The difference is how information - such as product name, delivery address, SKU and the barcode - is printed on the label. The two methods of printing are known as thermal direct printing and thermal transfer printing.

THERMAL DIRECT PRINTING

The process of thermal direct printing involves the application of heat to the label, done by direct contact of the thermal printhead. Thermal direct labels are made with a special paper substrate that has a heat sensitive dye within, causing a change of colour and in turn information to appear.

View our selection of Direct Thermal Printers.

Just as a side note, the printhead - used in both thermal direct and thermal transfer printing - contains heating elements that act like pixels in a way. As print instructions are sent to the printer, those instructions then cause a range of these "pixels" to heat up. This also relates to a printers DPI (dots per inch) rating.

THERMAL TRANSFER PRINTING

The process of thermal transfer printing is similar to thermal direct printing, in that a thermal printhead is used. However rather than the printhead having direct contact with label, a ribbon is used in between the printhead and the label, causing the ink (a form of wax and/or resin, which we'll cover later) from the ribbon to be transferred to the label.

View our selection of Thermal Transfer Printers.

The easiest way to remember this is thermal direct involves printing "direct" onto the label, whereas thermal transfer involves the "transfer" of ink to the label.

WHAT ARE THE USES OF EACH TYPE?

Choosing whether to use thermal direct or thermal transfer labels and printers comes down primarily to the label life requirements, but there are other considerations which we will touch on.

THERMAL DIRECT LABELS

Essentially, thermal direct labels are suited to shorter-term labelling purposes. The print will fade and the label material will darken over time, especially so if exposed to conditions like heat and sunlight, or to a fair amount of handling/contact. However labels on items stored in cool and/or shaded environments such as warehouses or storerooms will have decent longevity of many months.

And as thermal direct printing is done without ribbon, the machines are simpler to use and maintain and in turn more durable. No ribbon also means one less consumable to be keeping track of.

Common uses of thermal direct labels include receipts, shipping labels, ticketing, name tags, warehousing pick labels.

View our standard range of Direct Thermal Labels.

THERMAL TRANSFER LABELS

Thermal transfer labels come in a wider variety of material than direct thermal, ranging from paper to various synthetics with increasing levels of durability and resistance.

The ink from the ribbon is not only transferred, it is absorbed into the label itself. This leads to a higher quality and longer lasting image, and so is suited to a greater range of purposes, such as long life asset tracking, laboratory specimen labels exposed to chemicals, tiny print labels, warehouse rack labels, permanent ID labels, etc.

It is also worth noting that as the printhead is in contact with ribbon rather than the label itself, this will generally result in a longer life of the printhead.

View our standard range of Thermal Transfer Labels.

As for the thermal ribbon, there are three main types used. These are wax, resin, and a combination of wax-resin. Wax-resin is the most common type, and has a reasonable level of durability. Wax is cheaper but is less durable. Resin is the most expensive, but has the highest durability and resistance to chemicals.

View our Thermal Ribbons.

Just a note, labels and ribbons come in different configurations, such as core size, outer diameter, and with ribbon there is also variations on which side of the ribbon the ink is on. Always check the printer specifications to ensure the consumables are compatible.

We hope this has been helpful for you, or at least informative! If you would like to read more about thermal printing, we recommend SATO America's whitepaper Thermal Transfer vs. Direct Thermal: Five Key Considerations. SATO invented thermal direct printing, and created the world's first thermal transfer printer in 1981. This whitepaper goes into much more detail, and if you're still not sure about which path to take then we highly recommend giving it a look. And of course you can contact us with any questions you may have.

Test & Tag refers to the testing of the electrical safety of appliances against Australian Standards AS/NZS 3760, and is primarily an Occupational Health and Safety (OH & S) measure, ensuring workplaces have tested - and will regularly re-test - their electrical appliances for faults or potential hazards.

HOW IS TEST & TAG CARRIED OUT?

