QR labels
Cobblr prints QR labels for your items and locations. Scan a label later and it takes you straight to that thing in Cobblr, so a bin, a machine, or a shelf is one scan away from its record.
Printing labels
The Labels page leads with where the labels go. A target selector at the top of the toolbar shows the printer this run prints to, and you can switch it to any other saved printer or to System print, which hands the labels to your computer's own print dialog. Switching targets never forgets a printer: your saved label printer stays saved, and forgetting one is a separate, confirmed choice in the same menu. If you have no printer at all the toolbar prompts you to connect one, and System print still works, so a fresh workspace is never stuck.
Each saved printer in the list shows what it last reported, its loaded roll and, if it has one, its battery, so you can see what is loaded before you print. A Bluetooth printer's quick settings open from the same menu: its name, how the print sits on the label (nudge it up or down if it prints too low), and how dark it burns. The label size is not among them, because it comes from the page's own size picker and so can never disagree with what prints.
An Add labels panel shows a tab per collection you can actually label (your own lists, machines, locations), each item with a one-tap Add; the Locations tab is the same areas-and-bins tree you navigate everywhere else. The tab you were last on is remembered, so a refresh leaves you where you were.
The size options follow the target. You only ever see sizes that fit it: a 2 inch Bluetooth roll printer offers just the rolls it can feed, an inkjet or laser offers just sheets, and System print opens the whole library. Sizes are grouped the same way everywhere, into Label rolls (a thermal or die-cut roll like 4 × 6 inch or 50 × 30 mm) and Sheets (a full page like US Letter or an Avery layout). Common metric roll sizes are built in, so a 50 × 30 mm roll is one pick, one-up or two-up, with nothing to measure. When no printer is connected and you print through your own dialog, a printing on control lets you say whether you are on a roll or a sheet, which narrows the list down to, say, that 50 × 30 roll.
When your printer reports the roll it has loaded, the size picker marks the matching size as loaded, and if your pick disagrees with what the printer reports, a one-click note switches you to the roll the printer says it has.
On a 4 × 6 roll you can tile smaller labels and cut them apart with scissors: 2 × 2 inch squares six at a time, 1½ inch squares eight at a time, and several sizes in between, the cheap route if you already stock shipping labels. And if none of the built-in sizes match your stock, pick New label size in the size list, enter the media and the label measurement in inches or millimeters (a toggle switches between the two), and Cobblr works out how many fit.
For a wide label like a 50 × 30 mm roll, Cobblr turns the content a quarter turn by default, so the label reads upright, standing on its end. Turned, the name sits above the QR instead of beside it, which gives it the label's full width rather than the strip left over next to the QR: on a 50 × 30 that is 30 mm of room instead of 20, which is the difference between a readable name and one wrapping to a few letters a line. A turn toggle beside the size pickers lets you decide for yourself, and the preview shows exactly how the label will sit. The stock itself is unchanged; only the layout turns.
The turn applies to the preview and to printing through your browser's dialog. A Bluetooth or network printer arranges each label from the dimensions configured on the printer itself, so it already stacks the name above the QR when that face is taller than it is wide. To change what one of those prints, change the label size set up on the printer rather than reaching for this toggle.
Every queued row shows what it is, the full URL its code will resolve to, and plus and minus buttons for how many copies to print. Click a row's name to rename it, so a long title like "Rolling 3-Drawer Workshop Tool Cabinet" becomes a short caption that fits the label and keeps the QR large; one tap puts the full system name back. The preview is live: it always reflects your current QR settings, so changing the label base URL updates it without re-queueing anything, and the address is only baked in when you print. A run that spans more than one sheet previews as a strip of per-sheet thumbnails, so it looks like what comes off the printer. Flip Actual size to see a label at its true physical size on screen (drag the little ruler once to calibrate your display), and the preview reads out how large each QR actually prints, turning amber then red when a code is too small for a phone to scan, so you catch an unreadable label before you commit a sheet.
The pickers lead with what you print most: your recently used sizes and printers sit at the top of their lists.
