Label stock
Lab label stock and sizes
The sizes and materials themselves, and what each one is for.
Two things decide whether a label works: whether it fits the vessel, and whether the material survives what the vessel goes through. The usable dimension is always smaller than the obvious one — a cryovial's straight barrel is much shorter than the vial, a thermal printer's print width is narrower than its roll — and the material follows from exposure rather than from temperature alone.
- Avery label sheets for the labA sheet of labels is a grid with a margin, and printing onto it correctly is entirely a question of not letting anything scale.
- Cryogenic label sizesCryovial label sizing is decided by the straight run of the barrel, which is always shorter than the vial.
- Thermal label sizesA thermal roll's width is fixed by the printer; the label length is fixed by the die. Everything else follows from those two numbers.
- 19.05 × 6.35 mm labels19.05 × 6.35 mmOne line, sixteen characters. At this size the question is not what to put on the label but what to keep off it.
- 25.4 × 12.7 mm labels25.4 × 12.7 mmExactly one inch by half an inch, and the size at which most people first discover that their naming convention is too long.
- 28.6 × 12.7 mm labels28.6 × 12.7 mmThree millimetres wider than the microtube label, for a reason that only becomes visible after a year in vapour phase.
- 38.1 × 19.05 mm labels38.1 × 19.05 mmThe first size with enough room to stop rationing characters, and the one most general-purpose lab stock is cut to.
- 38.1 × 21.2 mm labels38.1 × 21.2 mmA size decided by the page rather than by the vessel: 21.2 mm is what makes thirteen rows fit an A4 sheet.
- 50.8 × 25.4 mm labels50.8 × 25.4 mmTwo inches by one. If a lab has one box of blank labels in the cupboard, this is usually the size in it.
- 63.5 × 33.9 mm labels63.5 × 33.9 mmTwo and a half inches wide, and a height chosen so that eight rows fit an A4 page. The most-printed label sheet in most buildings.
- 63.5 × 38.1 mm labels63.5 × 38.1 mmFour millimetres taller than the 24-up cell, and that is the whole difference between 24 labels on a page and 21.
- 70 × 37 mm labels70 × 37 mmThree columns of exactly 70 mm is 210 mm, which is the width of A4. This size is the page divided by three.
- 76.2 × 50.8 mm labels76.2 × 50.8 mmThree inches by two. The first size where a label can carry a complete hazard communication rather than a reference to one.
- 99.1 × 38.1 mm labels99.1 × 38.1 mmTwo columns, seven rows, and a shape that came from envelopes. It turns out to be the right shape for shelves.
- 101.6 × 50.8 mm labels101.6 × 50.8 mmFour inches by two: the size a thermal printer is most likely to already have loaded.