Zebra Barcode Labels & Tags

Labels and Tags to suit Zebra barcode label printers

Labels for Zebra Printers – Zebra Ribbons -> Click Here

Labels come in various formats to suit the desktop, industrial or mobile printers. Each printer has a different roll size that fits. Label stock comes in:

  • direct thermal vs thermal transfer
  • matt vs gloss face stock
  • paper vs synthetic
  • permanent vs removable adhesive vs freezer adhesive
  • perforated between labels or not
  • rolls vs fanfold
  • 19mm core (mobile), 38/40mm core (desktop), 76mm core (industrial), A4 sheets (laser & inkjet)

For freezer applications we have adhesive that survives in the freezer. Ordinary adhesive will fall off so by the time your container gets to China the labels will be on the floor!

Quick Find

Direct Thermal Labels             Thermal Transfer Label

What kind of barcode label printer do you have?

What kind of labels or tags are you looking for?

 

Zebra Mobile Printers

Take small cores (about 18mm) and the maximum roll diameter is about 63mm.

For the QL-420 Series label printers we have two labels off the shelf.

Direct thermal, permanent adhesive paper label

  • 100mm x 75mm (4″ x 3″) – 150 per roll – suitable for pallet labelling (left)
  • 102mm x 150mm (4″ x 6″) – 100 per roll – suitable for SSCC labelling (right)

More label sizes

Zebra Desktop Printers

The desktop printers are the LP/TLP2844, LP/TLP2844-Z, TLP3844-Z, GK & GX Series. They take labels on cores of 25mm to 40mm with a maximum roll diameter of about 110mm.

Direct Thermal labels (no ribbon required)

  • 100mm x 75mm – 500 labels per roll
  • 102mm x 150mm – 400 labels per roll

Thermal Transfer Labels (ribbon required)

  • 40mm x 28mm – 2000 per roll – Matt paper, permanent adhesive labels
  • 50mm x 35mm – 1500 per roll – Matt paper, permanent adhesive labels
  • 50mm x 50mm – 1000 per roll – Matt paper, permanent adhesive labels
  • 100mm x 75mm – 500 per roll – Matt paper, permanent adhesive labels
  • 102mm x 74mm – 500 per roll – Matt paper, permanent adhesive labels
  • 102mm x 150mm – 400 per roll – Matt paper, permanent adhesive labels
  • many other sizes available

 

Zebra Mid-Range and Industrial Printers

These printers can take the standard full sized roll. The core size is typically 76mm (3″) and the maximum label roll diameter is about 200mm (8″).

Common label sizes available off the shelf are:

Direct Thermal

  • 69mm x 49mm – 3000 per roll
  • 102mm x 99mm – 1500 per roll
  • 102mm x 150mm – 1000 per roll

Thermal Transfer – Matt Paper, Permanent Adhesive

  • 35mm x 17mm, 2 across – 10000 per roll
  • 40mm x 28mm – 4000 per roll
  • 40mm x 28mm, 2 across – 8000 per roll
  • 50mm x 35mm – 3000 per roll
  • 50mm x 50mm – 3000 per roll
  • 64mm x 23mm – 4000 per roll
  • 76mm x 36mm – 4000 per roll
  • 102mm x 28mm – 5000 per roll
  • 102mm x 36mm – 4000 per roll
  • 102mm x 48mm – 2500 per roll
  • 102mm x 60mm – 2000 per roll
  • 102mm x 74mm – 2000 per roll
  • 102mm x 99mm – 1500 per roll
  • 102mm x 150mm – 1000 per roll

Synthetic Label Stock – Polyprop

  • 40mm x 28mm
  • 102mm x 28mm
  • 102mm x 74mm
  • 102mm x 150mm

These labels are ideal for outdoor use or wet environments.

Other sizes that we make for regular customers and are available include:

  • 102mm x 187mm yellow synthetic labels
  • 80mm x 290mm yellow synthetic labels

 

Tags

Tag stock is usually made to order and comes in either rolls or fanfold depending on the printer you have. Tag stock comes in different paper weights. The higher the gsm (grams per square metre) the thicker the tag.

