diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 36aa13c..354e991 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -51,6 +51,14 @@ ADR-007 and ADR-002.
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- **A caption could eat the barcode.** The code box and the caption both grew,
+  so any caption took half the label and kept going: "BAY 12 PRESS LINE 1" on
+  1.00 x 0.50in stock left a 36px stub, which is a code that is present,
+  unscannable, and reads as one that failed to render. The caption now takes
+  only the room it needs and a CODE128 keeps at least 40% of the label, all of
+  it when stacked. A code that genuinely fails to render says so in the preview
+  now, in red, rather than leaving white space that looks like a label with no
+  code on it.
 - **The generator prints from inside the app shell.** It was a full-screen
   route with no sidebar and a narrow column of controls on the left. It is now
   an ordinary page - navigation, full width - and `style.css` hides the shell at
@@ -64,6 +72,14 @@ ADR-007 and ADR-002.
 
 ### Changed
 
+- **Settings on the left, labels on the right.** The controls were a narrow
+  column with the preview trailing underneath, so the labels being adjusted were
+  off the bottom of the screen. The preview is now a column of its own that
+  stays in view and scrolls by itself, and it folds back to one column on a
+  narrow window. Note for anyone changing it: that scrolling column is exactly
+  the kind of ancestor that clips a multi-page print to whatever was on screen,
+  so print resets its overflow - verified by printing a six-page two-sided run,
+  not by looking at the preview.
 - CSV parsing and page building moved out of the generator component into
   `plugins/tools/frontend/labelPages.js`, where the column contract and the
   two-sided page order are covered by tests.
diff --git a/plugins/tools/frontend/views/CodeGenerator.vue b/plugins/tools/frontend/views/CodeGenerator.vue
index 78fb6a6..9782956 100644
--- a/plugins/tools/frontend/views/CodeGenerator.vue
+++ b/plugins/tools/frontend/views/CodeGenerator.vue
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 <template>
   <div class="code-generator">
-    <div class="no-print">
-      <div class="page-header">
-        <h1>Barcode / QR Generator</h1>
-        <router-link to="/tools" class="btn btn-secondary">Back to Tech Tools</router-link>
-      </div>
+    <div class="page-header no-print">
+      <h1>Barcode / QR Generator</h1>
+      <router-link to="/tools" class="btn btn-secondary">Back to Tech Tools</router-link>
+    </div>
 
-      <div class="controls card">
+    <div class="workspace">
+      <div class="options no-print">
+        <div class="controls card">
         <!-- What to encode -->
         <div class="control-row">
           <label>
@@ -285,33 +286,52 @@
           {{ overlong.length }} row(s) could not be encoded as CODE128 or were empty:
           {{ overlong.slice(0, 3).join(', ') }}{{ overlong.length > 3 ? ' ...' : '' }}
         </p>
-      </div>
-    </div>
-
-    <!-- Preview doubles as the print surface: what is on screen is what prints. -->
-    <div class="sheet">
-      <div
-        v-for="item in visible"
-        :key="item.index"
-        class="label"
-        :class="labelClasses(item.page)"
-      >
-        <img v-if="showPicture(item.page) && pictureposition === 'behind'"
-             :src="pictureUrl" class="picture-behind" alt="" />
-        <div class="content">
-          <div v-if="showPicture(item.page) && pictureposition !== 'behind'" class="picturebox">
-            <img :src="pictureUrl" class="picture-img" alt="" />
-          </div>
-          <div class="codegroup">
-            <div v-if="layoutFor(item.page) !== 'textonly'" class="codebox">
-              <img v-if="images[item.index]" :src="images[item.index]" class="code-img" alt="" />
-            </div>
-            <div v-if="layoutFor(item.page) !== 'codeonly' && item.page.label" class="label-text">
-              {{ item.page.label }}
-            </div>
-          </div>
         </div>
-        <span v-if="backenabled" class="side-flag">{{ item.page.side }}</span>
+      </div>
+
+      <!-- Preview doubles as the print surface: what is on screen is what
+           prints, so everything around it is chrome that print must strip. -->
+      <div class="preview">
+        <div class="preview-head no-print">
+          <h4 class="section-heading">Preview</h4>
+          <span class="preview-count">
+            {{ cardCount }} label{{ cardCount === 1 ? '' : 's' }}<span
+              v-if="backenabled">, {{ pages.length }} pages</span>
+          </span>
+        </div>
+        <div class="sheet">
+        <div
+          v-for="item in visible"
+          :key="item.index"
+          class="label"
+          :class="labelClasses(item.page)"
+        >
+          <img v-if="showPicture(item.page) && pictureposition === 'behind'"
+               :src="pictureUrl" class="picture-behind" alt="" />
+          <div class="content">
+            <div v-if="showPicture(item.page) && pictureposition !== 'behind'" class="picturebox">
+              <img :src="pictureUrl" class="picture-img" alt="" />
+            </div>
+            <div class="codegroup">
+              <div v-if="layoutFor(item.page) !== 'textonly'" class="codebox">
+                <img v-if="images[item.index]" :src="images[item.index]" class="code-img" alt="" />
+                <!-- An empty code box is indistinguishable from a label that
+                     simply has no code on it, which is how a failed render
+                     reads as "the barcode does not appear". Say so, on screen
+                     only - the printed label must never carry this. -->
+                <span v-else class="code-missing">no code</span>
+              </div>
+              <div v-if="layoutFor(item.page) !== 'codeonly' && item.page.label" class="label-text">
+                {{ item.page.label }}
+              </div>
+            </div>
+          </div>
+          <span v-if="backenabled" class="side-flag">{{ item.page.side }}</span>
+        </div>
+        <p v-if="!pages.length" class="preview-empty no-print">
+          Nothing to print yet - enter content above.
+        </p>
+        </div>
       </div>
     </div>
   </div>
@@ -732,6 +752,47 @@ watch([pages, codetype, backcodetype, errorcorrection], renderAll)
 
