Label & printing settings
Breww's Label & printing settings page controls what appears on the labels Breww generates, how barcodes are produced, and the paper size used for the PDFs Breww creates.
You'll find it under Settings -> Label & printing settings -> General label & printing settings. You need the Settings permission to open it.
The labels these settings control
| Label | What it is |
|---|---|
| Stock label | Generated during a packaging, or in advance of packaging from a planned packaging |
| Delivery label | Generated for a specific delivery, for the individual items in that delivery |
| Permanent container label | The fixed label on a tracked cask or keg, carrying its permanent barcode |
| Pallet label | Generated for a pallet, carrying its barcode and a summary of its contents |
Stock labels can use your own custom stock label templates. Some of the display settings below only apply when a container type is using Breww's own built-in template. Each one says so where that's the case.
Display settings
Business name to show on stock, delivery & pallet labels
The business name printed at the top of your labels. It's set to your business name when your account is created.
A site can override this. If a site has its own label display name, batches created at that site (and pallets stored there) use the site's name instead of the value here.
Delivery label footer message
A short note printed at the bottom of delivery labels, for example "Do not move this cask/keg". Limited to 30 characters.
Stock label footer message
A short note printed at the bottom of stock labels, for example "Store below X degrees". Limited to 50 characters. This is also available to custom templates as the label.footer_message variable.
How should the gyle/batch number/reference be shown on labels?
Choose between:
- Batch number only (the default), printing
Batch: 1234 - Batch number and batch reference, printing
Batch: 1234 (Reference) - Batch reference only, printing
Batch: Reference
If a batch has no reference set, Breww falls back to printing the batch number, whichever option you choose.
Best before date display format
Choose Full date (the default) or Month and year only. This applies to both delivery labels and stock labels, wherever a best before date is shown, including custom templates.
Display best before on stock labels
On by default. This shows the best before date on Breww's built-in stock label template.
It also has a second effect that's easy to miss: when you print labels in advance from a planned packaging, Breww only suggests a best before date for you if this setting is enabled.
Display packaged on date on stock labels
Off by default. Adds the packaging date to Breww's built-in stock label template.
Display business name on delivery and stock labels
On by default. Applies to delivery labels and to Breww's built-in stock label template. A custom template that includes the business name variable will still print it.
Display logo on delivery and stock labels
On by default. Applies to delivery labels and to Breww's built-in stock label template. A custom template that includes label.logo will still print your logo.
Display returnable barcode on stock labels
Off by default. When enabled, the stock label for a tracked container includes that container's own code and barcode.
This is usually not needed. Turning it on means each printed stock label has to be matched to the right container, and your tracked containers already carry a permanent barcode that can be scanned instead.
Non-returnable and smallpack stock labels always carry a code and barcode, regardless of this setting.
Display the label number on stock labels (e.g. "1 of 10")
Off by default. Adds a running count to Breww's built-in stock label template.
Use the customer's details on stock labels for batches that you've brewed for others
Off by default. When enabled, a batch recorded as contract-brewed for a third party prints that customer's business name, logo and phone number on its stock labels instead of yours.
Barcodes
Barcode format
This is the format of the barcodes Breww generates for scanning:
- Advanced 2D (the default) uses an Aztec code. It resists damage and misreads far better and is what the Breww app and modern scanners expect.
- Basic 1D uses Code 128, for older or entry-level barcode scanners that can't read 2D codes.
The choice applies everywhere Breww creates a scannable barcode, including non-returnable and packaging barcodes on stock labels, permanent container labels, pallet labels, and the invoice barcodes on delivery labels, courier pick lists and delivery manifests.
It does not affect product barcodes such as EAN or UPC numbers, which are covered by the symbology settings further down the page.
Display product barcode on delivery labels
On by default. Includes the product's own barcode on delivery labels, where the product has a barcode number recorded.
Display product barcode on pre-packaging labels
On by default. When you print labels in advance from a planned packaging, the product's barcode is included automatically. You can still override the barcode on the print form itself.
Product barcode type on stock labels
Controls how a product's own barcode is rendered on stock labels:
- Don't display a barcode
- Standard barcode (based on product barcode type) (the default), rendered using the symbology settings at the bottom of the page
- GS1-128 (includes batch number and expiry date), which pads the product barcode out to 14 digits as a GTIN-14 and encodes the batch number and expiry date alongside it
This applies to custom stock label templates as well as Breww's built-in one.
Display GS1-128 on pallet labels
Off by default. Adds a GS1-128 barcode to pallet labels containing the GTIN (or EAN/UPC), batch code, expiry date and the quantity of whole products on the pallet.
Because the barcode has to describe a single consistent product, Breww only prints it when all of the following are true:
- The pallet holds exactly one product
- That product has one batch and one expiry date on the pallet
- The product has a barcode number recorded
- The product is not a mixed pack or a stock item
Non-returnable & smallpack stock labels
All non-returnable and smallpack stock in Breww is given a unique non-returnable code. This section decides which barcode gets printed on those labels, and therefore how scanning behaves.
Barcode content option
- Use the unique non-returnable code on stock labels (the default), for example
NR-100orSP-101. Scanning assigns that exact container or packaging. - Use the product and batch combination barcode on stock labels. Scanning assigns from the available pool of that product and batch, rather than one specific container.
Your choice here also changes the options Breww offers you when printing labels in advance from a planned packaging. See How to print stock (packaging) labels for how that works in practice.
Transition options
This extra option appears only when you've picked the product and batch combination barcode.
If you previously printed labels carrying unique non-returnable code barcodes but never scanned them to assign stock, the barcodes on your physical labels probably no longer match what's available in Breww. Enabling Treat unique non-returnable barcodes as a product and batch combination barcode if the non-returnable stock isn't available means that when one of those older barcodes is scanned and its specific stock has nothing left, Breww assigns from the product and batch pool instead.
Switching the barcode content option back to unique non-returnable codes turns this fallback off automatically.
General printing & document settings
Paper size
Choose A4 or US Letter. When your account is created, Breww picks the size typically used in your business address's country.
This setting reaches well beyond labels. It's used for the PDFs Breww generates throughout the app, including:
- Invoices, delivery notes and credit notes
- Price lists and customer account statements
- Purchase orders and goods-in documents
- Brew sheets
- Courier pick lists
- Equipment labels and trade store QR posters
- A4 and US Letter label sheets
Paper label sheet settings
These settings apply only to paper label sheets printed on a normal desktop printer. Thermal labels don't use them at all.
There are two independent blocks: one for stock & delivery labels, one for permanent container labels. Each works the same way.
Loading a preset
The Load preset dropdown fills in all the measurements below it for a known label sheet:
- Stock & delivery labels: Avery J8165 A4 sheets
- Permanent container labels: Avery L7063 A4 sheets or Avery 64503 US Letter sheets
Loading a preset only fills the fields in. You still need to press Save.
If you're using a different sheet, choose Custom and enter your own measurements.
The measurements
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Top margin (mm) | Space above the first row of labels |
| Left margin (mm) | Space to the left of the first column |
| Center column width (mm) | The gap between one column of labels and the next |
| Horizontal label spacing (mm) | The gap between one row of labels and the next |
| Label padding (mm) | The space between the text and the border of each label |
| Max. labels per sheet | How many labels are placed on a sheet before starting a new one |
| Labels per row | How many labels sit side by side |
| Label height (mm) | The height of a single label |
| Label width (mm) | The width of a single label |
Labels per row is fixed at 2 for stock and delivery labels, so the max labels per sheet must be divisible by two. For permanent container labels you can set it yourself, with a minimum of 1.
Testing your measurements
Each block has an eye button that generates a test PDF. It uses the values currently on screen, so you can try a measurement before saving it. Print the test PDF onto a real sheet of labels and check the alignment.
Barcode symbology
You won't typically need to change these. They control how a product's own barcode number is drawn as an image.
| Setting | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Symbology for GTIN-14 barcodes | Interleaved 2 of 5, Interleaved 2 of 5 - tall, Code 128 | Interleaved 2 of 5 |
| Symbology for EAN (13) barcodes | EAN, Code 128 | EAN |
| Symbology for UPC barcodes | UPC, Code 128 | UPC |
| Symbology for EAN-8 barcodes | EAN-8, Code 128 | EAN-8 |
| Symbology for other product barcodes | Code 128 | Code 128 |
Breww decides which of these to use by looking at the barcode number itself. A number that is 14, 13, 12 or 8 digits long and is a valid GTIN uses the matching setting above; anything else uses other product barcodes.
These settings also decide whether a barcode number you type onto a product is accepted as valid, so a number that can't be drawn in the chosen symbology will be rejected.
Which settings apply to custom stock label templates?
If a container type, drink or product uses one of your own custom stock label templates, your template decides the layout, so the settings that simply show or hide a piece of information on Breww's built-in template no longer apply.
Still applied when using a custom template:
- Business name to show on labels, and the site and contract-brewing overrides
- Stock label footer message
- Gyle/batch number/reference display option
- Best before date display format
- Display returnable barcode on stock labels
- Product barcode type on stock labels
- Barcode format
- Barcode symbology
Only applied to Breww's built-in stock label template:
- Display best before on stock labels
- Display packaged on date on stock labels
- Display business name on delivery and stock labels
- Display logo on delivery and stock labels
- Display the label number on stock labels
Delivery labels don't support custom templates, so all of the delivery label settings always apply.
Seeing what changed
The View recent changes to these settings button at the top of the page shows the history of changes made to this page, including who made them and when.