Best printer for B&W shipping labels, cost per page???

[tracyballard]

I need some good recommendations on a good cheap printer that can print my Endicia and Fedex labels well (barcodes), at the lowest possible cost per page. I am really only interested in B&W printing. I use laser labels, but I will probably get an inkjet, which sometimes catches on the edge of the label. Right now I'm considering the Canon Pixma iP3500 or the HP Photosmart D7160.

 

[pharmacist]

Be careful with some types of labels in combination with inkjet ink: small amount of bleeding of the ink can render the printed codes been read by the scanner very difficult or even not ! Laser or dye sublimation yields the sharpest and most readible barcodes. If the ink is bleeding only a tiny bit you might have problems with scanning the barcodes.

 

[tracyballard]

so far no problem with barcodes on thousands of labels on HP 1315v, D1420 and F2110.

 

[stratman]

Why not get a laser printer. All things being equal, best performance for the cost if you are not needing color.

 

[tracyballard]

all the reviews on the laser printers I have looked at (HP 1020, brother 2040, 2070) show the cost per page to be around 3.2 - 3.5 cents, vs. the 3 cents per page I see for the Canon. I'm looking for something less than $100

 

[leo8088]

Canon ip3500 is a good candidate for B&W label printing. You will need to use pigmented ink so that they won't suffer from any water damage.

 

[fotofreek]

Yoy have to keep in mind that, even though you will only do B/w printing, the color carts will be used up with automatic cleaning cycles. Your initial savings for the printer may be eaten up by buying dye based inks that get used up in the cleaning cycles. If you refill the dye based carts with an inexpensive ink - Hobbicolors comes to mind - you can either buy the high priced Canon large black pigment ink carts and be assured that the ink is, in fact, pigment based (and therefore water resistant) or someone on this Forum can tell you from their own experience which aftermarket pigment black inks are truly pigment based. With a laser printer you will only have to deal with the black toner cartridge.