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Linux-Friendly Label Printer Recomendations?
pdkl95 writes "I have been using some small, simple desktop label printers for quite a while now. Unfortunately, it's rapidly becoming clear that my printing needs are for something far more 'industrial strength.' Several of the label printers have failed, and they never really had the management features I wanted. So, does anybody have recommendations on label printers, that can hold up to a quite heavy load? The catch is that I'm printing to them from CUPS under Linux, and it seems like specialty-printers are a windows-centric field."
We use Datamax I series at work printing from linux. All the configuration can be done with simple ascii characters, also the label fornating.
I am not that familiar with printing in general, but I know the printer company/brand Brother often (if not always) releases Linux compatible drivers for their hardware. They are great for any standard printer. If you can find any label printers that they make, I imagine it would work very well. It is probably at least worth Googling....
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
I understand that this may not be actually answering your question, but, if you have *any* Windows systems in your office running XP Professional or Vista Business/Enterprise, you might try getting a label printer for one of those. These OSes come with IIS, and you can easily write a .NET web service that you can then access via PHP from your Linux machine and print labels that way. Yes, a hacky solution indeed, but it works if you can't find any compatible printers for Linux.
It sucks that manufacturers don't really make printer drivers for a lot of high-end equipment for Linux, but I suppose that's the nature of things, when the vast majority of people who would need them tend to only use Windows or OS X.
I use the Brother PT-9500PC a lot. Very well supported under linux, they have their own driver page. Connects by USB.
Try Sato America.
http://www.satoamerica.com/
They are industrial oriented. You can get all sorts of solutions, of which the most universal would be serial based. You can connect those up to almost anything with a serial port, fill it up with large rolls of labels and drive it all in your own code if you want to.
Yes, I know, their own software is Windows based. Don't let that be the stumbling block.
Two jobs ago I worked at a luxury goods manufacturer and we printed items tags on a SATO serial printer off of our main frame. Its just a matter of sending the right control codes over the serial port.
Labels come in most shapes and sizes. I believe we're using the LP2844 at the office; I'd have to double check but I believe UPS and FedEx send these out to their customers as well.
They are rugged. CUPS prints to them trivially. Labels are not terribly expensive, and they are fast.
You're assuming that he's labeling letters rather than labeling something like test tubes on a one-by-one basis (ie, a sheet of labels would be wasted)
Googling around, it looks like if you take care of a few oddities you can use certain Dymo LabelWriters with CUPS. There's an older howto here. We've got a few we've used (on windows) for years.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I use zebra printers with a couple of clients - Linux + CUPS, no problem. You can find them online dirt cheap, just clean the rollers with alcohol to get them printing good.
Do you have ESP?
We tried this at the office for a while.
To print one label at a time is wasteful; to get users to specify how many labels are already used off the sheet is too hard (and slow), and the printers are slow and prone to jam when you re-feed the label sheets.
This solution lasted about 4 weeks for us, then we were told to spend the $200 or so and get a real printer (Zebra, I believe LP2844).
It's not the SIZE that's the problem, it's that users are idiots and really need most of the work already done for them.
Q: Can anyone recommend a Linux-friendly label printer?
Typical Slashdot answer: You can get a label printer from X company. If you install the software and loop the output back into a terminal you can hack the control codes and design your own printer driver.
Buzzword answer: Using a cloud service, you could upload your printing needs via a lightweight AJAX interface and have the results mailed to you.
Sane answer: Get a cheap Windows PC and choose from the many supported label printers.
Of course, the sane answer gets modded to -1 Troll.
I have a feeling that there will be a lot of posts for ZEBRA printers, and I have to agree. You'll need to format your labels with ZPL code, but it's fairly simple and straightforward once you get the first one configured. A majority of my company's customers use the 105SL model printing from RHEL 4/5 systems and Fedora releases. Definitely CUPS compatible! One of these customers actually has four of that particular model, and they print out 100,000+ labels every couple of weeks.
I haven't had many hardware issues with them, but if they do go out, it's best if you're in a location where a Zebra certified technician can reach you. This isn't a problem for most major cities, though if you're in a rural area, it may be a little more difficult.
we run our erp on linux and we have 10 zebra 105 SLs all work great, each one prints about 100 - 200 4x6 labels a day and i have a couple more that only do hangtags and they print out about 500 - 1000 hangtags a day (we make t-shirts)
the innocent shall suffer!
