There is currently a bug in Windows 8.1 that causes any label with a barcode to print abnormally in DLS. We are awaiting a fix from Microsoft, but in the meantime, you will need to modify a setting in DLS to workaround the issue. To do this, go to Edit -> Preferences. Navigate to the LabelWriter printer tab and change the “Print Quality” to “Text”.
There is one side effect to making this change and that is your labels will always print at a resolution of 300×300 DPI. For barcodes, we typically like to switch our printers into high resolution mode (300×600 DPI) in order to improve barcode scanning reliability. When the “Print Quality” setting is set to “Auto” or “Barcodes and graphics”, the resolution will always be 300×600 if a barcode is present on your label. That being said, for most barcodes, 300×300 DPI is plenty of resolution. You may encounter scanning issues for barcodes with lots of data or 2D barcodes, though.
We apologize for this inconvenience and will keep everyone updated on a fix for this issue.
UPDATE
Microsoft has released a fix for this issue. It can be downloaded from the below links. Thanks Bjorn for the heads up!
KB2911106, released on 13/01/2014, solved this issue in Windows 8.1
Download x86 : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41569
Download x64 : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41570