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Printer

One-at-a-time Mailing Label Printers? 63

Posted by Cliff from the addressing-singles dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "I work at a small law firm, and we are looking for a better way to print mailing labels. Currently, we print out an entire label sheet (30 labels) for each of our regular clients, storing them in binders. For one-offs, we use a typewriter. I'd like to find a label printer for around $250 (or less) to print labels one at a time. The challenge is that all the printers I can find are thermal print. Our fear is that a label may become unreadable due to heat exposure sometime during mailing. Even if label damage due to heat is rare, we cannot afford to take a chance since many of the documents we mail are time-sensitive. Also, we often send documents unfolded in large envelopes, so addressing #10 envelopes through a laser printer isn't enough -- we need labels!"
"The ideal printer would be non-thermal, e.g. inkjet, available through our network so anyone could print from their desktop, usable with some network printing device, and maybe even compatible with our Samba print server. Oh yeah, and I'd like it to be open enough that I can send text to it for printing, so maybe I can write a quick app to let users print labels from our client database, or make their own on the fly. Finally, I'm hoping to find a product that is not discontinued (e.g. Seiko EZ30), as surfing eBay for office equipment is not something my boss is willing to let me do."
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One-at-a-time Mailing Label Printers? More

One-at-a-time Mailing Label Printers?

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  • Easy. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @04:25PM (#14347224) Homepage Journal
    No not ink jet, dot matrix!
    http://www.okidata.com/mkt/html/nf/ML186Home.html [okidata.com]
    We still have several old Okidata printers at my office just for printing out multipart forms and for labels.

    It is what we used back in the dark ages. Now if you could find an old Okidata 92 you would be all set. I think they will last until the sun goes nova.

    • Re:Easy. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by sakusha ( 441986 )
      I agree, this is a job for a simple dot matrix printer and continuous-forms labels. But it is tricky to print just one at a time, you have to design your label forms so your preprinted return address (and logo, whatever) is on the top half of the form, then you print the To: address on the bottom half of the label, so when you do a "form feed" the edge of the label clears the top of the print head and you can tear it off. In other words, the "top of form" mark is really halfway down the label, you start pri
      • A "modern" dot matrix printer will have the tear off support on tractor-fed paper. Say for instance an Oki Microline 3390 for 24-pin dot-matrix.
        Of course push-feds are vulnerable to jams, but that goes for any printer. :-) And be sure that a label doesn't come unstuck from the backing paper and glues itself to the paper out sensor. :-P
        Oki's were built like a tank when I used them, and I hope that it remains so today.
    • can you not just use window envelopes and a template for your word processor that puts the address in a suitable place?
      if you can't do this, why not write a macro that'll spit your address labels out of a real label printer like a Dymo or a Zebra Z4M+ when you print a letter?
      Or setup your templates in Word to print the address labels to a different printer tray to your letter paper, and fill that printer tray with envelopes?
      this is the kind of problem that i'd imagine a bit of thought could completely r

  • You know... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Deagol ( 323173 )
    You *can* print only one of those 30 labels at a time. I do it all the time.

    • Re:You know... (Score:4, Informative)

      by superchkn ( 632774 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @04:48PM (#14347451)
      As Deagol noted, unless your office is exceptionally humid, running labels through multiple times is unlikely to cause problems. At a previous job we did this all the time and the one time we had a problem it was attributed to one of the labels having been caught by another sheet in the stack and peeled up, causing a paper jam. Luckily it was easy to remove and thereafter a quick glance at the sheet before use and better storage solved the problem. We ended up creating a script that would generate HTML pages to print given a starting label column and row using a database to provide the address data. It took some fine-tuning to keep it ontrack after 10 or so pages which wouldn't have been a problem if we'd used some word-processing application instead of HTML, but the HTML worked out better for our situation. We'd print our postage information using a thermal printer and then used the laser for the address information though I must admit I no longer recall why. Either way, we never had an issue with either the laser or thermal labels becoming unreadable.
      • The trouble with that strategy is you have to keep track of which labels have already been used on a given sheet (or else toss out sheets with 29 labels remaining).

        • Re:You know... (Score:3, Informative)

          by angle_slam ( 623817 )
          If you use something like MS Word, it's pretty easy. First, create a label page with the one label you have to print. Then print that label. Then, save the label file. Next time you need a label, just erase the first label (from the Word document), and print the next one. (Actually, erasing the first label is optional, the worst that will happen is that your printer will print on a part of the page without a label.
      • I saw a solution to this problem a long time ago when laser printers were brand new. One company made a special paper form that was 12.5 inches long, the last 1.5 inch section was perforated and had a self-adhesive label. Then you'd stick these sheets in a legal size paper tray, maybe use that as the secondary tray in a 2 tray laser printer. The idea was that you could print a sticker on the same sheet as your letter, then you'd tear off the little performated strip at the bottom, remove the label, and stic

  • Zebra thermal printers (Score:4, Informative)

    by duffbeer703 ( 177751 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @04:30PM (#14347282)
    Joel Splosky from Joel on Software had a similar problem and wrote it up here:

    http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HowToShipAn ything.html

    I wouldn't worry about label damage if you are using a good thermal printer -- UPS and FedEx both use thermal printers to produce their labels.

    • It's not the printer so much as the quality of the label stock. But most of the ones I've seen only get marred if they're exposed to open flame. Since the stock we have to deal with is often not known whether or not it's thermal, we sometimes find a smoker and borrow their lighter to test it.

  • Thermal really is the way to go (Score:5, Informative)

    by everyplace ( 527571 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @04:44PM (#14347412) Homepage
    At our office we use the Dymo Labelwriter 330 Turbo. Its a great product for exactly what you're looking for. Every day we print singles or hundreds of labels, primarily as shipping labels. Unless you're taking a lighter or some other intense heat source to the surface of the label, the ink isn't going to fade or become distored in any short amount of time. We've never had the quality of the label be at fault for a mis-delivered package. That's primarily left up to the human error, as always.

    You should check out the two newest offerings from dymo. They have a 400 model, and one that prints to two different types of labels at once, which can be nice if you occaisionally need clear labels.
    • I second this. It works really well. Don't let an irrational hatred of thermal printers based on register receipt printers turn you off to the Dymo Labelwriters.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I bought my spouse a Dymo 400 for xmas ($80 or so at amazon). I was amazed by its speed and ease. One caveat: it came with a label test halfway stuck in and out of the case, without instructions for removing it. Needless to say, I chose to pull it the wrong way, and ended up with bits of label sticker stuck inside the thing. Didn't make for a happy xmas morning. Once I got it out it works great. I tested it on OS X and XP. No printer cartridges either. Deal.

  • At the office I work at (a government agency, of course) we just print out #10 envelopes. If something needs to go out in a larger envelope, we just tape to secure the #10 to the larger envelope. If your really worried about the tape falling off, just buy a bunch of those clear document pouches like they use for UPS, and stick the #10 envelope in there. Those pouches don't come off without someone meaning to take it off, and then not easily.

    • If your really worried about the tape falling off, just buy a bunch of those clear document pouches like they use for UPS, and stick the #10 envelope in there.

      You really do work for the government, don't you? You are so close to a good idea here, but not quite there.

      Get the clear pouches. Print the address (plus maybe your return address and your law firm's logo) on half of a 8½"x11" or A4 page. Fold the page in half and stick it in the pouch. Attach the pouch to the large envelope. Problem

  • The answer... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Shads ( 4567 ) <shadusNO@SPAMshadus.org> on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @04:46PM (#14347427) Homepage Journal
    ... for single labels is-- Dymo. We used them at the post office, we use them where I work now, they work well and consistantly. I've had ~3000 in the field at a time and seen only one or so a month. Good stuff.
  • Don't bother with a normal laserjet or inkjet. Get a solid envelope printer like the PB DA400 [pb.com]. Prints envelopes up to 13"x15". Bowes is expensive, but they have good service. I've used several printers like this on and this one. All seem to work well with the normal printer caveats of jams and running out of ink eventually.

  • Dymo! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @04:46PM (#14347437)
    Our fear is that a label may become unreadable due to heat exposure sometime during mailing.

    Jesus fucking christ, get a clue. Thermal print technology is mature and robust. If you worry about heat in transit changing the label, then you should worry about your letter catching fire.

    Even if label damage due to heat is rare, we cannot afford to take a chance since many of the documents we mail are time-sensitive.

    If you can't take a chance with time delays or loss, then send everything by FedEx. Otherwise use the mail and stop sniveling.

    Get a Dymo LabelWriter 330 Turbo [dymo.com]. Yes, it's thermal, but it's wonderful. Mailing labels are around 10 cents - more expensive than Avery, but your staff productivity will be much higher. It's fast. It can be shared on a network as a regular windows printer. It has nifty software that can print zip codes, verify addresses, and mail-merge. It has a plugin to print labels directly from MS Word. It even comes with a well-documented API if you want to write your own app. Lots of different label sizes available. It's cheap.

    • DYMO's API (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have written several applications that fetch and manipulate data and print to the Dymo 300/400 series USB label printers.

      The API is has several "levels". There is a OLE level which just sends signals to the Dymo Label application that comes with the printer -- this can be made to work, and is what I always ended up using. The "low-level" API they offer, a more standard way controlling the printer, simply doesn't work. Good luck getting any sort of technical support out of DYMO on any issues you run int
    • If you ever get some oil (maybe from a sorting machine, maybe from the postmans french fries) then your label is instantly ruined, it just turns black. Not a lot of oil needed either...

  • UPS gives you an Eltron 2844 to print their labels on.

    http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/index/products /printers/desktop.html [zebra.com]
    • When I was in high school I worked at a local (not a chain) video store. I had the task of figuring out how to make thousands of bar codes for the movies. Surely this wasn't to be done by hand, but using a spreadsheet and the Eltron software, I was able to figure out how to do it. The reason I mention this is because Eltron included some nice software to automatically generate labels and the poster should also look closely into the software provided when making the decision.

  • Thermal is fine (Score:5, Informative)

    by Unholy_Kingfish ( 614606 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @05:19PM (#14347660) Homepage
    I have NEVER seen a thermal label "overheated" and ruined. In my personal purchases I have seen credit card slips do it, but only one or two ever. We have been selling online for 6 years (this coming year) and have literally had packages with label sent back to us from UPS that were in a train crash and the packages were submerged in a river with ZERO problems. Same with USPS. (We use the UPS labels for USPS stuff, shhhhhh don't tell them)

    The thermal labels have a coating on them that makes the almost waterproof. If you use some sort of laser rolled printer, you have to consider water damage to the paper if you use cheap labels. THAT is more likely to be a problem than the whole heating issue.

    I checked around and there are different grades of thermal paper, temperature ranges, and coating types. But like I said before, in almost 6 years and over 100,000 orders we have never seen a thermal label do that.

    • I agree. The only Thermal Paper I've seen have problems are the CC slips you get as receipts.

      I also agree that the main thing you'll need to worry about is water damage rather than heat. Its more likely to be raining when the mail is delivered than some guy walking around in a sauna reading your evelope watching it overheat. With that said, I would stay away from inkjet printers as they tend to bleed when water hits the paper. Thats a bad thing when the postman is walking around in the rain and the office/h

  • What kind of thermal? (Score:3, Informative)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @05:23PM (#14347691)
    The challenge is that all the printers I can find are thermal print. Our fear is that a label may become unreadable due to heat exposure sometime during mailing.

    There's different technologies. If you're talking about cash register receipt thermal paper, yeah, I'd not want that. OTOH, we use a SATO thermal printer with film ribbon and polyester labels to print MAC number and serial number labels for some of our products. The film ribbon/poly label is very, very durable and looks sharp.
  • MS Office will allow you to print ONE label at the location of your choice on a sheet. I assume Open Office will to. What's the problem with that? Unless you have cash to blow...
  • Many of the comments that have been posted say that thermal printing is okay. If you buy good, expensive thermal stock, thermal printing lasts 5 years. Even the companies that sell the materials don't promise more than that, and that's only for very special stock.

    Sometimes people keep documents for many years. In some cases, it could be inconvenient for the label to fade.

    I've researched inkjet printers. There are inkjet receipt printers that might work for labels. But that's a research project, of cou
  • This one is available for ~USD300 a bit more than you wanted to spend but well worth it. It can do contact or thermal, is compact, durable and very configurable.

  • There are two kinds of thermal printers. (Score:3, Informative)

    by bruciferofbrm ( 717584 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @07:09PM (#14348480) Homepage
    There is direct thermal, in which the surface get heated at the contact point, and the specially treated paper (label, what ever)turns black at the point of contact. this is how many old fax machines worked. Yes, indeed, if you got the old style fax paper exposed to heat later, it would turn nasty colors of grey or brown.

    Another type of termal printer is called Termal transfer. It used a heating element and a ribbon. Where the printing occurs, the heat transfers the image to the label via the ribbon. this is much like those little label printers may people use now in place of the really old dymo click and spin label printer of yesteryear.

    A good maker of label printers that work great is Sato America [satoamerica.com].

    Like many people I bought into the DYMO brand and p[icked up their USB/serial desktop printer. But when it failed my business needs I fell back to my previous exprience with a jewelery manufcature and their projuct labeling needs. They used networked (via jetdirect ports) SATO thermal transfer printers, and those never failed.

    The sato I picked up was a cx200 (which looks like its be replaced with a cx400) and is infact a straight thermal printer. I use it for mailing labels. they do not go bad on me in the mail / shipping process. however, if you just simply can not trust that technolgy has moved along far enought for your needs, then thermal transfer weorks better because the label itself is not heat sensitive.

    Finally, I agree with the old school methodology of using a tractor feed dot matrix printer. Nothing beats old school tech. Except the user who hates the old school whine that comes with it.

  • One off? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Kanasta ( 70274 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2005 @08:32PM (#14348968)
    How about writing it with a pen? See how much faster that is c/f dealing with printer jams/ out of ink/blah.
    • How many envelopes do you suppose a law office sends out every day?
    • Besides looking unprofessional, handwriting is of varying quality, and illegibility can affect delivery.

      Some shipping companies won't accept handwritten addresses, because it's so easy to misread them.
  • What are of the law do you practice in? That may affect the overall response you'll get from the readers around here.

    I'd recommend just using an old school 24 pin dot matrix printer, but that's me. They're great for some documents (tri-forms, etc); we print 3 copy magistrate letters on it because it punches through all 3 copies of the form (for the judge, the clerk, and us).

    Your mileage may vary.

  • You could always just print directly onto the letter sized envelope you intend to send through the mail.

    If concerned about jamming, please only place the intended mailing contents into the envelope after you have printed on it.

    Having once had the questionable honour of servicing printers that have been used for reprinting label sheets and peeling stickly labels off rollers that should never had adhesive applied to them, I would strongly suggest the whole-envelope printing option.

    Or, as people have many time
  • Thermal really is the way to go. Inkjet labels will get smudged easily; they are very sensitive to moisture. Laser is OK, but it has a tendency to chip off with handling. Thermal labels are very hard to destroy. If the package heats up to the point where the label is impossible to read, it will catch fire. Besides, laser toner doesn't like heat, either -- it will melt and smudge. Just about everyone uses thermal printers. There is a good reason for that.
    • hmm... thermal labels in the middle of summer in the middle of the day in the middle of Tucson (that's in Arizona where it's fuckin hot!) parked for two hours? It could happen.
  • Zebra 2844Z [zebra.com] beats the Dymo stuff hands down. My dad uses Dymos to print his prescription lables in his veterinary clinic and they are a pain in the ass to support because they sometimes just stop working.

    I personally have used a ton of Zebra products from the rebadged Eltrons that come from FedEx and UPS to their large industral quality printers. The 2844Z is easy to use, easy to clean, and has a well documented control language to control the printer. The Z stands for ZPL or Zebra Printer Language and is

    • Agree! Get a Z4M+ with network printserver and web configuration. muhahaha. its just abit over kill but we have that in our shipping department. Not sure if you would need that much lables though.
    • agreed, if you have the money. Z4M+ models will run 24x7 for years without a hitch with decent label stock. you can use thermal transfer or normal ink in them and they come with a network interface.
  • Why not just print an entire label sheet (30 labels) for each of your regular clients and store them in binders?

    What, exactly is wrong with that?
    • He already said he does that. Problem is that you sometimes have to send a one-off label. E.g., 30 labels is fine for a client. But for a messaging service you only use once, you're not going to go through 30 labels.

  • Our fear is that a label may become unreadable due to heat exposure sometime during mailing. Even if label damage due to heat is rare, we cannot afford to take a chance since many of the documents we mail are time-sensitive.

    The odds of thermal labels not surviving transit due to their composition isn't "rare." It's much closer to "zero." I used to work for UPS tech support and have seen all kinds of labelling problems but never have I seen one illegible due to yellowing or thermal d

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