Label Design Software: Key Features for Engineers

When designing cable labels, equipment labels, or asset labels, precision matters. A label that is even slightly misaligned can cause confusion during installation or maintenance. Good label design software should offer visual tools that make it easy to position text, graphics, and symbols exactly where they need to be.

Look for a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, so the label on screen matches the printed output. This avoids the trial-and-error approach of printing test pages to check alignment, saving both time and materials.

True WYSIWYG Editor

The Label Workshop 2 release introduces a true WYSIWYG editor interface, ensuring that every design viewed on-screen is printed with complete accuracy using the Fox‑in‑a‑Box® thermal transfer printer or a standard laser printer. This removes the uncertainty often associated with complex label layouts, giving engineers the confidence that labels will look exactly as intended when applied on site.

Modern Ribbon Interface

A streamlined ribbon toolbar means engineers can configure barcodes, import company logos, add warning symbols, or adjust text properties quickly without navigating multiple menus. This simplifies the design process and reduces setup time when switching between different label types - a frequent requirement in projects where engineers need to produce a mix of cable markers, wrap-around labels, and equipment identification.

Drag-and-Drop Design

For projects requiring detailed layouts - such as control panels, patch panels, or multi-cable bundles - the drag-and-drop design functionality provides engineers with the flexibility to create complex, data-rich labels directly in the software. Objects can be drawn, moved, and resized with precision, making it straightforward to adjust label content as project requirements evolve. This level of control is especially valuable when engineers need to accommodate long cable IDs, QR codes, or dual-language text within a limited label area.

Extensive Shape Library

The upgrade introduces an extensive shape library including rectangles, ellipses, triangles, stars, arrows, dividers, grids, and fully customisable polygons. Engineers can use arrows to indicate cable direction or flow in instrumentation setups, while dividers and grids help organise multiple fields of information on a single label - ideal for patch panels or control cabinet layouts.

Engineers have complete control over line thickness, fill colours, and rotation, allowing label designs to meet both functional and compliance requirements. Advanced property controls go further, allowing adjustments such as the number of points on a star or the sides of a polygon, enabling precise representation of technical symbols, hazard icons, or custom project identifiers. This means even highly specialised labelling requirements - such as safety warnings or ISO-compliant hazard symbols - can be created without the need for pre-printed stock.

Colour Toggle for Thermal and Laser Workflows

Fox-Flo® and other Silver Fox® labels are used in both thermal transfer and laser printing workflows. Labacus Innovator® now includes a colour toggle function to support both. Engineers can switch the colour of the label background on or off during the design phase, ensuring that pre-printed elements are visible only when needed. For thermal printing with the Fox‑in‑a‑Box®, this helps confirm final positioning and legibility. For laser printing, it allows engineers to preview full-colour templates exactly as they will appear, ensuring accuracy across different label stocks.

Image Integration

Engineers can seamlessly import company logos, hazard icons, and other custom graphics directly into the label design. The software automatically maintains the aspect ratio of imported images, ensuring that logos and icons retain their intended proportions and professional appearance. Images can be centred within defined fields for a balanced layout, or stretched to fit specified boundaries where maximum coverage is required. For organisations that need to apply company branding or project-specific graphics to their labels, the Custom Warning Sign Creator makes this straightforward, and is especially useful for control panel labelling and hazardous area identification.

Labels that carry technical data need text controls that go beyond basic font selection. Whether used for cable markers, asset tags, or complex control panel layouts, the Label Workshop 2 upgrade delivers major improvements to text functionality, ensuring engineers can produce labels that are precisely tailored to project requirements.

Together, these text enhancements ensure that labels produced with Labacus Innovator® meet both aesthetic and technical requirements across the full range of Silver Fox® label types.

On large projects, engineers may need to produce hundreds or thousands of cable labels from existing wire lists, spreadsheets, or databases. Manually typing each label is slow and introduces errors. Effective labelling software should support direct data import, allowing engineers to pull cable IDs, circuit references, and panel locations straight into the label layout.

The software also includes advanced search functions that allow engineers to quickly locate the longest or shortest text entries across an entire dataset, ensuring that font sizing and label layouts remain optimised. Engineers can search for specific text across all labels, which is particularly valuable for quality checks and compliance verification on large projects.

Combined with CSV import capabilities available at the Advanced and Professional levels, these data management tools significantly reduce setup time for large label jobs. For data centre and network infrastructure projects, where cable schedules can run to thousands of entries, this kind of integration can reduce labelling time from days to hours.

One of the most significant time-savers in modern labelling workflows is the ability to connect label design software directly to cable testing equipment. This eliminates the need to re-enter cable IDs and test data manually, reducing the chance of mismatches between labels and test records.

Labacus Innovator® Label Workshop 2 supports two key integrations:

Both integrations follow the same principle: the data that drives your cable testing should also drive your cable labelling. When these systems are connected, the risk of labelling errors drops significantly and project completion times improve.

Fox‑in‑a‑Box® is the ideal companion for these workflows. As a thermal printing system driven by Labacus Innovator®, it can print labels from imported test data in seconds using one software, one printer, and one ribbon.

Modern asset management demands more than plain text labels. Engineers increasingly need barcodes, QR codes, and GS1 DataMatrix codes on their cable labels, equipment labels, and asset tags to support scanning, tracking, and compliance requirements.

When evaluating label design software, check whether it supports the barcode formats required by your industry or client specifications. Labacus Innovator® Label Workshop 2 supports an extensive selection of barcode types, including Code 128, Code 2 of 5, Code 39, QR codes, DataMatrix, GS1 DataMatrix, and EAN-13/EAN-8.

