Labels And Envelopes

Consider a document like this:

\documentstyle{letter}
\makelabels
\address{Joe Hacker\\
         Department of Economics \\
         University of Soutnern California \\
         Los Angeles, CA - 90089-0253 \\
         {\tt hacker@almaak.usc.edu}}

\signature{Joe Hacker}

\begin{document}

\begin{letter}{Name1\\
               Line1\\
               Line2\\
               Line3\\
               Tuscon, AZ 85721}
\end{letter}

\begin{letter} {Name2\\
               Line1\\
               Line2\\
               Line3\\
               LA, CA 90007}
\end{letter}

% As many more labels as you like

\end{document}

Then when you pump this file through LaTeX, you will get a document with atmost 10 labels per page. You can ask for [11pt] or [12pt] at the "documentstyle", it does not change the page formatting of this page.

These generated pages are decently setup for printing on mailing labels which are 2" x 4". You don't get a lot of control, but "it works".

I used Dennison PRESAPLY labels, product code 37-131. This is a box of 100 sheets, it costs roughly $22. It claims to be "for copiers" but I'm sure it'll work with laser printers too.

There are products out there which clearly state "for electric typewriter". These don't work in a copier or a laser printer.

Pick these up from csvax.cs.caltech.edu in pub/tex. There is a style sheet named labels.tex and it comes with a labels.doc.

This feels like a _very_ nice way to do the job. You get to control it in fine detail. It will work with any labels you might have.

You get to tell it what your labels-sheet looks like (number, placement and size of labels). You will have to carefully measure the dimensions of your labels-sheet and put the numbers into your TeX document.

Here is a production demo:

\input labels

\vlbls=3
 % there are 5 labels/page vertically
\hlbls=2
 % there are 2 labels/page horizantally

\vfirst=0.5in
 % whitespace between top of page and top of 1st label
\hfirst=0.25in
 % whitespace between left edge of page and left edge of leftmost label

\vinter=0in
 % whitespace between two labels, vertically
\hinter=0in
 % whitespace between two labels, horizantally

\vlblsize=2in
 % height of each label
\hlblsize=4in
 % width of each label

\vindent=0.5in
 % on each label, vertical space between top of label and
 % baseline of 1st line
\hindent=0.5in
 % on each label, horizantal space between left edge of
 % label and left edge of text of label

% OPTIONAL: always useful while previewing and useful with some labels
\lbloutline=0.5pt
 % this gives a half point thick outline around the labels.


% OPTIONAL: string put before each label:
\beforelbl={\line{---To:---\hfil}\smallskip}

% OPTIONAL: Center the label text
 % Horizantal centering:
  % \hindent=0pt plus1fil
 % Vertical centering:
  % \count255=\baselineskip
  % \vindent=\count255sp plus1fil

%
% End of incantations
% Now we put label text, seperated by newlines:

\beginlabels
Subrata Sarkar
Department of Economics
University of Soutnern California
Los Angeles, CA - 90089-0253

Prof. Mira Wilkins
Chair, Dept. of Economics
Florida International University
Miami, FL 33199

Dr. Roy Bhal
Director, Policy Research Center
College of Business Administration
Georgia State University, University Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30303
\endlabels

 % Alternatively, you could have said
 % \labelfile{filename} where the file just contains
 % names and addresses seperated by blank lines.
\bye

Note that you put this through TeX, not LaTeX. (Well, it might work with LaTeX, but I didn't try it).

In all, a great job. Thanks to Marcel van der Goot (marcel@cs.caltech.edu) for it.

The incantations above are all you need to make it work for 2" x 4" labels. If you setup a similar file for other standard label-sizes, please post your work (or mail it to Marcel (?)).

This is said to work with plain TeX. I have not tried it.

This was posted on comp.text.tex on 11 Oct 1991. It is supposed to produce labels 1" x 2 5/8" for the Avery 5160 labels. I have not tried it.

ajayshah at cis.rand.org

You could use stickers.sty in LaTeX by Mark Overmans, giving you a good control over labels. It is available from mail-server@cs.ruu.nl (also anonymous ftp). It gives you control over the numebr of rows/cols/size/offset etc. The only disadvantage is that is uses 1mm as unitlength so you cannot have finer control. (8 labels with a certain size below each other sometimes need better control than 1mm per label, but only if you want to be able to stuff them completely with info).

Gerben Wierda

>... The only disadvantage is that is uses 1mm as unitlength so you cannot
>have finer control...

Whereas 1mm is the unitlength, this does not mean that you do not have finer control. You can use floating point numbers like 1.35 in TeX. Internally, TeX converts all lengths to one unit (I don't know which, but you don't need to know).

Look in the LaTeX book on page 101 (section 5.5) and you'll see what I mean.

Nico Verwer