• How many labels are you printing?
• What size labels are you printing?
• What is the content of your label?
• How will you control the printer?
• How are the labels used?

Let's take these questions one at a time.

How many labels are you printing? This is the most basic question and probably the most important. Are you printing 100 labels per week? 10,000 per day? As a rule of thumb, 1000 labels per day is a good break point. Less is considered low volume, more high volume. For high volume applications, you will need a rugged printer, with all metal construction, not ABS plastic. High volume also requires higher print speeds. Look for at least 6 inches per second (IPS), 10 or 12 IPS for very high volume. Using multiple printers is another solution.

What size labels are you printing? (Another good question, but from my experience, this won't narrow down your choices much). Most barcode printers have about a 4.2" wide print head an enough memory to print at least 6" high. They can easily print the popular 4"x6" standard shipping label. They are also flexible enough to print down to .75" wide by .5" high, handling the majority of barcode label requirements. Of course there are 6" & 8" printers for wider labels like those used on chemical drums; Laser and dot matrix printers for 8.5" wide forms; And some 2" direct thermal only printers for low cost, low volume, small label applications.

What is the content of your label? "Well... I want to print a barcode and some text. So what? All barcode printers print barcodes and text." If your barcodes will be serialized (001,002,003,...) or your text will change on every label (a different address on every shipping label), you want a printer that doesn't have to stop and think about these changes between every label. Make sure your printer has a 32 bit processor for faster operation. If you need high resolution graphics on your label, think about a 300 dpi print head.

How will you control the printer? This can be a complicated question, branching out to a multitude of additional questions and solutions too lengthy to explain here. Let's just touch on some of the basics. Typically a printer is driven from a personal computer. You can write a program using the printers command language or you can use optional barcode label software. You can communicate through the com port (serial) or the parallel port (centronics). If you are on a network, you may need a twinax or coax interface. If you require portability, a hand held data collector can be used with a battery operated printer.

How are the labels used?How you will use your labels is a question that eludes to printer options. Will you need a cutter, a rewinder, a peel & present option, or maybe an automatic applicator? This question also leads to our next catalogue's article on media. You won't want to miss it. Did you know that over the life of the printer, the average customer will spend 10 times the cost of printer on ribbons & labels?

Well, time to go. There's someone on line 3 wanting to know what printer to buy. Maybe it's you... If not call me or one of our technically trained sales representatives for personal assistance.

Bob Scher, CEO