Label makers

Good labels can used be used to enhance the marketing and sales of your products. You can include interesting and helpful information such as pictures, and bar codes on your labels. These kinds of labels are not only useful for the customer but they can also help you monitor the inventory numbers of your products. For these obvious reasons, you should have at least one of the label makers, also called as label printers to produce good labeling.

Produce presentable labels

Although you can utilize your dot matrix and office laser printers as label makers, the two basic types of label makers used for on-site, on-demand labels are the direct thermal label makers, and the thermal transfer label makers. Both of these label makers employ heat transfer to form the graphics and text on your labels. They are typically found in retail environments, point-of-sale, and other types of portable label making.

Direct thermal label makers

You can find labels made from direct thermal label makers in the supermarket fresh-produce. The price and weight information, bar codes and product descriptions of fish, meat, fruits, vegetables and cheese are usually printed using direct thermal label makers.

Direct thermal label makers use special papers which are heat sensitive coated for labeling. When direct thermal label makers are in operation, the print head in the label makers (which consist of numerous styli in the form of grid) heat up while a microprocessor cools them selectively. When the special paper is heated by the styli, the areas that come in contact form the required information on the labels.

The resulting labels of direct thermal label makers work fine. However, since the papers are heat sensitive, the images of bar codes do not last that long. This is the reason why direct thermal label makers can be found mainly on fresh produce and chill cabinet goods, all of which have very short shelf lives.

High cost of heat sensitive paper and low volume at ten to eighteen labels per minute are some of the other disadvantages of using direct thermal label makers. But if you calculate the cost per label of those produced by direct thermal label makers, you will still spend lower than the other label makers.

Thermal transfer label makers

Unlike direct thermal label makers that make use of heat sensitive ribbon to transfer an image to a label, direct thermal label makers use a thin-film, wax- or resin-based ribbon which contains a heat-activated ink, or a heat-sensitive coating. The required image on your labels is created when the heat-activated ink coating in the film carrier is transferred to the substrate, following a pattern that is determined by the heated styli.

Thermal transfer label makers are usually used for printing information such as batch codes, text, diagrams, date codes, and other information for distribution and warehousing requirements. Since there is no special paper required by thermal transfer label makers, smooth paper and label stocks will do the job for you. The papers can be made from synthetic or natural materials.

You can get higher-quality bar codes from thermal transfer label makers. The volume per minute of using thermal transfer label makers is around 25 to 100 labels. But thermal transfer label makers cost more than the direct thermal label makers.

Label makers are not without problems. A tiny speck of dust within the label makers may produce distorted labels. The expensive printer heads of label makers are also prone to malfunction. However, you must also consider that good labels can induce customers to buy your products. Adding information such as address, phone numbers and website address may even result in repeat customers.