In this article, you'll learn all about the "Tags" feature!

About tags

What are tags?

Tags are small badges that can be applied to printers, files and print queue items, that make the printers or files easy to identify and give each printer or item unique details on either nozzle, material data, or something completely different by assigning custom tags.

Tags are meant to make it a breeze to change details such as nozzle size or material info on your printer or files, and provides you with a neat way of arranging, grouping and managing your printers.

Where can tags be applied?

Tags can be used on;

• Printers
• Files
• Print queue items

How to apply tags

Where tags can be applied, you apply them by clicking the "+" (plus) sign which has a dotted outline, which is shown on printers, files and queue items like this;

About the "Nozzle size" tag

The nozzle size tag allows you to easily assign, and later identify, which printer has what nozzle size currently attached!

About material tags / static material data

Tags allow you to define static material data for printers, files & queue items.
Before material tags were introduced, only printers could have material properties assigned, and only through the filament management system, by assigning a specific spool - now, printers, files & queue items can all have material properties assigned, without having to be tied to a specific spool, in case you don't use the spool-assigning system!

The material details;

• Material type (e.g. "PLA", "ABS" or "PETG" - custom types are possible)
• Material color
• Color name

These 3 details account for all the info your printer and files need about the material, to heat up, slice, and start the right files!
The material type holds temperatures, slicing details, material info such as density and filament diameter.
For printers with multiple extruders, material details - whether it's an assigned spool or static tag details - can be assigned to each extruder.

Difference between static & assigned spools

For printers, you can either assign a specific spool - each having its own identity, and has to be created in the "Filament" manager, or - using the tags - define static material type and color data.
The main difference being, that with assigned spools, we can track the usage of each spool individually, while with static material data, we only use the information such as heat temperatures and material slicer settings.

About the bed type tag

The bed type tag records which build plate (for example a textured PEI or smooth PEI sheet) a printer has fitted, or that a file/queue item needs. Like nozzle size and material, it's used in matching - a queue item tagged for one plate won't auto-match a printer with a different plate, unless you've grouped the two as equivalent.

About custom tags

Custom tags are 100% defined by you; you can create tags with custom text, and choose from a list of background colors.
These tags can be anything you'd like, such as; "maintenance" or "clogged" for printers with issues, or "smooth PEI sheet" if the printer has a different sheet - there are no limits!

Tags & print queue; matching items

One of the best things about tags, is that it's not just for the visuals; the tags are used to match print queue items with your printers!

When a print queue item has any tags assigned, whether it's nozzle size, material data, bed type or custom tags, it will require printers to at least satisfy the same nozzle size, the same material type, a matching material color, the same bed type, as well as contain all of the custom tags that the queue item has.

• If a queue item has the tag "Nozzle size: 0.6", only printers with this nozzle size will match with the queue item automatically!
• For material data, the material type must match - if set. The material color must also match - and this is matched on both the color name and the actual color (hex), not the name alone. Two spools both called "red" with different hex codes can be treated as different colors unless you group them. See why won't my filament color match a printer? for how color matching works and how to fix a mismatch with color clusters or color mapping.
• If a queue item has no tags at all (custom or otherwise), the queue will default to match by the standard criteria; gcode analysis, bed size etc.
• A printer can have more custom tags than the queue item, as long as it contains at least all of the custom tags assigned to a queue item.

Learn more about print queue & printers matching; Auto-matching queue items to printers

If a free printer isn't picking up an item and you want to know exactly which tag is blocking it, the queue inspector spells it out: why won't my printer print this queue item?

Updated on: 04/07/2026