Everything You Need to Know About Label Printers: The Ultimate Guide

If you’re running an e-commerce store, shipping physical products, or even just organising your inventory, a label printer is an indispensable tool.

The label printer industry has changed a lot over the last five years, and these changes are a massive benefit to you, the business owner looking for options. Up until recently, the industry was dominated by the likes of Dymo and Zebra. You’d go down to your local office supply store, buy the printer they had on the shelf (usually a Dymo 4XL), and then return each month to buy more labels—like a crackhead with an addiction.

Or, if you were on the larger side of the industry, you’d foot the bill for a very overpriced and quite large Zebra ZD600, thinking that you had to spend big to get a quality piece of hardware.

The tipping point for change was when Dymo got greedy.

Not unlike your full-sized desktop printer that can only be paired with ‘genuine’ ink cartridges, Dymo, in their big corporate wisdom, decided they too would try and lock their consumers into their consumables (rolls of labels).

With the release of the “improved” Dymo 5XL, they had the misguided idea to include RFID/NFC chips in their rolls of labels. If the printer didn’t detect the chip, it simply wouldn’t print.

But what exactly makes the big brand units different from the new wave of printers hitting the market, and why are these new brands worth considering? Before we break that down, let’s quickly talk about label makers vs label printers.

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What is the Difference Between a Label Maker and a Label Printer?

A label maker is typically a handheld or compact device designed for printing small, simple labels, often for home or office organisation. Think of those sticky, narrow labels with basic fonts and limited formatting options.

A label printer, like the one we offer at Pack to the Future, is built for high-volume and high-quality output. These printers are ideal for printing shipping labels, barcodes, QR codes, and even product labels. Our 300DPI resolution ensures each label is crisp, clear, and professional. In the case of our label printer, it uses a thermal strip to print onto the labels in a single colour (black), saving on ongoing ink costs.

Can I Use a Regular Printer for Label Printing?

Technically, yes—but it’s not ideal. A regular printer may work for occasional label printing, but there are several reasons why it falls short:

• Paper Waste: Regular printers aren’t optimised for labels, which can result in misalignment or label jams. Your average printer is set up for A4 loose sheets, of which you can go and buy 4-to-a-page Avery labels, but the wastage from never really printing in multiples of four adds up fast, and you end up with piles of half-used sheets.
• Ink Costs: Most regular printers use expensive ink or toner, adding up quickly if you're printing large volumes of labels.
• Slower Speeds: A regular printer can’t match the speed of a dedicated label printer. When you're shipping dozens or hundreds of products, speed matters.
• Wasted Time: Even if you persist with the 4-to-a-sheet option and use every possible label by rotating PDFs and changing printing orders, it’s a massive waste of time.
• Not Water Resistant: Those Avery-style sheets of labels are not designed to withstand water. You can’t control what happens to your labels when they leave your facility. What happens if the courier depot leaves them in the rain? All your hard work could end up in the lost and found section of a distribution centre somewhere, with the shipping label—the only traceable information—rendered illegible.

With our thermal label printer, you won’t need ink at all. Thermal printing technology ensures clean, fast prints without the ongoing cost of ink replacements.What Printer is Best for Printing Postage Labels?There are a lot of options on the market, but for a cost-effective, fit-for-purpose solution, the latest breed of thermal label printers is unbeatable. Here’s why:

• Easy Setup: Whether you prefer Bluetooth or USB connections, setup takes seconds. Plus, most of them now work seamlessly on phones, PCs, and Macs.
• Compact Size: Their small footprint means they won’t take over your workspace, but they’re powerful enough to handle high-volume printing.
• Versatile Compatibility: These new styles of label printers support any label you want to use—you’re not locked into proprietary brands. Whether it's eco-friendly shipping label rolls or cute little bespoke stickers to say thanks or hold your tissue paper together, they handle the tasks with ease.

What is the Difference Between an Expensive Dymo/Zebra Printer and the New Brands That Are Popping Up?Here’s the lowdown on the features the big brands don’t want you to know about:The biggest difference between these big-brand printers and the label printers independents like Pack to the Future sell is that Dymo locks you into using their consumables.If you head to your local Officeworks to pick up a roll of 220 Dymo-branded labels, you’ll pay $69 for the roll. That’s 31c per label.Our eco labels, also in a 200-roll, come in at $22—that’s just 10c per label. Or, with a printer that feeds from the back, you can opt for larger stacks of fan-fold labels with 500 in a stack. These fan-fold labels come in at less than 10c.Extrapolate this out to your annual bill for shipping labels (with the average store printing 1,000 orders per month), and you’ve saved over $2,400 in expenses.The other big difference between modern label printers and the 5XL Dymo in particular is the Dymo’s lack of Bluetooth.We use our printer daily, connected directly to our phones via Bluetooth, allowing us to process an order in Shopify, open the label in the free iOS app, and print from anywhere in the warehouse.

The last difference, from years of experience using both the newer 5XL and the older 4XL, is that the automatic feed tends to stop working on Dymos in dusty environments like warehouses. We used to have to disassemble our Dymo printer monthly to clean the sensor that reads the length of the labels. There was nothing worse than starting a busy Monday morning fulfilment session only to have the printer lose control of its ability to stop in the right place—leading to dozens of labels printing across the tear line and being rendered useless.One memory of this problem was a customer who persisted with the Dymo, even after endless issues with the feed, only to discover their cat, who frequently joined them on the packing bench, was shedding hair that constantly blocked the sensor.We’ve overcome this issue with the sensor looking down onto the labels rather than pointing up. We’ve also positioned the thermal head on top, reducing the build-up of debris that often shortens the lifespan of thermal heads.What are your thoughts? What printer sounds like a smarter move?