And here's a couple of linkies:
a Brother page
a google search page
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
at google
(Not that I've used them, but I'm interested, too.)
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Not only can you print from linux (it's ascii text sent over port 9100), you can also run linux on the fucking printer itself.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
We currently use DataMax I Series printers (specifically the DMX-I 4208 model). We've also used Zebra printers in the past. These are heavy duty printers using roll-fed label media (there's an option for a custom cutterhead, so you can actually have a label length specific to each print job).
These things are built like tanks and they have been amazingly trouble-free. You'll pay a price corresponding to this level of reliability but we've found them worth it. We print literally thousands of labels a month in critical line-of-business applications. The printers function much like laser printers in terms of their capability--all points addressable printing, DPL (equivalent to HP PCL) rendering language, integrated IP networking, self-hosted web administration pages, and so on.
Now the (few & relatively minor) downsides. I cannot comment on their Linux driver support. We use Windows Seagull drivers to host ours (Datamax doesn't make their own drivers, last I checked). Also we had to get 1 firmware update and 1 driver update to resolve a couple of infrequent but otherwise knotty problems.
There's no way to have multiple label media pre-loaded and software programmable (the equivalent of a cut-sheet laser printer's addressable drawers).
Oh, and they come with a decent manual. How many printers do that now?
In my experience, a sheet of labels can be run through a printer multiple times IF:
(1) it gets pulled from the end, not from the side
(2) you try to use the labels at the bottom first for best traction on subsequent passes, OR you flip it over and run it from the other end the next time (Avery sheets are symmetrical)
(3) your printer doesn't have a faint bleed in it somewhere, as this will add up on multiple passes. (This might be acceptable anyhow, if the bleed is a color and the desired print is black.)
The straighter the paper path, the more you can re-use the same sheet. Also, this minimizes the chances of a label peeling off inside the printer. Thus, if your printer has a door where a duplexer can be attached (but you don't have one attached), it might help to open that door instead of making the sheet curl back around to the output tray.
Even the most demanding printer will let me run a sheet twice, once from each end. Surprisingly, I have found HP LaserJets (both monochrome and color) to be quite good about accepting the same label sheet over and over, even with the majority of the labels gone. It's the expensive heavy-duty printers that are liable to start eating labels. There seems to be a correlation to the ability to print envelopes. If it can, it should be perfectly happy running label sheets with bare spots.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Go to the nearest electronics store and buy 20 random pieces of hardware. Plug them into 4 computers, running any modern Linux distro, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Tell me how many of them work without installing additional software on each OS.
It is in most corporate environments. I can bring any hardware I want to work (I love my ergonomic keyboard), as long as it works in Windows XP out of the box. No driver downloads/installs allowed.
And don't forget the very large number of home users who are baffled by instructions like "click on the link" or "insert the disc". Installing a driver is, quite often, "a problem".
Or maybe they're actually doing work and don't want to sit there counting labels, going back to their desk and changing the print settings, and then dashing back and coaxing a fragile sheet of labels through a machine that will eat it 30% of the time, instead of just clicking the little printer button and peeling off a label.
Why, there are many printers that Linux supports. The problem is that the manufacturer doesn't directly support them so it's currently difficult figuring out which one were. That's were asking a community of people who uses *nix comes in handy. And yes, there is a difference between Linux supporting something and the manufacturer supporting it. Often that difference is only in where to look for drivers and capabilities and who to ask for help. It's not difficult, especially if you take your time and look around.
If you would just look around, you would see that almost every Zebra printer is supported, Brothers generally are too. The only reason he would need to purchase a windows PC is if he was intellectually lazy and didn't look. Obviously that isn't the case seeing how he was checking with the rest of us.
I agree. I used to work at a facility that had more than a dozen of the zebra printers, of various models, all connected via ethernet to a Unix spooler.
They would print 1 label at a time up to a couple of rolls depending on the application.
I've used a variety of printer types (Intermec, Zebra, Datamax) and they all have worked using plain text drivers. You can hook them up via serial/parallel/IP and just output text to the correct port and you can print labels. Print whatever you want. Printer format (i.e. printer commands) varies by manufacturer, so you'll have to program the correct formats. But after learning the printer language everything is trivial.
