---
title: Labels
layout: default
parent: Usage
---

# Labels

Part-DB support the generation and printing of labels for parts, part lots and storelocation. 
You can use the "Tools -> Labelgenerator" menu entry to create labels, or click the label generation link on the part.

You can define label templates by creating Label profiles. This way you can create many similar looking labels with for
many parts.

The content of the labels is defined by the templates content field. You can use the WYSIWYG editor to create and style the content (or write HTML code).
Using the "Label placeholder" menu in the editor, you can insert placeholders for the data of the parts.
It will be replaced by the concrete data when the label is generated.
 
## Label placeholders
A placeholder has the format `[[PLACEHOLDER]]` and will be filled with the concrete data by Part-DB.
You can use the "Placeholders" dropdown in content editor, to automatically insert the placeholders.

### Common

| Placeholder | Description  | Example  |
|---|---|---|
| `[[USERNAME]]`  | The user name of the currently logged in user  | admin  |
| `[[USERNAME_FULL]]`  | The full name of the current user  | John Doe (@admin)  |
| `[[DATETIME]]`  | The current date and time in the selected locale  | 31.12.2017, 18:34:11  |
| `[[DATE]]`  | The current date in the selected locale  | 31.12.2017 |
| `[[TIME]]` | The current time in the selected locale | 18:34:11 |
| `[[INSTALL_NAME]]` | The name of the current installation (see $config['partdb_title']) | Part-DB |
| `[[INSTANCE_URL]]` | The URL of the current installation | https://demo.part-db.de | 

### Parts

| Placeholder  | Description  | Example  |
|---|---|---|
| `[[ID]]`  | The internal ID of the part  | 24  |
| `[[NAME]]`  | The name of the part  | ATMega328  |
| `[[CATEGORY]]`  | The name of the category (without path)  | AVRs  |
| `[[CATEGORY_FULL]]`  | The full path of the category  | Aktiv->MCUs->AVRs  |
| `[[MANUFACTURER]]`  | The name of the manufacturer  | Atmel  |
| `[[MANUFACTURER_FULL]]`  | The full path of the manufacturer  | Halbleiterhersteller->Atmel  |
| `[[FOOTPRINT]]`  | The name of the footprint (without path)  | DIP-32  |
| `[[FOOTPRINT_FULL]]`  | The full path of the footprint  | Bedrahtet->DIP->DIP-32  |
| `[[MASS]]` | The mass of the part | 123.4 g |
| `[[MPN]]`  | The manufacturer product number | BC547ACT |
| `[[TAGS]]` | The tags of the part | SMD, Tag1 |
| `[[M_STATUS]]` | The manufacturing status of the part | Active |
| `[[DESCRIPTION]]` | The rich text description of the part | *NPN* |
| `[[DESCRIPTION_T]]` | The description as plain text | NPN |
| `[[COMMENT]]` | The rich text comment of the part | |
| `[[COMMENT_T]]` | The comment as plain text | |
| `[[LAST_MODIFIED]]` | The datetime when the element was last modified |  2/26/16, 5:38 PM |
| `[[CREATION_DATE]]` | The datetime when the element was created  | 2/26/16, 5:38 PM |

### Part lot

| Placeholder  | Description  | Example  |
|---|---|---|
| `[[LOT_ID]]`   | Part lot ID | 123  |
| `[[LOT_NAME]]` | Part lot name |  |
| `[[LOT_COMMENT]]` | Part lot comment | |
| `[[EXPIRATION_DATE]]` | Expiration date of the part lot | |
| `[[AMOUNT]]` | The amount of parts in this lot | 12 |
| `[[LOCATION]]` | The storage location of this part lot | Location A |
| `[[LOCATION_FULL]]` | The full path of the storage location | Location -> Location A |

### Storelocation

| Placeholder  | Description  | Example  |
|---|---|---|
| `[[ID]]` | ID of the storage location |  |
| `[[NAME]]` | Name of the storage location | Location A |
| `[[FULL_PATH]]` | The full path of the storage location | Location -> Location A |
| `[[PARENT]]` | The name of the parent location | Location |
| `[[PARENT_FULL_PATH]]` | The full path of the storage location | |
| `[[COMMENT]]` | The comment of the storage location | |
| `[[COMMENT_T]]` | The plain text version of the comment | 
| `[[LAST_MODIFIED]]` | The datetime when the element was last modified |  2/26/16, 5:38 PM |
| `[[CREATION_DATE]]` | The datetime when the element was created  | 2/26/16, 5:38 PM |

## Twig mode

If you select "Twig" in parser mode under advanced settings, you can input a twig template in the lines field (activate source mode). You can use most of the twig tags and filters listed in [offical documentation](https://twig.symfony.com/doc/3.x/).

The following variables are in injected into Twig and can be accessed using `{% raw %}{{ variable }}` (or `{% raw %}{{ variable.property }}{% endraw %}`):

| Variable name                        | Description |
|--------------------------------------| ----------- |
| `{% raw %}{{ element }}{% endraw %}` | The target element, selected in label dialog |
| `{% raw %}{{ user }}{% endraw %}`                         | The current logged in user. Null if you are not logged in |
| `{% raw %}{{ install_title }}{% endraw %}`                | The name of the current Part-DB instance (similar to [[INSTALL_NAME]] placeholder). |
| `{% raw %}{{ page }}{% endraw %}`                         | The page number (the nth-element for which the label is generated |


## Use custom fonts for PDF labels
You can use your own fonts for label generation. To do this, put the TTF files of the fonts you want to use into the `assets/fonts/dompdf` folder.
The filename will be used as name for the font family and you can use a `_bold` (or `_b`), `_italic` (or `_i`) or `_bold_italic` (or `_bi`) suffix to define
different styles of the font. So for example, if you copy the file `myfont.ttf` and `myfont_bold.ttf` into the `assets/fonts/dompdf` folder, you can use the font family `myfont` with regular and bold style.
Afterwards regenerate cache with `php bin/console cache:clear`, so the new fonts will be available for label generation.

The fonts will not be availble from the UI directly, you have to use it in the HTML directly either by defining a `style="font-family: 'myfont';"` attribute on the HTML element or by using a CSS class.
You can define the font globally for the label, by adding following statement to the "Additional styles (CSS)" option in the label generator settings:
```css
* {
    font-family: 'myfont';
}
```

## Non-latin characters in PDF labels
The default used font (DejaVu) does not support all characters. Especially characters from non-latin languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, etc. are not supported.
For this we use [Unifont](http://unifoundry.com/unifont.html) as fallback font. This font supports all (or most) unicode characters, but is not as beautiful as DejaVu.

If you want to use a different (more beautiful) font, you can use the [custom fonts](#use-custom-fonts-for-pdf-labels) feature.
There is the [Noto](https://www.google.com/get/noto/) font family from Google, which supports a lot of languages and is available in different styles (regular, bold, italic, bold-italic).
For example you can use [Noto CJK](https://github.com/notofonts/noto-cjk) for more beautful Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters.