With so many label printers on the market it can be hard to know which one is right for you. You can narrow it down by deciding exactly what you will use your label printer for and how you will use it. Here are some points to consider in your decision making:
- Will you be using sheet labels or labels on a roll?
- Do your labels need to be durable?
- Will you be printing text, colour images or photos?
- Do you need a portable printer?
If you’re not sure, or you just want more information on different types of printers, below is information on some of the best label printers for each type of use.
Thermal direct desktop printers
Citizen CL-S521 is part of a respected series of industrial desktop label printers that offer best-in-class performance, reliability and durability. It is designed to handle logos, pictures and to produce EAN compliant barcodes.
Its internal power supply makes it highly reliable and the ability to automatically switch between different ‘languages’ used to create labels makes it highly adaptable. It can operate wired or wirelessly too.
Thermal transfer desktop printers
The Citizen CL-S621 offers great performance and value in the transfer printing market but you should also consider the Intermec Easycoder PF8t which is compact, sturdy and incredibly quiet when printing.
Label and ribbon changes are simple and label rolls (of up to 10,800 inches) can be simply dropped in. The Easycoder’s small size makes it an ideal choice for small businesses that require no more than a thousand labels each day. With a potential memory size of 1GB, the ability to recognize most 1D and 2D symbologies and some of the fastest processing times in its class, this is a small label printer that delivers more than you might expect.
Industrial printers
The Toshiba B-EX4T is a label printer with pedigree, which offers excellent performance and ease of operation. Premium printer capabilities come as standard so you can expect features such as internal file storage, automatic thermal print head dpi detection and ribbon wrinkle cancelling to help reduce paper and ribbon wastage. Naturally, both direct thermal and thermal transfer printing are offered and a print resolution of up to 305 dpi is possible.
Digital printers
The Primera LX900e is a digital printer that lets you print short-run, full colour labels on-demand. If your labels require that supermarket look with high quality photos then this is one of the newest, fastest and most cost-effective printers on the block. The latest high-resolution inkjet technology allows you to print vibrant, eye-catching labels for your packaging whilst individual ink colour cartridges help keep costs down as you only need replace the specific colour that has run out.
With a colour droplet size of just 4 pL the LX900e offers the best quality colour images available on any industrial-grade colour label printer. It also offers print resolution up to 4800 dpi compared to the industry standard of 1200 dpi.
Portable printers
The Zebra QL420 is a direct thermal mobile printer that is robust and easy to use. Offering up to 4.09” print widths but specially designed for complex mobile printing needs, the QL420 can handle high speed wireless data transfers with impressive levels of security. This makes it ideal for sensitive data transfers as well as for pick tickets, fork lift mounted pricing, inventory updates, customer pickup, meter reading receipts, shipment labelling and utility inspection documentation.
Now the hard part is over – all you need to do next is to choose a label manufacturer that meets your needs!