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glabels: Ready For Prime Time
Joe Barr writes "NewsForge is running a review of glabels. It's still in beta status, but it's ready for prime time now. It knows hundreds of predefined label formats and allows you to design your own templates for custom work. Barcodes, images, just about anything but MP3 tracks can be printed on them. glabels is destined to become one of the most popular native apps for Linux." If you need harder-core barcode support, the excellent kbarcode would probably make a good complement. (NewsForge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.)
..back in The Day we'd just "cat >
Trolling is a art,
glabels is destined to become one of the most popular native apps for Linux
Oh yes, because I can't make it through the day without printing labels.
Either this is a statement about the status of Linux apps, or a comment on the poster's anal retentivness.
This is newsworthy?
That's what Bart's aunt Selma got him for his birthday. It caused nothing but trouble.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
wouldnt it make more sense to package a label printing facility as part of Open Office as apposed to a standalone application ?
great idea that *nix has this now but these sorts of things have been standard in MSWord for a long time, do i really need to open a specific application (and all the hassle of saving/re-opening) just to print a label or envelope ?
This seems like a nice little application, but I don't think you do it any favours by hyping it up so much. Great label-making program, check; most popular native application for Linux? That might be a bit of a stretch
Now I can just print out my own!
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+42, Post by me, explaining the Meaning of Life.
As a geek girl and former clerk I can say that it's really awesome to have software that gives me time to do things other than work. Labels are the most obnoxious thing to make, too. To quote Homer (guess which one): I hate them SO MUCH!
its not kbarcode.org, but kbarcode.net
Since a barcode is merely a specialized format for binary data (similar to a hard drive's RLL, in fact), I'm sure it's a matter of time until someone figures out how to transfer audio data to a print medium, for later retrieval via barcode scanner.
I know a hobbyist magazine back in the '80s used to print entire programs in barcode format. I think it was for the old Radio Shack Model 100 laptop.
That's great. I've been using an inexpensive program that's called Labels Unlimited 2 that did a great job handeling graphics, bar codes, database, and serial number functions. That's one less reason to keep a Win box. Now if only they can get National Geographic Back Roads Explorer and the state series TOPO maps ported...
The truth shall set you free!
If that's true, I think I see the problem with Linux on the Desktop.
It's a friggin label maker. Jesus. Why is this on NewsForge, much less the front page of Slashdot. Wasn't there a dupe you could have posted instead?
Yeah, i can proclaim my OS suppiriority by... printing up a label.
And, what's more, the label can mention just how unfeasable it would have been to have it's self created had it's creator not been using everyones favorite GTK based desktop
Or... you know... maybe the whole linux labeling community is a dead idea before it starts...
The Neo-Bohemian Techno-Socialist
I was so looking forward to dusting off the old CueCat and listening to some tracks with it.
Sorry, you can't have it both ways. Nope.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I sense great hostility in the crowd...
Quick! Someone post some SCO news.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
So where's the native Mac OS X version? Or will it run natively within the Mac OS X compile of GNOME?
I recently used it to mass-print a bunch of name badges on name badge stock in my laser printer.
I have also used it for labels; you can print just a few labels from a sheet, by specifying which label to start printing upon. So, if you have a sheet of labels, and you have used up the first 11, you can tell gLabels to start printing labels on the 12th label on the sheet. It's slick.
Finally, this is just the thing for address labels on a dedicated mini-label printer. I don't have that set up yet, but I intend to soon.
Someone asked why you can't just use OpenOffice for your labels; I want to have OpenOffice print by default to my laser printer, and gLabels by default print to the mini labels-only printer. I wouldn't object to OpenOffice knowing how to pass labels off to the mini-label printer too, of course.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
There's two main parts.
Each card is printed sideways with album cover art, artist, title and track listing. A barcode on both sides of the card uniquely identifies it. When inserted the PC analyzes the image to pick out the barcode. The barcode is linked to a playlist, which is played when the card is inserted.
just about anything but MP3 tracks can be printed on them
So it prints OGG & AVI files then?
I must admit, I never had the itch to make labels in linux. Not that big of a fan, really, but I do see the need for it. (labels, that is)
People will dismiss this project as a pointless waste of time, but I do believe it has its merits. If nothing else, think of it as something shiny to attract new users...or at least give them more of a cushion when they switch OS. (you don't usually switch because of apps as much as you DON'T switch because of a lack of apps)
We've seen lots of craptastic freeware/shareware stuff for Windows. Heck, back when I watched TechTV more, they had free files featured to do anything you didn't want to do to begin with. All I'm saying here is that it's a Good Thing(TM) to have apps created for linux.
