Printing onto labels

WeAreGhosts

Is it possible to use an ordinary home printer to print onto sticky labels? The sort you get in a roll?
Or am I trying to attempt the impossible?

greyteam1959

On a roll probably impossible.
On A4 sheets dead easy............

John_Gray

Printing onto a roll of labels (how can you ensure it feeds straight?) is probably an ideal way to stick labels to the rubber roller. These can be difficult to remove...

Sheets of labels are much less likely to cause problems, but comments are often made that the path through the printer should be as straight as possible - feeding from a 'rear tray' is usually recommended.

that

No, you cant print onto normal labels of any real lenth.

with old printers the dot matrix ones, you got a tractor feed option, and with those it was possibly to print labels.

The issue with most labels is the odd narrow size and the labels go out of alignment, or the distance between the labels creep when using friction feed, rather than tractor feed.

the more recent label printers are dedicated Dymo printers- or similar like Zebra printers. these tend to have a thermal print head, but if you pay enough on some you can get a resin print head.. The other method of 'laser lables' is an a4 sheet of labels originally developed for laser printers, but may work in ink printers, but sometimes are a little too thick or stiff for some inkjet printers.

Seen it where a label comes off, get stuck in the printer, and even when removed the, residual glue can cause causes chaos.

These are the newer type of label printers, and although expired some of the comments may be of value like the suggestions that the labels are expensive
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/brother-ql810w-label-printer-with-red-and-black-printing-wifi-ios-android-pc-support-4999-currys-2898531
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dymo-labelwriter-450-plus-3-label-rolls-printer-5199-at-amazon-2909607

Heedtheadvice

I have successfully used sheets of labels in my Epson inkjet printers for many a year without problems. (Edit: not to say that there are not potential issues and tractor type of feeds mentioned by that are really best)


The downside of using an inkjet is the limited water/dampness stability of the print. Laser printers win hands down on that respect. Inkjet better for low numbers and for adding photographs.


Avery labels (there are others but they are ones I have used) have a big range and free downloadable add-ons for templates for Office programs. https://www.avery.co.uk/labels/avery-labels

Norman_Castle

You can often print onto A4 label sheets. Search your printer options to see if you have the software. From memory office type software has this included.

System

Can confirm the A4 label sheets work fine. If you want to print on long stuff you are looking at using the kind of printers that sign shops do for printing on vinyl where its fed through on rollers.

DigForVictory

I wouldn't try to get a roll of sticky labels into my printer.

I have helped scrub down tractor feed printer rollers when those have gone wrong - sticky label printing by inkjet is the devils own bright idea...

Some stationers will sell you pages of sticky labels rather than the entire box & that is definitely my path of choice.

motorguy

that wrote: »

These are the newer type of label printers, and although expired some of the comments may be of value like the suggestions that the labels are expensive
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/brother-ql810w-label-printer-with-red-and-black-printing-wifi-ios-android-pc-support-4999-currys-2898531
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/dymo-labelwriter-450-plus-3-label-rolls-printer-5199-at-amazon-2909607

I've the Dymo unit. Theres loads of aftermarket label suppliers which work out very cheap, bearing in mind you've no ink cartridges to replace.

I'm a big fan of mine.

Cornucopia

Controversially (based on the consensus) I have printed on roll labels for a long while using HP inkjet printers - both my old 3100 and my new 6960.

Although I also have A4 sheet labels, these are usually way more expensive (for no apparent reason) than labels on a roll.

For my old 3100, I used to use an A4 sheet of card, with reusable strips of double-sided stickytape to anchor roll labels 6 down and 2 across. I used this method because the adjustment on the paper intake would not go narrow enough to take the label roll backing by itself.

For the 6960, I found that it will happily print on raw sections of the label roll that are 6 x 1, using a 5in x 7in index card setting. I've yet to try a custom paper size that would allow (say) 12 x 1 printing.

I've obviously had jams and stuck labels in the past (though surprisingly rarely), and never with any dire consequences - the sticky on the labels simply isn't strong enough to do any serious damage. The labels do have to be flat, though, which is a bit of an issue once you get down to the last few.

I have templates set up for the various label types making printing an easy and repeatable process.

Robisere

Download Avery Label software.
https://www.avery.co.uk/software/design-print


You can buy many types of labels from Avery, they come on an A4 size sheet in many sizes. You can design your own labels with the software.