Label and receipt printers

Label and receipt printers are used to print adhesive labels, barcodes, shipping labels and till receipts in shops, warehouses, workshops and offices. The category includes direct thermal and thermal transfer printers, desktop or industrial, and colour inkjet models for custom labels.

To choose, first tell the technologies apart: direct thermal needs no ribbon and suits short-life labels, such as shipping labels, while thermal transfer, which uses a ribbon, gives longer-lasting prints. Check the resolution (203 or 300 dpi), the print speed in mm/s, the maximum label width and the connections: USB, Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. For heavy use, consider industrial models and look for a cutter. Brands include Zebra, Brother, Epson and Dymo.