 .code-generator { width: 100%; }
 
+/* Settings on the left, the labels themselves on the right, where they stay in
+   view while the settings that change them are being worked. The preview
+   column scrolls on its own so a 500-label run cannot push the controls off
+   the screen. */
+.workspace {
+  display: grid;
+  grid-template-columns: minmax(0, 3fr) minmax(300px, 2fr);
+  gap: 20px;
+  align-items: start;
+}
+
+.preview {
+  position: sticky;
+  top: 12px;
+  background: var(--bg-card);
+  border: 1px solid var(--border);
+  border-radius: 8px;
+  padding: 12px 16px 16px;
+  max-height: calc(100vh - var(--main-pad-top) - 24px);
+  overflow: auto;
+}
+
+.preview-head {
+  display: flex;
+  align-items: baseline;
+  justify-content: space-between;
+  gap: 1rem;
+}
+
+.preview-head .section-heading { margin-top: 0.25rem; }
+
+.preview-count { font-size: 0.8125rem; color: var(--text-light); }
+
+.preview-empty { color: var(--text-light); font-size: 0.8125rem; margin: 0; }
+
+/* One column once the two would be too narrow to work in. */
+@media (max-width: 1200px) {
+  .workspace { grid-template-columns: minmax(0, 1fr); }
+  .preview { position: static; max-height: none; }
+}
+
 .controls {
   background: var(--bg-card);
   color: var(--text);
@@ -905,18 +966,35 @@ watch([pages, codetype, backcodetype, errorcorrection], renderAll)
 .label.type-barcode .codebox {
   flex: 1 1 auto;
   width: auto;
-  min-width: 0;
+  /* Never below 40% of the label: past that a CODE128 is too few narrow bars
+     to scan, so it is better for the caption to wrap or clip. */
+  min-width: 40%;
   height: var(--tool-barh);
 }
 
+.label.layout-stack.type-barcode .codebox { min-width: 100%; }
+
+/* Screen-only, and deliberately loud: an empty box means the render failed. */
+.code-missing {
+  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
+  font-size: 6px;
+  letter-spacing: 0.08em;
+  text-transform: uppercase;
+  color: var(--danger);
+}
+
 .code-img {
   width: 100%;
   height: 100%;
   object-fit: contain;
 }
 
+/* The caption takes what it needs and no more. Both boxes used to grow, so a
+   caption of any length halved the barcode and then kept going - at 1x0.5in
+   with a couple of words it left a 36px stub that reads as "the code did not
+   render". A code that cannot be scanned is not a label. */
 .label-text {
-  flex: 1 1 auto;
+  flex: 0 1 auto;
   min-width: 0;
   text-align: center;
   font-family: "Arial Narrow", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
@@ -943,7 +1021,20 @@ watch([pages, codetype, backcodetype, errorcorrection], renderAll)
 
 @media print {
   .side-flag { display: none !important; }
+  .code-missing { display: none !important; }
   .sheet { padding: 0; display: block; gap: 0; }
+  /* The preview column is chrome. Its overflow matters most: a scrolling
+     ancestor clips a multi-page print to whatever was on screen. */
+  .workspace { display: block; }
+  .preview {
+    position: static;
+    max-height: none;
+    overflow: visible;
+    border: 0;
+    border-radius: 0;
+    padding: 0;
+    background: none;
+  }
   /* The back's dotted variant outspecifies a bare .label reset, so it printed
      a dashed rule down the edge of every second card. */
   .label,