Industry Trends

Avery Printing & Templates FAQ: What Office Admins Actually Need to Know

Office administrator for a 150-person tech company here. I manage all office supply and print material ordering—roughly $25k annually across 12 vendors. I report to both operations and finance.

If you're the person in charge of keeping the labels, name badges, and shipping supplies stocked, you've probably Googled things like "Avery templates 8164" or "how much is USPS flat rate padded envelope" at 3 PM on a Tuesday. I've been there. This FAQ cuts through the marketing fluff and answers the questions you're actually asking, based on my own (sometimes painful) experience.

1. Are Avery templates really compatible with everything?

Short answer: Mostly yes, but you need to know the trick.

Here's the insider knowledge most people don't realize: Avery's templates are designed as a starting point, not a magic bullet. The 5160, 8160, 5163 series? Those are industry standards. When you download the template for Word or Google Docs, it's creating a document with the correct label dimensions and margins.

The compatibility issue usually isn't with the template—it's with your printer driver and paper settings. I learned this the hard way. I assumed "use Avery 5160 template" meant my printer would automatically know what to do. Didn't verify. Turned out my printer driver was set to "plain paper" by default, which threw the alignment off by a millimeter. Enough to ruin a whole sheet. Now, I always go into Printer Properties and manually select "Labels" or the specific Avery product number from the media type list after loading the template. It adds 30 seconds and saves a ton of wasted labels.

2. What's the deal with template numbers like 8164 and 8167?

This is just Avery's product SKU system. The 8164 template is for their 2" x 4" Shipping Labels (2 per sheet). The 8167 template is for their 4" x 6" Shipping Labels (1 per sheet). They're just unique IDs.

The real pro tip? Bookmark the Avery Template Finder page. You can search by product number or sheet size. It's way faster than trying to find the right one in Word's built-in label maker (which, honestly, can be glitchy).

3. How do I avoid wasting labels when printing?

This was a serious pain point when I started. My three-step failsafe:

1. Print a test sheet on plain paper first. Hold it up to a sheet of labels. The boxes should line up perfectly over the labels. If they don't, adjust your margins in the template (usually by 0.1" increments).
2. Check your printer's manual feed tray. Many printers have a straight paper path for labels to prevent jams. Using it is a total game-changer for consistency.
3. Don't re-feed a partially used sheet. This is my biggest "overconfidence fail." I knew I should use a fresh sheet, but thought 'what are the odds it jams?' Well, the odds caught up with me when a wrinkled, partially used sheet got stuck and I had to spend an hour cleaning the printer roller. Not worth the $0.10 you save on a label.

Standard print resolution for something like a barcode or crisp text is 300 DPI at final size. If your image looks pixelated on screen, it'll look worse printed.

4. Is it cheaper to buy Avery labels or generic/store brands?

I went back and forth between name-brand Avery and generic labels for months. Avery offered reliability and guaranteed template fit; the generic ones were 30% cheaper. Ultimately, I chose reliability for anything customer-facing (shipping labels, name badges) because a misprinted batch makes us look unprofessional. For internal bin labels or file folder tabs, I'll sometimes use a generic brand if the reviews are solid.

The bottom line? The vendor who lists all fees upfront—even if the total looks higher—usually costs less in the end. With generic labels, the hidden cost is your time troubleshooting alignment issues.

5. How do shipping supplies (like USPS Flat Rate envelopes) fit into this?

They're a related—but separate—purchasing category. You can print an Avery 5164 shipping label and stick it on a USPS Flat Rate Padded Envelope. As of January 2025, the USPS Commercial Base price for that envelope is around $9.00, while the retail price at the post office is about $9.65. Always verify current pricing at USPS.com.

My advice? Don't buy these from office supply vendors marked up. Order them in bulk directly from USPS (they're free for Commercial Base customers) or from a wholesale shipping supplier. It's a no-brainer for cost savings.

6. Any final pro-tips for managing this stuff?

A few things I wish I'd known five years ago:

• Consolidate orders. When I took over purchasing in 2020, we had 5 different vendors for labels, cards, and supplies. Consolidating to 2 primary vendors cut our processing time in half and got us volume discounts.
• Keep a physical "master sheet" binder. I print one perfect copy of each label we use regularly (address, shipping, logo sticker) and put it in a sheet protector. When someone needs a reprint, we know exactly what the final product should look like.
• Standardize. Pick 2-3 Avery product numbers (like 5160 for addresses, 8164 for packages) and stick with them for everything. It simplifies template management and inventory.

Even after choosing to standardize on Avery for external labels, I kept second-guessing. Was I paying a brand premium? The first time we had a flawless, professional-looking batch for a client event, the doubt disappeared. Sometimes, paying a bit more for "it just works" is the right call for your sanity and your company's image.