Print hands the batch to your browser's print dialog right on the page, no new tab; Send to printer goes to a printer you've configured. Neither one clears the queue the moment you press it: they hold the labels until you confirm the output looks right (Mark printed in the browser flow, Mark batch printed on a network send), so cancelling the dialog, a jam, or a wrong size doesn't quietly burn the batch. If a network send fails it offers a reprint. For a Bluetooth printer the button reads Print to your printer and sends the whole queue over one connection, so it asks for the device just once rather than once per label. It knows the result the moment the labels are out, so it clears on its own, and if one didn't come out right the confirmation offers Return to queue, which puts those labels back (reusing their codes) so you can fix the size and try again. Cobblr keeps a history of what you've printed.
If your printers connect through a bridge running on your computer, a Live box surfaces so you can watch them from any page: a pill at the bottom-right, or a row in the sidebar foot. It shows whether each printer is connected, idle, or printing, its loaded roll and battery, and buttons to connect, disconnect, or check what it has loaded. While a batch streams out, the printer icon carries a count of the labels still to print, the way a taskbar shows a job. The Live box is Cobblr's general live-activity surface, so auto-print and other live modes use it too; with no bridge and nothing live running, it does not appear.
The link inside a label is baked in at print time, and by default it carries the address you're using right now. Trying things out, or only ever printing a handful? Not a big deal; reprinting a few labels is nothing. About to label a hundred bins? Read QR label URLs first and pick an address that will survive your setup changing: a few minutes setting it up now beats peeling and re-stickering every bin later.
Printing to a cheap thermal label printer over Bluetooth works a little differently, since those printers are not on your network at all. See Bluetooth label printers.
The code printed in the middle
Every label also carries a short code in the center of its QR, something like
m1, p42 or b7. Scanning is still how you open a record. The code is there
for you, so a label means something to a human standing in front of it: you can
tell two identical bins apart at a glance, point at one across the room, or say
"it's in b7" to someone else without either of you touching a phone.
A code is a prefix plus a number, and each list of things owns its own prefix and
its own count. That keeps codes short while staying unique across the workspace,
so m1 can only be one thing.
If you do want to type a code in, which is the sensible move on a desktop with no
scanner to hand, use the Codes button on the Labels page rather than the main
search box. Search looks through your records' text and knows nothing about
codes. Code lookup forgives case and forgives the letters that get misread as
digits (o and 0, l and 1), so a code you squinted at across a room still
finds its item and takes you to it.
A prefix stays freely editable until you actually print a label with it. After that it locks: a sticker already on a shelf carries that code, so its prefix can no longer change. The list's row then shows the locked prefix with a small lock instead of an edit box.
The Codes button on the Labels page opens a panel that groups your code lists under their kind (Machines, Locations) by their real names. Every list you could label shows here from the start with a suggested prefix, before you print anything, so you can keep it, change it, or clear it to give that list no code at all (freeing its letter for another list); Save locks a suggestion in, and if you leave one alone, your first label just adopts it. For each list you can also find an item by its code and toggle whether the code prints inside the QR. That toggle is per list, so your 3D Printers can show the code while your CNC hides it even though both are machines. Locations start with it off, since a room's name already tells you which one it is; parts and machines start on. You can also ask Cobb to make any of these changes for you.
Scan to jump
Each label's QR is tied to one item or location. Scanning it opens that record, or runs an action on it. Stick a label on a bin and you never search for it again: scan, and you're there.
Filing by scanning
Location labels also drive putting things away. The scans funnel down the location tree: scan a room's label and you're working in that room, scan a container's label and the container is filed there and becomes where the session is aimed, then scan an item's barcode and it is captured already stamped with that container. The scanner itself never files anything, so nothing lands in your workspace until you confirm the session in the inbox, and when you do, each item arrives with its location already set. Label your rooms and bins once, and tidying is a series of scans plus one confirmation instead of a series of forms.
Labels from another tool
Already have QR labels printed by a previous system (Homebox, or anything else that printed URLs)? You don't have to reprint them. Under Configuration → Scan rules, teach the scanner the foreign format once, and every old sticker then resolves to the matching record here.
The simplest rule takes the old system's base URL plus its path layout: declare
the host once and map its path segments to kinds (/parts/ to Parts,
/locations/ to Locations), and a label like old.host/parts/4 opens the item
whose field holds that id. A URL prefix for a single kind, a regex, or a bare
number also work. A Test a payload box shows what any pasted value resolves
to before you trust a rule; rules run in order, first match wins, and each has
its own on and off switch. Editing rules takes an admin.
With no rules, nothing changes: an unmatched scan flows through the normal identify routine.
Labels pair naturally with locations (label your shelves and bins) and with inventory (label the parts themselves).