How to Create Compliant Cannabis Labels On-Demand

How to Create Compliant Cannabis Labels On-Demand

BY: SCOTT FABIAN / DATE: 04/10/2025 / TOPICS: CANNABIS, LABEL DESIGN, REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

According to projections from Statista, the US cannabis industry is expected to reach $45.3 billion in 2025. With rapid growth in this market comes constant change for growers, processors, packagers, and retailers. Until cannabis is federally legalized in the US, cannabis industry professionals are faced with meeting regulations that vary state to state.

Keeping up with labeling regulations and seed-to-sale tracking can be overwhelming, but label design software can help. How? In-house and on-demand cannabis labeling.

Learn more in our eBook, Labeling for the Cannabis Industry.

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Pitfalls of pre-printed cannabis labels

Before we get into designing and printing compliant cannabis labels yourself, let’s talk about the common alternative: buying pre-printed labels. While this is an option for some businesses with limited resources, we’re seeing more and more cannabis companies bringing their label design in-house and printing labels as they need them. Why?

• Sustainability: To reduce wasted label stock when regulations change
• Speed to market: To avoid waiting times for pre-printed label shipments
• Accuracy: To easily pull variable data from a LIMS or scale onto labels

Instead of buying a large quantity for pre-printed label orders through a third-party vendor, you can print custom labels in-house and have more control over your labels.

Advantages of on-demand cannabis labeling

On-demand labeling sets your company up for success with labeling efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility in the short and long-term. On-demand labeling is specifically helpful in the cannabis labeling world because of all the regulations you must comply with.

While there are general cannabis labeling requirements, like specifying THC and CBD levels and including batch numbers for traceability, states also have their own rules and regulations. For example, in Colorado, your font can’t be smaller than 1/16 inch and you need to include your license numbers (like a cannabis business ID). In Illinois, your labels need to include where it was grown, how it was tested, and any allergens. In Massachusetts, your labels need to communicate these aren’t FDA-approved products.

With on-demand cannabis labeling, whether you’re a grower, processor, packager, or retailer, you can print labels as needed and make changes on the fly without the risk of wasting pre-printed label stock. It also helps you maintain control of your own branding, graphics, and product data.

Software to create compliant cannabis labels

Not sure where to start? With TEKLYNX advanced barcode labeling solution, CODESOFT, you can design custom color labels with high-resolution artwork and variable data in-house. Our software integrates with Metrc and can connect to other cannabis systems such as BioTrack, Leaf Data, and MJ Freeway, to ensure your product data appears accurately on your labels. We’ve also developed over 4,000 printer drivers for thermal, thermal transfer, and color label printers so you’re printing exactly what you designed.

CODESOFT includes state-specific cannabis label templates to get you started:

• Download a free 30-day trial of CODESOFT
• When it launches, the New label document wizard appears automatically
• Click Open an existing template
• Navigate to Compliance > Cannabis
• Choose your state and click Finish

During your trial, you have access to TEKLYNX Customer Support, who can help you every step of the way—from designing your first label, to adding the weight of your product directly to your label from a scale, to connecting to a database.

Green Aloha compliant labeling use case

Green Aloha grows all its cannabis on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. To comply with new state regulatory requirements, the information Green Aloha previously listed on an insert with packages now needed to be included on their small package labels.

“Before the compliance change, our labels were probably fully compliant and accurate 50% of the time. Then the rule changed and that dropped down to 5%, so we needed to improve labeling quickly,” explained Steven Yost, Director of Cultivation at Green Aloha.

Green Aloha turned to TEKLYNX for help. In two days, we set up the Confident LIMS label printing form powered by TEKLYNX, designed four label templates in CODESOFT with 18 – 24 variable data fields (net weight, percentage of each cannabinoid, dosage, etc.) and a QR code dynamically linked to sample test results, and showed Green Aloha how it all worked. The results? 

• Met label compliance in less than a week
• Avoided closure and lost revenue
• Reached 100% labeling accuracy

Green Aloha emphasized how the Hawaii State Department of Health showed up at their facility to shut things down until further notice due to non-compliant labels and were impressed by how quickly Green Aloha was able to bring their labels into compliance.

“I can’t express how simple this whole process was because of the outstanding support TEKLYNX provided,” said Yost. “Most questions were answered within five minutes and no issue took more than a day to get resolved. That type of support is invaluable.” 

Read the full case study. 

TEKLYNX is here to help you

On-demand cannabis label printing gives you more control, faster speed to market, and compliance agility. See how easy creating compliant cannabis labels can be with our user-friendly label design software, CODESOFT.

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Is Metrc your state’s regulatory system? As a validated Metrc integrator, TEKLYNX helps companies bridge the gap between their labels and Metrc data to print compliant labels. TEKLYNX also partners with other software and hardware companies serving the cannabis industry, including ERP systems, LIMS, label printers, semi-automatic and automatic print-and-apply labeling systems, and harvesting scale systems. Get in touch to learn more about Metrc integration and TEKLYNX cannabis label printing.