Labels that are still readable in four years.
A register drifts because the link between a row and the object on the desk is a serial number somebody has to squint at and type. A tag closes that loop — scan it, and you are looking at the record. This is how to choose stock, print it, and stick it somewhere it will survive.
Tag it at receiving, not at audit time.
The instinct is to label things when you finally need an inventory. By then the machine is on a desk, in use, and getting to it means interrupting somebody — so it does not happen, and the register stays a guess.
Tag at the loading dock instead, while it is still in the box. It costs about twenty seconds per machine and it is the only moment a register is ever genuinely complete. Everything downstream — the diff, the audit, the disposal certificate — is easier because the tag went on first.
Choosing what to print on.
Three routes, and the right one depends far more on where the label will live than on what you already own.
Paper sheets — cheapest, and fine indoors
Ordinary laser labels out of the printer you already have. Simpletag lays out Avery 5160 / L7160 (3 × 10) and Avery 5163 / L7163 (2 × 7).
The catch is waste: a sheet is 30 labels. Printing one tag costs you twenty-nine. Good for tagging a delivery of twenty laptops, poor for the machine that arrived on Tuesday.
Paper also gives up quickly against fingers, alcohol wipes and anything warm. Expect to reprint.
Thermal rolls — one at a time, no waste
A desktop thermal printer indexes each label itself, so there is nothing to line up and no sheet to part-use. This is the honest answer to "I need to tag one machine." Presets cover Brother DK-1201, DK-1209, DK-11208, Dymo 30252 and Zebra/GoDEX 2×1 and 3×1.
Prefer direct thermal only for short-lived tags — the print fades with heat and sunlight, which is exactly what a laptop lid provides. For anything meant to last, use a thermal transfer printer with a resin ribbon on polyester stock.
Laser-etched metal — permanent, and unforgiving
For equipment that outlives several IT managers, or anything that goes outside. Simpletag exports an SVG built specifically for a laser cutter, and the details matter more than they look:
- Real millimetre dimensions on the SVG, because LightBurn and similar import a unitless file at whatever scale they please — and a QR at the wrong scale is a QR that does not scan.
- Filled geometry, never stroked outlines. A stroked QR makes the laser cut around every module rather than engraving it: nine hundred tiny squares, cut out, on the floor.
- The quiet zone is part of the drawing. Scanners need four clear modules round the symbol. Software that crops to the ink removes them and the code stops working.
Run one and scan it before you run two hundred. Engraving contrast varies by material and power, and a batch of unreadable tags is expensive in a way a sheet of paper is not.
Where to stick it.
The best label in the world is useless somewhere nobody can scan it, and worse than useless somewhere it falls off.
The palm rest or the underside near the existing service tag. Avoid the lid — it takes the most abuse and the most sunlight — and avoid vents and anything that gets hot.
Front face or top edge, where it can be scanned without pulling the machine out. A tag on the back of a rack-mounted server is a tag nobody reads.
These are the assets that vanish quietest, precisely because nobody thinks of them as assets. Tag them the same day you tag the computer they came with.
An alcohol wipe and thirty seconds to dry. Most labels that fall off were applied to a greasy surface, not badly made.
What the code actually contains.
A short URL to a public page for that one asset. Scanning it with any phone camera opens the record — no app to install, and nothing for a visitor to sign into.
That page is deliberately thin. It shows what the thing is and who to contact about it. It does not show who used it, what it cost, where it sits, or your company's internal notes. Somebody who finds a laptop in a taxi should be able to get it back to you without learning anything about your organisation.
If a code will not scan.
Almost always one of four things, in this order of likelihood:
- The quiet zone was cropped. Something trimmed the white margin. Reprint from the original file rather than from a screenshot or a copy-pasted image.
- It is too small for the printer. A code needs enough physical size that each module survives the dots your printer can actually place. Print bigger and try again before blaming anything else.
- Not enough contrast. Faded thermal print, or a shallow engrave on brushed metal. Both look fine to a person and fail to a camera.
- It is curved or creased. A label wrapped round an edge distorts the geometry. Keep the code on one flat plane, even if the label itself bends.
Type the asset tag into search as the fallback. A tag that has stopped scanning is still a record you can find.
Print a sheet and go and stick it on something.
Labels are included on every plan, including the free one. Twenty-five computers, no card.