The Custom Patch Panel Designer is particularly valuable for structured cabling, rack planning, and data centre environments. It allows engineers to design labels for any patch panel layout, regardless of the original equipment manufacturer, and print them directly through Fox‑in‑a‑Box® or a standard laser printer.

Prolab® Raised Profile Asset Labels from Silver Fox® are well suited to asset management applications. Now available in new sizes including 40 x 15mm and 25 x 12mm, and offered in yellow, silver, and white, they provide a durable alternative to engraved labels for control panels, sockets, and equipment identification.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of cable labelling is producing labels for both ends of each cable. On a project with hundreds of cables, this traditionally means running through the labelling process twice - once for each end - or manually organising two separate label runs.

Labacus Innovator® Label Workshop 2 introduces cross-ferruling, a unique dual-roll printing feature that allows engineers to label both ends of a cable in one pass. This dramatically reduces labour time and eliminates the risk of mismatched labels between cable ends.

For large-scale installations in data centres, substations, and industrial control systems, cross-ferruling can halve the time spent on cable label production while improving accuracy across the entire project.

Large engineering projects often require multiple label types, datasets, and designs within a single job. Without the right tools, this means creating separate standalone jobs for each variation, restarting the printer, and managing multiple files.

Labacus Innovator® Label Workshop 2 introduces multi-build job division, allowing a single job to be divided into multiple builds. Each build can import new datasets or apply entirely different label designs while using the same template.

Complex, multi-field labels require precise control over element placement. Labacus Innovator® Label Workshop 2 introduces a suite of professional layout tools designed to ensure precision, consistency, and efficiency across entire labelling runs.

1. 1

   Alignment Guides

   Visual guides appear automatically when objects line up on the design canvas, ensuring consistent spacing and professional presentation. Reduces the risk of misaligned text fields, barcodes, or icons - critical when printing hundreds of labels where uniformity is essential.

2. 2

   Object Layering

   Arrange elements in the correct order within the design stack. Send objects to the front or back, ensuring that critical information remains clear and visually prioritised when combining text, barcodes, and hazard icons on the same label.

3. 3

   Customisable Design Grids

   A customisable design grid provides precise control over field placement, while pre-set field layouts offer a quick-start option for structured designs. Easily replicate standardised formats for commonly used Silver Fox® labels.

4. 4

   Uniform Resizing and Automatic Alignment

   Objects can be resized uniformly or matched exactly to label dimensions for batch consistency. Automatic horizontal and vertical alignment enables engineers to quickly produce multi-field layouts without manual adjustments.

5. 5

   Precision Zoom and Viewing Options

   Zoom in and out with greater precision for close inspection of small text fields and barcodes. Multiple display modes include Fit Full Page to Window, Fit to Label, and Fit Width to Window - allowing engineers to switch seamlessly between big-picture overviews and detailed close-ups.

By improving visibility during editing, these tools help engineers catch errors or misalignments early, reducing the risk of wasted labels and reprints. This is particularly beneficial in high-volume jobs, where even small mistakes can quickly multiply into significant time and material costs.

The Label Workshop 2 upgrade introduces a set of advanced design elements tailored to the needs of engineers working in highly technical environments. These features address common challenges in labelling for electrical, instrumentation, and industrial projects.

For sectors such as oil and gas, power generation, rail, and data centres, where precision is non-negotiable, these features directly support accuracy and safety on site. They ensure that complex technical information is clearly conveyed in a universally understood format, enhancing both compliance and operational confidence.

Good labelling software should keep pace with the range of labels available. When new label types are introduced, the software templates need to follow so engineers can design and print without delay. With the Fox‑in‑a‑Box® system, engineers can now print more than 200 variations of label - including heat-shrink tubing, wrap-around labels, tie-on tags, patch panel labels, and asset labels - all from one printer and one software platform.

The Label Workshop 2 update introduces templates for several new label types:

1. 1

   Fox-Flo® Non-Shrink

   A new addition to the Fox-Flo® range. This label offers the same proven tie-on design but without the heat-shrink element, suited to applications where a non-shrink solution is preferred.

2. 2

   Fox Zero

   A new zero halogen tie-on cable label. For environments where low smoke zero halogen (LSZH) compliance is required, such as enclosed public spaces, tunnels, and transport infrastructure, Fox Zero provides an LSZH tie-on option.

3. 3

   New Prolab® Raised Profile Sizes

   The 40 x 15mm and 25 x 12mm raised profile labels are now supported in the software, available in yellow, silver, and white. Ideal for equipment labelling, circuit identification, and patch panel marking.

All of these templates are included as part of the Label Workshop 2 update. Existing licence holders receive them through the free-of-charge automatic software update, alongside every other new feature in this release.

One of the most overlooked factors when choosing label design software is what happens after the initial purchase. Many software tools require ongoing subscription fees or charge for major updates.

With Labacus Innovator®, Silver Fox® provides lifetime free-of-charge feature updates for all licence holders. Whether the software was purchased fifteen years ago or last week, every user receives the same new features when they become available. Label Workshop 2 is a clear example of this commitment: existing users gain access to the true WYSIWYG editor, cross-ferruling, multi-build job division, extended barcodes, professional layout tools, advanced engineering features, new label templates, and every other enhancement at no additional cost.

For engineers who have not yet tried the software, a nine-day free trial is available. The trial covers the Basic, Advanced, and Professional levels, so you can evaluate the full range of capabilities before making a decision.