No longer able to print single shipping labels - wrong orientation

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

A user reports that Shopify’s shipping label printing functionality changed over the weekend, causing individual labels to generate in the wrong orientation.

The Problem:

  • Avery Presta 94278 labels (8x11) now print in portrait instead of landscape orientation
  • Labels appear incorrectly rotated and smaller than normal
  • Manually forcing landscape mode through printer settings doesn’t resolve the issue

Workaround Found:

  • Printing multiple labels simultaneously (batch printing) generates them in the correct orientation
  • This workaround isn’t reliable for merchants with single orders

Technical Details:

  • Issue affects both Firefox and Chrome browsers
  • User confirms this is not a local printer, browser, or operating system problem
  • The labels had been printing correctly for months prior to this weekend

The issue remains unresolved for single-label printing, with no official response or fix mentioned.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Something seems to have changed over this past weekend: I am no longer able to print individual shipping labels.

I use Avery Presta 94278 labels, which I have been successfully printing as 8x11 for months now. As of this weekend, however, Shopify is now generating the 8x11 in the wrong orientation, portrait instead of landscape, so the printout is facing the wrong way and is extra small to boot. Forcing the document to print in landscape mode via printer dialogue does not fix the issue.

This is NOT a printer, browser, or OS issue. I have tried this in both Firefox and Chrome.

Now fortunately, I had five orders over the weekend, so I was able to get around the problem by generating all five at once - doing it that way generated labels in the correct orientation. But I can’t count on that happening all the time.

Shipping Label format
3

See also Shipping Label format

5

The issue seems to have been fixed, silently. Thanks for the complete lack of public response, Shopify.