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Looking for the best label printer for your small business can be quite a challenge for first time users.

There are all sorts of label makers ranging in size, cost, and print speed—but which features should you consider to find the perfect label printer for your small business?

Here are some of the top factors to consider:

Types of Label Printers
Price
Printing Speed
Volume of Printing
Print Quality
Portability
Water Resistance
Versatility
Connectivity
Usability and Comfort

With so many choices of label printers in the market, it’s easy to get lost as you weigh the different criteria while selecting the perfect label maker for your small business. In this article, you will learn what the most important attributes are in a label printer.

1. Types of Label Printer

Which type of label printer—thermal label printer or laminated label printer— best suits your business needs?

There are pros and cons to each label printing technology so read on to find out more.

Direct Thermal Label Maker

If your business requires labels used for barcodes, address labels, shipping labels, receipts, tickets or food packaging, the direct thermal label maker is a good fit for you. Thermal printing uses heat-sensitive label stock and burns text onto the label itself, without reaching dangerously high temperatures.

Most thermal printed labels last a long time. However, they are not well suited for environments that expose them to heat, long periods of direct sunlight, or abrasion as the material will darken, making the text illegible or the barcode invalid. Hence, do keep in mind that direct thermal printing is not the best option for long-life products and applications.

Brother’s QL-800 Label Printer, which bagged the PC Mag Editors’ Choice 2020, is one of the most popular label makers in Singapore utilising thermal printing technology. Brother’s DK-22251 series offers black and red printing, and is popularly used for address labels, shipping labels and food packaging as you can highlight important information such as use-by dates and allergens. Such label printers have a speed of 93 labels per minute, which makes labeling very efficient.

Developed for busy workplaces, you will be happy to know that this advanced label printer is easy to set-up and use. Simply connect the printer to your PC or Mac via USB, and run the built-in software—with P-touch Editor Lite, you need not install printer drivers.

Laminated Label Printer

For businesses that focus on backend assets where labels are needed for shelves, office equipment, name badges, cabinets, and files, the laminated label printer may be your best bet. Laminated labels can withstand the test of time (fade resistant) and elements (heat/cold/water) better as the ink is printed onto the laminated labels.

For such uses, the Brother PT-D450 Label Printer might be the label printer of choice. The PT-D450 allows you to quickly generate labels up to 18mm wide, either using the printer’s own keyboard and high resolution backlit display to create them directly, or by sending your designs through your PC or Mac via P-touch Editor software. It is also one of the few label makers designed with a QWERTY keyboard, making it extremely user-friendly.

2. Price

Cost is the next factor that you should consider—but don’t just focus on the cost of the label printer itself; also consider the cost of its consumables—ink cartridges, toners, print head, label tape, stickers, rolls, etc. You may be shocked by how quickly the costs of the consumables add up after snagging a cheap label printer.

To avoid such surprises, it is wise to do the math and get a clearer picture of what your costs will be like in a year. You might be better off with a competitively priced label printer, with more affordable consumables that help keep the long-term running costs low.

3. Printing Speed

The printing speed of the label maker can make or break your business—especially if your print volume is high or you operate in a time-sensitive environment. Having a label printer that can produce more labels at a faster speed will definitely streamline your business processes. The number of labels per minute or the inches per second are specifications that you have to look out for when choosing the ideal label maker.

4. Volume of Printing

Similarly, the print volume of a label maker can affect your business. If you need to print a huge volume of labels, a more efficient label printer that has an auto cut function can help you save time spent on constantly changing cartridges or label rolls. This function aids in continuous printing by cutting your label to the precise length, for up to one metre.

5. Print Quality

Do you need to print high quality labels or would an above-average quality suffice? Do you need your label prints to be smudge-free and fade-proof?

These are some questions to ponder upon, especially since print quality is typically correlated to its price. If print resolution is important to you, you may want to look out for a label printer that offers higher dpi (dots-per-inch).

