Note: This article is most likely outdated as it was written in May of 2000. Technology has advanced significantly since this article was written, and UDS has received some feed back from customers starting in 2002, that the printer drivers coming with their recently purchased thermal printers were proving to be satisfactory. It may be that this article may have but little to offer current purchasers of thermal printers.
UDS technical support staff
has spent time testing different Thermal Printers with different printer drivers
under different operating environments. We found very inconsistent results depending on the
combination that was being tested. We
could only test these two printers right now because they were the only two
available to us. The TEC printers
do not seem to vary much between models except for the width of the print head.
So if you have a TEC B-472, B-572 or B-672, the results should be the
same. Zebra printers on the other
hand do very in not only the print head size but in the processor used by the
printer to process information sent to the printer.
Therefore the Zebra printer results may very from model to model.
To find the printer drivers shown here go to either www.nicelabel.com or www.seagullscientific.com.
The optimal solution we
found was to have Windows NT for an operating system, TEC Thermal Printer, and
the printer driver from Nice Label. The
next best solution is Windows 98 with either the Zebra with the Seagull
Scientific driver or the TEC with the Nice Label driver.
Take a look at the chart below to determine which of the combination fit
your current situation.
|
Windows Version |
Printer Manufacturer |
Model Number |
Printer Driver |
Program Version |
Functionality |
|
Windows NT 4.0 |
Zebra |
140XiII |
Seagull Scientific |
Tagmaker+ |
Not Usable – Causes a Window Page Fault
when trying to go to settings. |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Not Usable – Causes a Window Page Fault
when trying to go to settings. |
|
|
|
|
Nice Label |
Tagmaker+ |
Works with small number of labels but slow Basically
not usable |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Works but real slow. Basically not usable |
|
|
TEC |
B-572 |
Seagull Scientific |
Tagmaker+ |
Not Tested |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Not Tested |
|
|
|
|
Nice Label |
Tagmaker+ |
Best possible solution – Fully functional with no
delays or problems. |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Best possible solution – Fully functional with no
delays or problems. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Windows 98 |
Zebra |
140XiII |
Seagull Scientific |
Tagmaker+ |
Works with small number of labels or when not batching. |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Works Well - Does not combine |
|
|
|
|
Nice Label |
Tagmaker+ |
Works with small number of labels but slow.
Basically not usable. |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Works - does not combine but slow.
Basically not usable |
|
|
TEC |
B-572 |
Seagull Scientific |
Tagmaker+ |
Not Tested |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Not Tested |
|
|
|
|
Nice Label |
Tagmaker+ |
Works with small number of labels or when not batching. |
|
|
|
|
|
Tagmaker+ Thermal |
Works Well - Does not combine. |
Testing will continue with
different printer manufacturers as well as different printer drivers.
The thermal printer industry seem to either be behind it its production
of good printer drivers or be blindly pushing forward with no regard for
creating printers that work properly under the Windows environment.
I hope it is the first situation, because if it is not, it is going to be
a continual struggle to find a good solution to the permanent tag-printing
requirements of UDS Customers.
We thank you for your
continued patience in this arena. We
are doing everything we can to find the best solution for you, our customers.