The test & tag work done will be done by a trained competent person, using special tools to test electrical appliances for any number of potential faults or hazards, and then tag them by affixing/attaching an appropriate label. The label either indicates the appliance has been tested and deemed satisfactorily safe, or that the appliance is unsafe and is not to be used.

COLOUR-CODING OF TEST & TAG LABELS

A variety of labels are used in test & tag practices, often dependent on the industry and/or appliance. At LabelPrintScan.com.au we supply a range of standard 100mm x 50mm colour-coded and plain white labels for use with thermal printers. Unlike other test & tag labels, our labels are blank, allowing for greater customisation of printed information and easy integration with a testers equipment, software and computerised database - and no more hand-writing! Additionally the coloured labels include a white section for barcode placement, with the barcode providing means for digitally tracking individual appliance history over time.

These colours do have a significance within the standards, specifically with construction and demolition industries, but can be useful for other industries and environments as well. Below is a table showing what each colour represents:

As an example, a tested appliance tagged with a red label was tested in either January or September if in NSW, or tested sometime between December and February if outside of NSW. This allows for quicker recognition of when the appliance was last tested - provided the appliance hasn't been relocated into or out of New South Wales!

But have you ever wondered what a barcode represents, or how barcodes are scanned? Or perhaps you're in need of a barcoding solution for your business but aren't sure where to start. Well, read on, as we take a look into the world of barcodes and barcode scanning.

WHAT EXACTLY ARE BARCODES?

A barcode is essentially a special type of image that encodes information for reading by a machine.

Traditionally, barcodes involve a series of black vertical lines on a white background, with each line or group of lines representing numbers, letters and/or symbols. These are known as 1D barcodes or linear barcodes, as the information is stored in only one direction (dimension) - horizontally (linearly).

Example of a 1D Barcode

In modern times, we are seeing more and more of those square-shaped barcodes. These are conceptually the same as 1D barcodes except that they store information in a matrix format (both horizontally and vertically). These are known as - you guessed it - 2D barcodes or data matrix barcodes. The primary benefit of these 2D (two dimension) barcodes is that they can store significantly more information in the same physical area.

Example of a 2D Barcode

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF BARCODES

Barcodes - they are a ubiquitous part of modern society and we're all familiar with them. But have you ever noticed how some barcodes seem to have more lines than others?

The most common barcode you have seen is probably the 1D barcode symbology UPC (Universal Product Code). This barcode is widely used in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and many other countries, and is mostly used for identifying items in POS (point of sale) processes, using 12 digits to represent a combination of things such as a code for identifying the manufacturer and a code for identifying the product.

Another barcode you will likely have seen is the 2D barcode symbology known as QR Code (Quick Response Code). Even though QR Code originated in Japan for the purposes of tracking parts during vehicle manufacturing, today a very common use of this type of barcode is in mobile advertising. A consumer can use their smartphone's inbuilt camera to scan the code, resulting in something like a new contact being added, or opening up a website, or to even perform financial transactions. Of course they also find use in business processes such as asset tracking, taking the place of traditional 1D barcodes, simply given more information can be stored and retrieved for the asset in question.

These however are only two of many variants of barcode symbologies used throughout the world in various industries and for different purposes. For example there is the stacked linear barcode symbol format PDF417 - a special type of customisable and expandable 1D barcode. Another example is Australia Post's 4-State Barcode - those barcode-like lines you may have seen on printed envelopes.

To see some examples of different barcode symbologies, check out this Bar Code Test Sheet.

I NEED A BARCODE SOLUTION FOR MY ASSETS AND/OR STOCK - WHICH BARCODE DO I CHOOSE?

It of course depends on your needs. Are your barcodes for just internal use only? If so, you can use any of a variety of software solutions to generate any kind of barcode that best suits your needs. But what if your barcodes are used on items that are ultimately traded to/amongst the public? You will then want a barcode that is unique for your asset/stock. In this case, your best bet is to refer to this page to find out if registering your own set of barcode numbers is the way to go:

http://www.gs1.org/10-steps-to-barcode-your-product

Of course, your assets/stock may already be barcoded, and all you are concerned with is scanning the barcodes, which is what we will look at next.