6. Portability

Another factor to consider is the portability of the label printer. Do you need to constantly be on-the-go with your label printer, moving from product to product, shelf to shelf, warehouse to warehouse? With a portable label printer that has a built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery, you will be able to continue labeling for a longer period of time, keeping an efficient workflow.

This is where you may have to decide between lightweight and portable label printers and the heavy-duty ones.

7. Water Resistance

The environment your business is in will also affect the type of labels you choose. Water-resistant labels would be extremely important if your business operates in high-humidity conditions or if there is a possibility of condensation at any point of the logistics process.

8. Versatility

The versatility of a label printer provides you with multiple ways to send a print job from—standalone, PC, mobile device, network systems, etc. It is important to consider this attribute if your business taps on these diverse needs. For a more comprehensive read on these multiple ways of printing, click here!

9. Connectivity

In the digital and mobile age, you may need to consider how easy it is to connect your label printer to a computer for direct printing from common applications such as Microsoft Word or Excel. Most label printers can be connected to a computer via USB. Other more advanced models may come with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity. If you need your labeller to link up with other devices frequently, your ideal label printer will need to check this box.

10. Usability and Comfort

Finally, the most important factor that trumps it all is the labeller’s ease of use. Is the screen big enough for you to preview the labels comfortably? Is the label printer intuitive to use? The overall user-friendliness of a label printer could be a deal maker (or breaker) so do try it out before you make the leap!

Conclusion

Choosing the best label printer for your small business can be a daunting task. We hope that the above tips are helpful in enabling you to decide on the best label printer for your business.

Across the healthcare industry, printing has always played a vital role in patient identification and medication labelling, but with groundbreaking innovations in mobile printing technology, healthcare providers and caregivers have embraced a new breed of portable printers for faster, safer, and more accurate labelling where they are needed – whether it is at a hospital, laboratory, pharmacy, or outfield.

With today’s healthcare providers and government agencies facing ever-changing patient needs in the face of a global pandemic, let’s take a closer look at what this new generation of mobile labelling solutions has to offer and how they are being used across the industry.

Accurate and robust labels on-demand

The unprecedented challenges brought about by COVID-19 saw the need for testing centres and vaccine distribution locations to be rapidly deployed across community centres, worker dormitories, and hospitals, and when it comes to patient safety, it is vital that all their information is always clearly and accurately labelled across every stage of this process.

With today’s advanced and compact mobile printers, healthcare professionals can readily print barcode labels vaccination receipts, patient ID wristbands, community identification labels, specimen collection labels, and more, to ensure that everyone receives their specific dosage and documentation. This meant that not only would they require a mobile printing solution that could be rapidly deployed across hundreds of vaccination points across the region, but that each printer must be easy to set up and robust enough to withstand hundreds of prints each day.

Faster, safer swab testing on wheels

One of the critical components in helping contain the pandemic is testing, and in its efforts to track and combat the spread of the virus, governments have converted vehicles into mobile testing stations, allowing swab teams to be quickly deployed to perform swab operations safely. This enables tests to be carried out on at-risk locations rather than requiring potentially infected patients to commute to a fixed test site.

On such mobile testing stations, patient details and identification can be captured via an app and immediately sent to on-board mobile label printers to print labels that are applied to the various swab test request forms, swab sample vials, and swab sample manifest lists. This automated process not only requires less contact between patients and the healthcare professionals, but more importantly, ensures the accurate and timely documentation of all testing conducted across large groups.

The future of labelling for healthcare

As the pandemic continues to impact the healthcare sector and beyond, mobile label printers will continue to play an essential role in workplace safety around the world. These solutions can be set-up at a moment’s notice, and seamlessly integrated with existing technology to swiftly and effectively test, identify and document large volumes of samples – wherever you may require them. Find out more about these mobile printing innovations, and how they can help facilitate the future of workplace safety here

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How To Choose The Best Label Printer For Your Small Business