Give us a GUI that does a batch mogrify on a folder of images. Give us more cute little penguins dancing on the screen. Give us something that does random "at" jobs to play random soundbytes to annoy others. Give us Elf Bowling. Give us whatever you fancy to write.
In the end, hack away to your heart's content. Write code, give code, learn from code. I can't look any of you coders in the eyes and say "you're wasting your time." Instead I say keep up the good work and keep churning good code.
I see lots of jokes about barcodes software and how ground breaking it is being made here. It's obvious that the people making those jokes don't work in retail software.
I write Point of sale and inventory management software and good easy handling of barcodes is a huge thing with customers, even if it is relatively boring software wise. Programs like this may seem like nothing but they will go a long way towards linux acceptance in key non server locations.
RFID may be the new hotness but barcodes still rule the retail world.
Printing labels is the easy part. Reading them is another story. In a perfect world, I'd be able to use a run-of-the-mill webcam to read barcodes put in front of it in any direction. While there are a few commercial apps which do this, they're expensive and (after playing with a couple demos) not all that accurate.
If anyone has any leads on a good OSS (or even just cheap -- this is for personal use) solution, please post!
Do I use glabels? Yes. Do I like glabels? Do I mention glabels as a Premier Application when I talk about Linux? No.
The problem seemed to be two-fold:
- Image scaling seemed to be done using linear interpolation. Sorry, but that doesn't cut it for anything that should have presentation. All the lines come out with jaggies. Use bi-cubic please.
- Printing was done at 72dpi. Hello, my printer is 1200 dpi, can you please take advantage of it?
In my experience, it did a great job of easily producing poor quality labels. Anybody know if these issues have been resolved in the current version?just about anything but MP3 tracks can be printed on them
:-)
Just as well. I wouldn't use it if it supported MP3 and not Ogg Vorbis...
All interpreted languages are abstractions over Lisp
Have you ever dealt with (non-IT) businesspeople? I've been in offices where every person in sales/accounting/billing had a dedicated label printer on their desk, for shipping labels / packaging / general mail / whatever. Think about what "most popular" means: not "earthshaking", not "technically brilliant"; try reading it as "most commonly used" or "widespread". Yes, some people print labels every 5-10 minutes as part of their job. It's a handy niche to fill.
After I recently finished my Ph.D., I put together over 70 job market packets. For both appearances and efficiency, I needed to generate labels by the dozen.
Much to my surprise, there was an ebuild of gLabels for Gentoo. Even more to my surprise, even though it's in beta, it worked flawlessly. The interface was so well done that I never even needed to look for help files.
Kudos to the gLabels team!
-- My choice of computing platform is a symbol of my individuality and belief in personal freedom.
We don't use windows or linux and would kill for the hardware support of either OS.
The majority of readers we use operate off of a keyboard wedge. Nothing special there it just fakes keystrokes.
As for the printers it's usually just a case of pumping through the correct control codes to get what you want out. We use barcode blasters and the code required to get one barcode with say an item description, and price is maybe 20 lines. It's easy and the codes are always included with the printer or on the website documentation. Perhaps I should take the time to adding support for the printers I have access to.
Now the more advanced stuff, USB scanners and printers may require more work but I doubt it can be that hard.
OpenOffice (nor Corel Wordperfect or MS Word) are acceptable substitues for a real label making program -- have many Slashdotters ever bothered to try and print out CD labels or covers/trays to pre-scored stock (like the Avery media available)? Futzing around with templates in Word Processors sucks -- they are designed for linear text. Publishing apps are a little better, but there is nothing like the right tool for the job.
A program like Avery DesignPro or Surething CD Labeller for Windows makes producing such things very quick and painless.. it is good that this sort of thing is now available under Linux.
The reason (well, one of them at least), that Linux lacks as a desktop is BECAUSE of the lack of useful tools like this; answers like "You don't really need a (label-making program, greeting card maker, etc.), just use OOo" or "You don't need a WYSIWYG HTML editor, just use vi" completely miss the point.
BTW, I, for one, could really use a good greeting card program, like Sierra Print Artist. Does any such thing exist?
So, what you say is: "Please make Linux nice as I like it! I will go to sleep and you do the hacking. Once in a while I will wake up, whine and curse, and then go back to sleep!"
Linux is not free as in "comes out of a tap". Some people make these things. You don't pay them money, but you should pay some homage and respect; or please go away!
(As a child I was a cap scout. When we went on field camps we made all sorts of cool things out of wood and stones and some rope. We were all thrilled by the things we could do ourselves. But there was this guy who basically missed his TV and his comfort zone. He didn't help and he critized everything. I guess he didn't get why all the jokes were on him. He should never have been a scout anyway...)
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