| e Printers nowadays comes in all sorts of shapes and | | | | wider variety of materials than direct thermal. As such, |
| sizes with varying price range. It can also either be | | | | the type of material you are going to print barcodes on |
| hand-held or desk bound. Technically, general purpose | | | | is a crucial factor in determining which barcode printer |
| laserjet and inkjet printers cannot print barcodes by | | | | to purchase. |
| default. Usually, they require a add-on component or | | | | Larger barcode printers usually have the ability to |
| module. An example is Capella Technologies which | | | | switch between direct thermal and thermal transfer. |
| provides barcode printing functionality to standard HP | | | | One disadvantage of thermal transfer is that the |
| laserjet printers through an add-on flash card. Such | | | | ribbon needs to be changed quite frequently. If you are |
| barcode printers are usually limited in the number of | | | | using the barcode printer in a manufacturing |
| symbologies that can be used. | | | | environment, there could be a lot of downtime. A direct |
| Thermal Barcode printers, on the other hand supports | | | | thermal printer is faster and is useful particularly where |
| multiple symbologies right out of the box. The more | | | | speed is required and you are not printing a lot of |
| common barcode printer manufacturers include zebra | | | | barcodes all the time. An example would be in a |
| and symbol. | | | | hospital where each patient warded is given a |
| There are two ways barcode printers print barcode, | | | | barcode to identify them. |
| the first method is Thermal Transfer and the second | | | | If you need to print thousand of barcode labels at a |
| method is Direct Thermal. Direct Thermal prints the | | | | time. Look at purchasing one of the thermal printers |
| barcode directly on the label while Thermal Transfer | | | | from symbol or zebra. I found them to be pretty good |
| make use of a ribbon and a printhead. The ribbon is | | | | in terms of speed and functionality. I would advise to |
| heated and the image is etched on by the printhead on | | | | get a barcode printer that has a larger print width and |
| a pre-defined area. | | | | a larger print label capacity. |
| Thermal transfer allows you to print barcodes on a | | | | |