be any way to do this from the menus on top either. I'm sure I'm just missing something obvious, so would really appreciate it if you could help me out.

Putting the hyphen in "anal-retentive"?

melorama — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:05:18 -0800

Is this an acceptable format for writing out a business address on a mailing label? Is this an acceptable format for writing out a business address on a mailing label?

334 Main Street 312

IOW, "312" is the number of our office suite.

I maintain that by not adding a "#" or "Suite. " before the 312, it's potentially confusing to some people who may tend to "skim" through visual data like this.

My coworker, on the other hand is adamant--to the point of being really fucking annoying about it--that there should be no pound sign or "Suite." designation before the actual suite number. If he sees that I've printed a mailing label with a pound sign before the suite number, he tells me to print the label again, without the pound sign, or even goes out of his way to print up a "correct" label himself, and re-doing my work.

The funny thing is, *I'm* supposed to be the one who is more savvy at design and typography than he is (although I don't claim to be a designer or typographer by any stretch of the imagination. I just have a more educated/geeky appreciation for these things). And I can understand being aesthetically anal when it comes to your own personal business cards and whatnot, but these are fucking mailing labels and videocassette labels that are delivered to TV stations, generally to people who give two shits about typographic style.

Any copywriters and/or typographers here care to set me straight?

How to best manage a physical mailing list?

LongDrive — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:15:34 -0800

How to manage an unwieldy mailing list (for physical mailing) on a Mac. I use an opt-in mailing list that I use to send out promotional mailings from my business. This is a physical mailing list that I print labels from through Indesign. I have been maintaining these databases using the new Numbers software from Apple (because my both myself and my lovely Mac do not get along with Excel).

Every few weeks I am sent an updated master list that has new contacts added, and deletes out of date ones.

I am looking for some solution that can compare my local edited copy with the new master copy, and update my local copy as required.

Something mentioned in this thread would be useful, but I am not collaborating with another person per se, rather being provided an updated list every few weeks by a third party. (fyi, this is not spam)

If budget allowed, I would love to hire a Filemaker or Excel guru to build a custom thing for me, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any alternative software for Mac that could possibly perform this function or simply better manage this list?

Pre-PowerPoint Technology?

pgoes — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:52:43 -0800

I have a set of brass letter tiles. What was their original purpose? This would be so much easier with a photo, but I don't have the tools for that, so I hope my description will suffice:

I have an almost-complete alphabet set of metal tiles, made of brass about the the thickness of a penny, and about 1" tall. The set includes numerals, blanks, and some punctuation marks. They resemble metal Scrabble tiles.

Each tile has a single letter pressed/cut in relief into the surface. The font is a very plain san-serif. The letter is not reversed, so they are not for printing.

The sides of each are straight, and the width varies with the width of the letter (no kerning). The top and bottom of each tile are slightly curved and beveled. They obviously would be sorted as words into a frame (not found yet).

There are several of each letter and they come in a plastic tray organizer. The tray had a fair amount of fine multi-colored 'dust' that felt like plastic or vinyl. So it looks like these were a sort of mold to make a sign or label.

Finally, I found these in the 'Business' department at my high school in a cabinet with mimeograph paper, infrared transparency paper, and other materials for graphic production of the pre-computer era.

How were these letters used, what else should I look for to use them as originally intended, and what creative uses could I otherwise turn them to?

What am I eating?

Challahtronix — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:41:17 -0800

What's in my food? can I trust labels? With the stories and paranoia over tainted food, and specifically Chinese imported additives of questionable origin (like the "wheat gluten"/melamine in pet food), how do I find out what's in my food or if the information on the label is correct short of using a bomb calorimeter and gas chromatograph? Is there a lab I can send stuff to and get an analysis for a reasonable fee? And how detailed or reliable is it? Google has led to places like Bodycotetesting.com and Microbac.com, but I have no idea how reliable, affordable, or accessible to non-commercial types they are.

Sorting by Year

petsounds — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:28:58 -0800

How do I add custom details to folders in Windows Explorer? You know how in windows explorer list view you can sort folders by details like Name, Size, Date Modified, etc. Is there any hack or way to add my own custom detail field? For instance i have a bunch of album folder and I want to make a field called "Year" so that I could sort them by year as well as name

That's a nice ____ in your garden

derMax — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:56:41 -0800

What's an inexpensive but durable way to label plants? In late May we planted out a bunch of cherished homegrown vegetable seedlings, each carefully identified with Sharpie marker on white plant labels. Then we went away for 3 weeks (asking our nice neighbor to water them if needed). There were several thunderstorms, we heard, while we were away. So, now most of the writing on the labels has washed off and can't be read. Some of the labels were snapped in two (we get some pretty bad storms here sometimes in der mountains). We know a plant is a tomato or pepper or whatever, but we were trying out a bunch of different varieties which we can no longer identify.

So, what can we use in the future for plant labels that won't fade or be blown off - something inexpensive (since we like to try out lots of different things) and reasonably attractive?

Photographic Memory pre Photography

brookeb — Sun, 20 May 2007 07:22:10 -0800

What term was used to describe a person with a photographic memory prior photography? Surely before the use of cameras and photography there were people who were able to remember faces, text and scenes with amazingly detailed accuracy. So what was this skill/talent called? Was there a term or did people simply say, "boy that person can sure remember faces, text and scene with amazingly detailed accuracy."

SQL query to get unique addresses from a list.

odinsdream — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:10:31 -0800

Access SQL Query - I have multiple individuals each with an address. I need to make mailing labels, but if two or more people share an address, I would only like one label. I have a database with student information. Each student record contains the student's first and last names, and their home address, among other details.

The customer wants to print mailing labels for each "family," a concept that the database has no built-in provision for.* So, I'm looking for a query that would simulate this idea of a family.

Criteria:
Though siblings will have the same last name, obviously last names could be shared between families. The best I can think of is to rely on the fact that siblings should have the same home address. Or, to guard against typos, at least the same street number.

How can I write a query to pull out unique street addresses?

* Alternatively, if you have any good ideas about how to implement the concept of a Family in the database, I'd love to hear some of them.

How to remove labels from vitamin bottles?

jbotz — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:00:48 -0800

I have good uses for white plastic (HDPE, recycling code 2) vitamin/supplement bottles, but the labels are hard to get off. Most solvents don't seem to work. Submersing in hot water for a bit and then scraping with a dull knife while glue is still hot works, but getting off all the glue residue this way is very tedious at best. Better ideas?

Major laymen meet major label

Slam I Am — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:09:01 -0800

Reasons for/against entering in to negotiations with a major label? Stories of effective and ineffective independent representation/promotion/publishing? Things to keep in mind during negotiations? Without going in to too much detail, I'm part of a group that has been approached by a major recording company. What's at stake here generally is a scene that's relatively untapped in terms of mass-produced records.

Personally my inclination is to tell them to get lost. If they think there's a market for what we do, we should organize and make it happen ourselves, keeping control and profits within the community, rather than helping some record company rep climb the ladder by breaking a new market.

But that's just me- overall, I'd love to hear arguments for and against such relations, stories of successful grassroots artistic community building, promotion and publishing, stories of unsuccessful same, advice and guidelines for both major label negotiations and independent label founding (and I realize the two aren't necessarily at odds), and any other thoughts/resources you have to offer. Thanks!

Revert to classic Google Image results?

cenoxo — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:54:24 -0800

As of today, my Google Images search results only show image thumbnails and their titles (screenshot). I have to mouseover individual thumbnails to see their pixel size, file size, and URL. All image info was visible yesterday, and no changes or updates were made on my end. What happened and how do I fix this?