As the use of barcodes has been increasing day by day, obviously the use barcode printers has also increased. Most of the manufacturers are using the barcodes because of the advantages like asset tracking etc.
Some of the people get confused in detecting the best type of printer for their use. There are different types of printers which can be used for printing the barcode. But the most commonly used barcode printers are the thermal printers. There are two types of thermal printers. They are direct thermal and Thermal Transfer printers. There are many differences between these two types of printers. Based on the requirement people select the best thermal barcode printer for their purpose.
Now, let us see the differences between the Direct thermal and thermal transfer printers.
Thermal transfer Barcode printers: Here a ribbon is used for printing purpose. Ribbons are available in many colors, so the printing can be done in many colors apart from black. One face of the ribbon is coated with the wax or the resin material. This coated side will be in contact with the label on which you want to print and the heat is applied from the print-head and the ink is applied to the label surface. This is the working procedure of this printers.
The Thermal transfer printers are most durable, the printing is crisp. For printing the large density of labels this thermal transfer printers are useful. Even for the longevity purposes this thermal transfer printers are useful. For the wide variety of images and for the long lasting of these images, these thermal transfer printers are used. But the disadvantage with this type of printers are – ribbon should be of good quality for providing good images and the ribbon should be changed frequently. They are used mostly for certifications. The cost of this barcode printer is high.
Direct Thermal Barcode Printers: No, ribbon is used for the printing. Here the heat activated thermal ribbons are used. Only the black color barcodes are provided using this printer. When compared with the thermal transfer barcode printers these are not crispy and they can be produced only in black color. The color of the barcode printers may fade with the time. They are not used for longevity purposes. They are sensitive to heat, light. So, they are used in the industries of food processing, parking tickets, event tickets etc. The cost for this low. They stay for less than 1 year.