Flipkart label printing cut off: find the fault in five minutes
Half a label, a barcode that will not scan, a label that prints the size of a stamp, or a run with blank pages in the middle: these look like one problem and are five. This page names each one, gives the check that confirms it, and the setting that fixes it — before the run rather than after the courier has left.
Re-crop from the original order PDFLabel size calculator4 × 6 print spec
A cut-off Flipkart label is almost never the crop box. The box is measured, the page is rebuilt around it, and the part that goes wrong is one of five things downstream: a source file that is not the layout we measured, a print dialog scaling the page, the invoice arriving with the label, a batch that lost pages or order, or a printer that will not put enough heat into the paper. Each cause below has the check that confirms it and the setting that fixes it.
Work down the list in order. The first two account for most cases, they take two minutes to check, and checking them stops you from re-cropping a file that was already correct.
Cause 1: the source PDF is 2-up or 4-up, so a one-label crop lands mid-page
Flipkart normally sends one A4 sheet per order: label at the top, tax invoice below the dashed cut line. Sellers who print two or four labels to a page — or who download a reseller’s 4-up file — get a sheet with two labels side by side, and the measured box only knows the left one. It starts at 185 pt and is 225 pt wide, so on a 595 pt sheet it takes the left label’s column and the space beside it.
The page-size check does not always stop this. A 2-up A4 page is still 595 × 842 pt, so it passes; a sheet smaller than 595 × 742 pt is refused with “This PDF does not match the measured Flipkart sorter size. Choose Custom crop margins for this file.” That message is the guard doing its job, and it is worth listening to rather than overriding.
- Check: open page 1 of the PDF and count the labels. Two side by side is a 2-up file; the crop will give you one of them and drop the other.
- Check: the output page count should equal the order count. If it is half, the source was 2-up or a page was skipped.
- Fix: for a 2-up or 4-up source, crop one label position at a time. Crop PDF with a page range takes the label area you select; Split PDF is the way to cut a mixed file before cropping each part.
Cause 2: the crop is right but the print dialog or driver scales it
This is the most common fault after a correct crop, because a PDF opened in a browser tab defaults to fitting the page to the paper. The output page is already the size of the stock: 288 × 432 pt on a 4 × 6 roll, 595.28 × 841.89 pt on A4. Any “fit” left switched on rescales it against the printer’s non-printable border, which moves every barcode module off the dot grid the head can actually print.
| Layout | Output page | Printed label width |
|---|---|---|
| Exact crop · original dimensions | 225 × 371 pt | 79.4 mm |
| Thermal · 4 × 6 inches | 288 × 432 pt | 88.1 mm |
| A4 · 4 labels per sheet | 595.28 × 841.89 pt | 88.8 mm |
| A4 · 2 labels per sheet | 595.28 × 841.89 pt | 88.8 mm |
- Browser: Scale 100% or “Actual size”, and “Fit to printable area” off. Chrome and Edge both remember the last choice per site, so check it again after a browser update.
- Windows driver: Paper size 4 × 6 in or 100 × 150 mm, Scaling None, “Fit to page” unticked. A driver set to A4 prints the 4 × 6 page in a corner, which reads as a crop failure.
- macOS: Scale 100%, “Scale to Fit” off, and the paper size set to the label rather than “Any Printer”.
If the label prints at about 33 mm wide, stop here: that is not a dialog scaling a correct page, it is the whole A4 sheet being fitted to the roll. See Cause 4.
Cause 3: the invoice page came along, or the pages came out in the wrong order
“Label + invoice separate” outputs two pages per order: the label first, the invoice second. Printing all pages to a thermal roll sends the invoice to the roll too, where it is fitted at 42% of its size and lands sideways-looking across the sticker — and then the next order’s label follows it. On a roll with a gap sensor this also produces the “half a label, then a mystery” print.
- Check: with the split layout, your page count is twice the order count. Label pages are the odd numbers.
- Fix: untick “Keep invoice” and crop label pages only, then print the invoice from the original A4 file on paper. The invoice is a GST record that goes inside the parcel, not on the sticker.
- Fix: if you print the combined file, print odd pages only in the print dialog, or keep the invoice off the roll with a page range.
One more ordering trap: “Sort orders by” reorders the output, so a batch that was sensible by courier will not be in order-ID order. That is a feature, but it means the page order you see is not the order you uploaded. The invoice method is covered in Flipkart label without invoice.
Cause 4: blank pages, duplicates, and merged files that reorder labels
The crop copies the pages it is given. It does not detect blank pages, it cannot tell two identical pages apart, and when several files are uploaded it merges them in upload order rather than by order ID. So a blank second page in the source becomes a blank label, the same file uploaded twice becomes double labels, and a set of files uploaded in the wrong order prints in the wrong order.