As several people have already mentioned, Zebra printers are excellent, particularly if you plan on generating your own output (as noted above). While not Linux, we currently generate our own output from an iSeries for various label media across several different zebra printer models.
Their reliablity and operation is rock solid and hassle free (just ensure you select a printer that is best suited for the media you are using). The ZPL programming reference guide that they make available I found to be quite comprehensive and fairly easy to understand.
Ultimately there may be another printer more suited to the task you are doing but my experience with Zebra Printers has been a positive one.
Um, the guy is NOT asking for a laser printer. I'm sure he already has a laser printer and was using a label printer cause lasers suck at label printing tasks. Label printers operate quite different. Manually feeding and re-feeding and re re re re re re re re re re feeding a sheet in a laser printer, modifying the print settings for each label is NOT the answer! Don't forget the 4 hours of labor with the printer torn apart trying to get loose labels off the inside of the printer, and the costs of replacement drums you have destroyed. A laser printer for *most* common label printing tasks is using the "hammer to drive in a screw" approach.
Keep in mind that label printer label stock comes in a lot more options than laser printer label stock. Some are variable length where you can print something really short or a foot long depending on the label needed. Some have special adhesive, some are laminated. Some are thermal paper where others are thermal transfer.
The solution is a unix friendly commercial unit. What makes them unix friendly? Simple: you can get programming docs for them. Zebra's are nice and you can even print by sending XML to it. Rather than trying to get a CUPS driver, which is pretty silly for labels, you put the "driver" in the application. The thing is, printing lots of labels just isn't something traditional apps (open office) are good at (outside of the traditional "print 400 copies of the same label" or "mailmerge"). You are much better off with a quick and dirty (web?) app that sends the right formatting commands directly to the printer. You can certainly get a cups driver for many many label printers, it's just not the best thing for cups to be in the middle between the app and the printer in most label printing cases that I have run across (years ago, I worked with industrial label printers.)
Unfortunately, it is IMPOSSIBLE for any of us to answer the question because we only have the "I need a computer that uses electricity" level of detail. What exactly does he need the labels for? Shipping boxes? Equipment tags? Wires? File folders? e-stamps? Can't recommend anything without knowing how it's going to be used.
Is there really any need for that sort of Microsoft bashing?
Yes. Bringing some balance to a multi billion dollar marketing machine.
There is a useful summary page here on how to get it working.
We use linux for all our mountain bike parts operations by the way.
I disagree about CUPS. I use CUPS for my Zebra LP2844 USB, and it works great. I can unplug and replug the printer (I move it between two computers) and it just works seamlessly. CUPS isn't a problem; it just provides the print queue. But it just sends the printer whatever you send to it. I send the printer custom EPL-coded text files (my printer doesn't support ZPL), and CUPS just passes them through.
So use CUPS; it already has a driver built-in for Zebra printers. It's not much of a "driver", as it's just passing the data straight through. But what CUPS does is make it easy to set up the printer with a regular print queue just like any other printer, even if you have it unplugged at the moment. Then you just print to it using the "lpr" command to send it an E/ZPL-formatted text file.
Installing a driver is, quite often, "a problem".
Absolutely. We've still got hardware that comes with a Windows driver disk with a day-glo sticker on it saying "install me first" and a piece of hardware with a little cap on its USB port secured by another day-glo sticker telling you to find that CD before plugging in the device. Case in point, I got two identical web cams, one for my Mom, one for me. She thought it'd be nice if she could see her granddaughter in-between my occasional trips upstairs^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^Bback home. Mine plugs into Ubuntu machine and works out of the box. Hers requires a call to the neighborhood computer guy to insert the disk, run the setup, and get the hardware installed configured. Kinda backwards, seeing as Windows is for average people and Linux is for geeks, right?
And let's not forget that with windows driver installs, you have to make sure not to click (or forget to unclick) the various crapware that comes with the driver. Because sometimes that crapware does more than just waste some disk space and poop out stupid icons on the desktop.
But back to the overall topic. One could do worse than to visit Amazon or Newegg or another retailer that has detailed user reviews and check out printers (or other hardware) to find out if anyone else has had good results with Linux. Alternatively, perhaps a stand-alone label printer with its own keyboard and LCD would also work -- some are pretty sophisticated in terms of fonts available, barcodes and file storage.
I am not a crackpot.