Can anyone recommend their small label printer?

[Morgan]

I've seen this one I quite like the look of http://www.viking-direct.co.uk/1/1/51972-brother-ql500bs-label-printer.html

How does thermal printing work? I like the sound of no toner, ink and ribbon costs.

Would I hook it up to my laptop or main PC? I work from laptop but print out via main pc printer. Sorry for silly questions.

I've always just written my addresses out but the time has come to get a printer. Just a small, low cost one so any recs would be great.

 

[AdamJ]

We have two Dymo LabelWriter 400s, connected to PCs. Been very good so far.

 

[deniser]

I have a Citizen CLP-521 connected to my PC. Works perfectly except it always skips a label at the beginning of a run which is a little wasteful.

 

[Morgan]

Thank you people, will look into your recs.

 

[VITMAN]

Brother also do some nice ones, either USB or networked ones and they are quite cheap.

 

[kulture]

I vote for dymo

 

[visagephoto]

I have the Brother QL560 and and find it very easy to use , the print quality is both excellent and quick.

The included software which includes a large range of clipart, fonts, shapes and design options can be installed on both your laptop & desktop PC's.

The only downside is the price of the labels which can be quite expensive compared to A4 sheets of blank labels, but despite this it's a great label printer which I'm glad I bought.

 

[TotallySport]

how many are you printing now? and how many do you expect to be printing long term?

 

[deadgoodundies]

We've got two dymo twin turbos in our offices and they do their job very well.
Yes labels can be expensive but we purchase our non brand ones from a supplier on ebay and it saves a lot of money

 

[dk7314]

I have had a few Dymos, they are the business, I've never had a problem. If you purchase non branded labels from ebay they cost about 1p per label.


Dan.

 

[kylelnsn]

I really like te demo printers, as you can get some with dual printers which can accept 2 different label sizes!

 

[elliot.rigsby]

Thermal printers are the only cost effective way to print labels in qty. They arent cheap though. TEC make very good ones but they are really dear.

 

[ThePublisher]

Another vote for the Dymo, I have the 400 Turbo which I've been using for about 2-3 years now, never had a problem with it.

 

[Deleted member 74972]

I've had a couple of Dymos. The printers are great, but, Dymo have a habit of not updating drivers when operating systems get updated.
I had to buy a new printer because the previous one, in vg condition, was not supported on Windows 7. Also, their Mac support has been very patchy in the past.

 

[HTMLHugo]

another for this, we love it and can't believe it took us so long to acquire one.

I have the Brother QL560 and and find it very easy to use , the print quality is both excellent and quick.

The included software which includes a large range of clipart, fonts, shapes and design options can be installed on both your laptop & desktop PC's.

The only downside is the price of the labels which can be quite expensive compared to A4 sheets of blank labels, but despite this it's a great label printer which I'm glad I bought.

 

[visagephoto]

I have the Brother QL560 and and find it very easy to use , the print quality is both excellent and quick.

The included software which includes a large range of clipart, fonts, shapes and design options can be installed on both your laptop & desktop PC's.

The only downside is the price of the labels which can be quite expensive compared to A4 sheets of blank labels, but despite this it's a great label printer which I'm glad I bought.

Makro are advertising this printer in their latest sale (23rd March till 4th April) for only £27.49 + Vat, mine cost nearly £60.00 last year from Staples.

 

[dave1928]

Dymo Lable printer 450 is the latest one. Works with windows 7 too and can also get a few different version like a faster version / twin / duo and XL.

Im about to order my first label printer and Dymo seems to be the best out the bunch available. All reviews never seem to have a bad word said about them.

Ive seen the dymo label printer for about £68 inc VAT. A lot are charging more so just google Dymo label printer 450 and you will soon find the site selling them cheap on the first page.

Cost of labels i havent really looked into other than i can see them for about 1p each which is fair enough. WIll have to look on ebay as some have said here.

 

[James Readability]

How does thermal printing work? I like the sound of no toner, ink and ribbon costs.

Direct thermal printers create an image without a ribbon – the top surface of the label is chemically treated to react and darken when in contact with the heated pixels on the print head. The image is “burnt” onto the surface of the label.

The direct thermal label will also react to sunlight, and darken the label so its original print is unreadable, the image also fades overtime making it an unsuitable label and printing choice if the label has to last a long time.

For my two pence worth of recommendations, if you are absolutely sure you only ever need direct thermal printing then those recommended are all fine if you are in doubt then a printer that can do the thermal printing and thermal transfer printing may be a better option.