- Check: count pages before printing. The output count should match the orders you actually have, and every page should carry an order ID.
- Fix: remove blank pages first with Remove pages, then crop. If the source is a print-to-PDF of a screenshot, re-download the real label PDF from Seller Hub instead.
- Fix: upload each file once, and name them with the dispatch date or courier so the merge order is visible. Re-upload in the order you want, or sort by courier afterwards for the handover.
- Check: the “Keep invoice” checkbox is not a page filter — unticking it removes the invoice from the output, it does not delete anything from your file.
Cause 5: the barcode will not scan even though the crop looks clean
The crop can be geometrically perfect and the print still fail, because a scanner reads ink, not geometry. In the order they actually happen: the page was scaled (Cause 2); the print density is too low for the stock; the quiet zone was cropped away by a custom margin; the paper is wrong — inkjet or laser on glossy stock smears, and a direct-thermal printer needs direct-thermal paper, not wax ribbon; or the label was re-saved as an image and the bars lost their edges.
- Check: measure the printed barcode’s quiet zone. A Code 128 symbol wants ten modules of white either side — at 203 DPI, about 2.5 mm if a module is two dots.
- Check: print the same label at two densities and scan both. A density one step higher often fixes a label that scans at the desk but fails in the hub’s light.
- Check: scan from 10–15 cm with a phone camera in good light. A camera that needs to touch the label is telling you the bars are soft, not that the data is wrong.
- Fix: never “tighten the crop” around the barcode. The white is part of the barcode; cropping it is what makes a clean-looking label unscannable.
Prove it on three labels: the test print and phone scan
- Crop one page, not the batchOpen the Flipkart cropper with your original order PDF, set Pages to “First page only”, and use the layout you will print the batch on — Exact crop, Thermal 4 × 6 or an A4 sheet.
- Print three copies at 100%Paper size set to the label, scaling None, “Fit to printable area” off. Three copies because one gets measured, one gets scanned and one stays on the desk as the reference.
- Measure the width, then scan79.4 mm for Exact crop, 88.1 mm for Thermal 4 × 6, 88.8 mm for an A4 four-up. Scan the barcode with your own phone before you trust either number.
- Change one variable and reprintDensity, paper size, scaling or layout — one at a time. A label that changes twice in one print run tells you nothing about which change fixed it.
- Only then run the batchThe same settings on the whole file: up to 20 files and 100 MB per request, and the download link expires after 30 minutes, so print from the saved output rather than re-cropping.
If all three pass, the fault was in the settings and the batch will print the same way. If the width is right and the scan still fails, the problem is the printer or the paper — and no crop setting will fix it.
Where to go next
Re-crop from the original order PDF: crop a Flipkart PDF. What the roll output should measure and why it enlarges to 111%: 4 × 6 print spec (288 × 432 pt). The four-up A4 geometry if the sheet is the problem: four-up A4 layouts. Per-platform dialog names: how to print Flipkart labels. The same faults on the other marketplace: Meesho label crop.
Print fault questions
Why is my Flipkart label printing half?
The source is probably a 2-up or 4-up sheet — two labels side by side — so the measured 225 × 355 pt box takes the left label and leaves the rest. Count the labels on page 1 of your PDF. A page smaller than 595 × 742 pt is refused outright by the size check.
Why is my label printing smaller than the sticker?
Two causes cover most of it. “Keep invoice” ticked with a 4 × 6 layout fits the whole 595 × 715 pt order sheet to the page at 42%, leaving the label about 33 mm wide. Or the print dialog is fitting the page to the printer’s border. A correct 4 × 6 label is 88.1 mm wide.
Why is the barcode cut off at the edge?
A custom crop that tightens around the bars removes the quiet zone. A barcode needs about 10 modules of clear white on each side — roughly 2.5 mm at 203 DPI. Use the measured preset plus Thermal 4 × 6, which leaves 6.7 mm of paper on all four sides, instead of cropping to the ink.
Why do I get blank pages in the output?
The crop copies every page it is given and does not detect blank ones. A source PDF with an empty sheet produces an empty label page, and the same file uploaded twice produces duplicates. Remove blank pages before cropping, and upload each file once.
Why does the invoice print sideways or upside down?
The invoice half of a Flipkart sheet is landscape artwork below the cut line, and the split layout presents it as its own page. Set the driver to Portrait and print it on A4 paper rather than the 4 × 6 roll — a roll invoice is a 42% copy of an A4 page.
Does re-cropping fix a cut-off label?
Only if the crop box was wrong. Measure first: if the printed label is 88 mm wide, the crop printed correctly and the fault is paper, invoice pages or printer density. Re-cropping the same file with the same settings produces the same PDF.