Skip to content

How to Print a Royal Mail Label from a QR Code at Home

A lot of sellers search for how to turn a Royal Mail QR code into a printed label at home. The honest answer has two parts: you cannot print the full Royal Mail address label yourself from the code, but you can print the code, and that is often all you need.

What you can and cannot print

The QR code from Vinted is a digital label. Royal Mail scans it at drop-off and prints the actual shipping label on their side. So the code does not turn into an address label on your printer. What you can print is the QR code itself, on paper, to take with the parcel.

If Vinted gave you a full label instead of a code, print that. It is a different case, covered in how to print Royal Mail labels from Vinted.

Why print the code at all

You do not have to. Showing it on your phone at a staffed drop-off point works. Printing it is handy if you want a paper backup or your phone battery is a worry. Either way the code is scanned at the drop-off point, never posted on its own: Vinted warns that a parcel with only the QR code attached, dropped in a postbox, will not be registered or delivered. Our guide to the Royal Mail QR code label explains both routes.

How to print it so it scans

  1. On the sold order in Vinted, tap Open QR code.
  2. Check the expiry date in the window. See how long a Royal Mail QR code lasts.
  3. Crop the code on its own and print it large. Crop My Label does this for you and puts the QR centred on a 4×6, roughly 4 inches square.
  4. Print on a thermal label printer, or on normal paper and trim it.

The mistake that breaks scanning

Printing the whole A4 page. The QR ends up small, the printer may fade it, and counter scanners struggle. A large, high contrast code is much more reliable.

Quick answers

Can I print the Royal Mail label itself at home from the QR? No. The label is printed by Royal Mail when they scan the code.

Does a printed QR work the same as the phone version? Yes, it is the same code and has the same expiry date.

Do I need a thermal printer? No. A normal printer works if the code is printed large and clear.

← All guides