HOW ARE BARCODES SCANNED?

The true power behind barcodes are their machine-friendliness. Barcodes have been specifically designed to be read by machines at speeds much faster than any human. But what are these wondrous machines and how do they work?

The first barcode scanners were in fact pen-type readers. Using a special light-measuring component, the pen would be drawn left-to-right across a 1D barcode, detecting the lines and the gaps between the lines, a bit like Morse code.

The next evolution of barcode scanners were the CCD contact readers. These conceptually work as though there are hundreds of tiny pen-type readers all reading the 1D barcode at once, meaning no swiping involved - a lot quicker and a lot less work! However these CCD readers generally need to be held quite close to the barcode to read successfully. Note that CCD as a technology is still used with some imager-type scanners, which we will cover below.

View our range of CCD Contact Readers.

Laser scanners work similar to the pen-type readers, except a laser is used rather than light. The reading speeds of laser scanners are extremely fast, but they do require the barcode to be accurately aligned with the scanner.

View our range of Laser Barcode Scanners.

An enhancement on traditional the laser scanner are omnidirectional scanners. These barcode scanners use multiple lasers in varying orientations to be able to read barcodes held at any angle and are also better at reading distorted/damaged barcodes, resulting in improved throughput at the point of sale. Some forms of these are small on-counter models, while others are larger in-counter models - yes, if you've used self-service checkout at the supermarket, you personally have used one of these!

View our range of Omnidirectional Barcode Scanners.

Finally there are the imaging devices. These can either be 1D linear imagers or 2D area imagers, to handle 1D and 2D barcodes respectively. These devices essentially use CCD or CMOS technology with a camera and image processing/decoding engines to read the barcode. 1D linear imagers are much the same as the laser scanners in that they read only 1D barcodes and are fast, but the imaging component makes it a device that is much more forgiving of damaged or poorly printed barcodes.

View our range of 1D Linear Imager Barcode Scanners and 2D Area Imager Barcode Scanners.

I'VE GOT MY BARCODES, NOW I NEED A BARCODE SCANNER - WHICH TYPE SHOULD I CHOOSE?

A number of factors come into play when deciding on a barcode scanner, if it is not obvious or specified at the outset.

Do you use 2D barcodes? Then it is a 2D area imager you're after.

Bear in mind what you may be planning for the future; perhaps the extra information storage of 2D barcodes (for storing something such as a website address for automatic newsletter subscription when your customer scans the barcode with their smartphone - yes, most smartphones can read and react to 2D barcodes) is something you might want make use of some day? If so, you might want to invest in a 2D area imager now, given they can read 1D barcodes as well.

If you just use 1D barcodes, then traditionally you will have been choosing a laser scanner. But with the technology of 1D linear imagers improving (now are faster than laser scanners) and the cost decreasing, the linear imager is recommended. They also are more forgiving with poorly printed barcodes. However the range of a linear imager is usually limited to within a foot or two. Laser scanners still have the benefit of their larger range - up to many metres in some cases. Another consideration in the 1D linear imager versus laser scanner debate is laser safety. Although countries around the world have their safety standards - and no device would be allowed for sale if it didn't meet standards - the nature of lasers mean that imagers are inherently safer.

MORE THAN A BARCODE SCANNER

For some industries, scanning the barcode is only part of the job. Take warehousing, where you need to be interacting with a warehouse management system, or stocktaking, where you might need to see numbers as you're scanning. Or essentially any activity that requires you to input or verify information during your scanning duties. That is where mobile computers come into play. These are essentially barcode scanners with screens and keypads (for line workers) or smartphones with attached scanning instruments (for enterprise knowledge workers).

Example of a Mobile Computer

View our range of Mobile Computers for Line Workers and Enterprise Digital Assistant Mobile Computers.

We hope this has been helpful for you, or at least informative! If you would like to read more about barcoding technology, we recommend Intermec’s whitepaper Guide to Scanning Technologies or contact us with any questions you may have.