What is the utility of a barcode printer when one can print barcodes from an ordinary printer as well?

Question

I wish to know if I can use a simple printer for printing barcodes and will any ordinary barcode scanner be able to decode it.

Answer 1

Barcode printer can print labels which can then be directly applied to the product, even self-peeling (take off the backing) labels. Barcode printer can also load "rolls" of labels, instead of sheets, much better for large quantities.

Imagine this: I got a roll of a thousand labels, feed them into the printer. I feed the backing into the self-peeler, and turn on the peel-pause sensor. When the printer prints 1 label, it pauses. The backing is peeled from the sticker itself. So the operator just use a finger to lift the sticker up/away from the printer, and the printer senses that, and spits out another label, and another, and another... So basically the line moves at the speed of the operator, maybe 2-3 seconds per package, as it's lift, slap, and smooth, and no stopping until you run out of 1000 labels.

Can you imagine how long this would take with regular printer? I have to find the sheet, I have to peel off the label, apply it, smooth it, then find that sheet to locate the next label... And so on. At least twice if not more time consumed. And normal printers don't take 1000 labels in a continuous form.

Answer 2

A dedicated label printer normally uses thermo transfer printing technique which gives better readability on small labels than laser printers do and you can run labels from rolls through it. So you can easily print 5 small labels - when printing the labels from a letter size sheet you have a left over of labels maybe you can run the label sheet a second time through a laser printer but the glue is likely to come out between the labels when re-heated several times and can also ruin the printer when getting in contact with the drum.
With a thermo transfer label printer only the label printed will get a little heat while the unused ones not.
It's also easier to print small numbers of a lot of different labels with a label printer.
An finally they are smaller and need less space which is also important.

Answer 3

a bar code printer is for hi speed scanning and identification uses not security... the utility? is that it helps manage, ship, record, expedite and otherwise track in a real time digital format... of course the bar code on your email program is quite less info than in a corporate or commerce environment, I use a bar code reader when I shop at even the supermarket, there it can tell me the product serving size and all data recorded in text< I am visualy impaired and use bar code readers all the time... there are different levels of bar code use for home pc its generally point of destination for e- mail, bar coding in retail its way more data and home pc pgms like ms word can not produce this, i requires different hdw and softw entirely

Answer 4

very confusing factor. browse at google and yahoo. this will help!