Label printers for libraries - advice page

Summary

Without many hardware vendors to chose from, and those remaining not being specialized for libraries, when old label printers die, it can be hard to know what to replace them with. When the drivers for San Jose State’s reliable, 30-year old OKI Data printers were found to be incompatible with the new computers we received in 2021-23, we settled on Zebra thermal transfer printers due to price and availability.

We went through a frustrating process of swapping around mismatched printer models, printer ports, computer cables, scanner models, label stocks, toner types, and so on. It resulted in a lot of returns and new orders until we eventually settled on using polyester label stock and resin-based toner ribbons.  We use this spine + title label rolls from BayScan and thermal transfer ribbons from Zebra.

Whether you use the Alma Spine-O-Matic cloud app, the desktop Spine-O-Matic utility, or something else, you are going to spend a lot of time with a ruler measuring and remeasuring the size of your label stock, then adjusting the margins and templates in the computer to match.

For barcode duplicating and printing, we use the same Zebra thermal transfer printers. We pair these with Symbol LS2208 Scanners and Zebra KDU keyboards. The barcode template is created using the Zebra Designer 3 utility

One final note, these plastic labels do not stick nearly as well as old paper or foil-backed labels. They stick best to other plastics. Consider that the intended application for these materials is supply chain management - think barcodes on plastic bags and addresses on cardboard boxes. To ensure they adhere to books and other library materials, label covers (and sometimes glue) are needed.

Printers Models

Thermal Transfer Only! (not direct thermal)

• Desktop Label Printer modes: Zebra ZD421, Zebra ZD621, Zebra GX420t

Labels, Ink and Label covers

Order Resin-only ribbons (research shows resin and thermal transfer ribbons have the longest shelf life i.e. slowest fade time)

• Zebra 05095GS11007 Thermal Transfer Ribbon, Resin - for spine + title label printers

  • 5095 series Resin Ribbon ; 110 mm x 74m ; 0.5" Core 

• Zebra 05095GS06407 Thermal Transfer Ribbon, Resin - for barcode duplicators

  • 5095 series Resin Ribbon ; 64mm x 74m ;  0.5" Core

• Bayscan Spine/book Label Set - for spine + title label printers

  • Product # DYNLABTTPBLS = Spine: .9375″ x 1.4375″ ; Title: 2.625″ x 1.4375″ ; 2.6 mil White Gloss ; thermal transfer labels

• Bayscan 2 x .75" Polyester Barcode Labels - for barcode duplicators

  • Product # LAB2x.75POLY = .75” x 2” ; polyester thermal transfer labels

Submit feedback

Collected and quoted advice from Listservs:

A. "Direct thermal" and "thermal transfer" are two different things. Direct thermal uses heat to darken a chemical impregnated in the label surface and these do indeed fade rather quickly, especially if exposed to light or combined with certain label protectors. Thermal transfer uses heat to fuse a pigment onto the label somewhat in the manner of a laser printer, and is much more durable.

– Lisa Hatt (Cataloging | De Anza College Library)

B. We use foil-back laser printer sheets. Our building gets too much direct sun for thermal printed labels. We tested them and, even with a protector over it, they faded away to nothing in less than a year.

 – April Davies (Head of Technical & Public Services | Van Wagenen Library)

C. We’ve used Zebra printers for over 15 years now, and the thermal transfer spine labels look uniformly good regardless of age. By contrast we are starting to relabel the books we labelled using labels from dot-matrix printers (that were used before the Zebra printers) which have faded considerably over only slightly longer timeframes. I believe there is a big difference in permanency between direct-thermal and thermal transfer printing methods.

 – Jon Saul (Cataloguing Librarian  | Library | Swinburne University of Technology)

D. I will also add that the label media is important as well – it’s the combination of the thermal transfer ribbon and a polypropylene label that makes it durable. We unfortunately have a large number of barcodes that were printed on paper label media and are now fading despite having printed them in thermal transfer mode. They all have to be replaced as they have faded to the point that they are no longer readable by the barcode scanners.

 – Laura A. Rounds (Cataloging, Acquisitions & Systems Librarian | The University of Tampa)

E. We are looking at getting a Zebra printer or two for printing our spine labels. We’d like a thermal printer, for the durability of the labels. Are any of you using Zebra thermal models with SpineOMatic? Which are you having success with? Do any of them have issues working with it?

– Matt McDowall (Information Systems Support Specialist | University of Nebraska)

F. If you are looking for thermal transfer, we are using our trusty old Zebra GK420Ts which we had previously used with Sierra. These are no longer manufactured but you can find them on the secondary market. The replacement model is ZD421.

We are using the SpineOMatic local install, not the cloud app. These work fine for spine labels, we’re still trying to get 2-part serials labels (what some libraries call pocket parts) the way we think they look best. Some of that is due to the nature of our migrated Sierra data – we just migrated last July.

– Beth Juhl (Web Services Librarian | University of Arkansas Libraries)

G. We use CompuType for both our Zebra printers (GX430t) and supplies. They have a standard spine label that measures 1” x 1.5”. They have good support people if I have any problem with the printers. They also can do custom labels if you wanted to keep on using 1” x 175’ media.

– Laura A. Rounds (Cataloging, Acquisitions & Systems Librarian | The University of Tampa)