Again, tag stock is available in direct thermal and thermal transfer, roll or fan fold.

We have the following tag stock off the shelf:

Fanfold, direct thermal – suit QL series mobile printers, and any desktop, mid-range or industrial printer

  • 90mm x 55mm, fanfold, direct thermal
  • 110mm x 100mm, fanfold, direct thermal

 

Rolls, thermal transfer – suit any mid-range or industrial printer

  • 100mm x 110mm

Rolls, synthetic “Cyclone” material

  • 102mm x 75mm – 2000 per roll

Custom Full Colour Labels

If you have a special size, material or requirement, please contact us for a quote. We can even produce full colour labels for your products.

For example, in the past we have helped companies with their product labelling requirement. We produced a full colour label with the logo, fixed text and other information that was constant on all products. Using a Zebra printer and BarTender, the customer could now print their own labels on demand filling in the product code, description, batch code etc as needed. This meant the customer could now print one label or 100 whenever they wanted and the overall image presented to the market place was consistent and clear. A blank sample label.

General Advice when obtaining a quote for labels for a Zebra printer

1. The label dimensions are width then depth.

A 125mm x 60mm label might seem the same as a 60mm x 125mm but giving the supplier the numbers the wrong way around can have a big impact.

The 110mm wide label is not going to fit into a 104mm wide printer such as the Zebra LP/TLP-2844 or ZM400 series.

2. Make sure that the supplier knows and understands the printer you intend to use.

  • Mobile
  • Desktop
  • Mid-range/Industrial

This is important for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the core size.

Mobile printers can use a 19mm to 25mm core.

Desktop printers can accept labels on 25mm, 38mm and 40mm cores.

Mid-range and industrial printers work best with 76mm cores.

Secondly, the number of labels on the roll should not exceed an outside diameter of:

  • 55mm for a QL or RW mobile printer (receipt roll or labels)
  • 105mm for an LP/TLP/GK/GX series printer
  • 300mm for mid-range or industrial

Thirdly, some printers are direct thermal only, such as the mobile QL and RW printers, which means they do NOT use a ribbon. So the paper needs to be heat sensitive.

Receipt rolls for the QL and RW printers must be heat sensitive.

3. The way the labels or receipt paper is wound onto the roll is important.

Zebra printers work best with the label or printed side is on the outside. (left)

The mid-range and industrial Zebra printers can work with rolls wound on the inside. (right) Tag stock is best wound this way due to the stiffness of the board so printing this way places less stress on the drive motors.

4. Are you going to be printing on the label or tag?

If you intend to over-print on the label make sure that their is no varnish, lacquer or special top coat applied that will stop your ribbon sticking to the paper.

5. Tag Stock?

If you are getting tag stock, make sure that the black mark or notch is in the right place so that the printer can register the tag length properly.

Having the black mark on the wrong side of the perforation when supplied in roll form will mean that you will not be able to line the perforation onto the tear off bar, which makes for easy tear off of tags.

With fanfold tag stock, if loading the tags does not line up on the first go, simply turn the stack around. The correct way is that the leading edge coming out of the printer first should be the perforation, then the black mark should be touching the leading edge (after it).

The mid-range and industrial Zebra printers have a label adjustment option available on the menu on the front panel of the printer. This allows you to push out or retract the tag so that you can get the perforation to line up exactly over the tear off bar.

6. Perforation between labels?

Tags will come with a perforation so you can tear them apart easily. With labels, a perforation between each one is optional. A perforation allows you to tear labels apart easily.

7. Fanfold or rolls?

Depends on your application and requirements. Rolls are the most popular since they are designed to sit inside the printer to keep out of the dust and use less space.

Obviously to use a mobile printer effectively a roll of labels is the best solution. However, we have had clients mount the QL mobile printer in a stand on a trolley and use fanfold labels. Due to the thickness of tag stock it is usually not feasible to make them into rolls for the small mobile and desktop printers. In this case fanfold is the best way to go.

From the photos above, tag stock on a large 76mm core will work fine. With the mid-range and instrustrial printers the fanfold stack can fit inside the printer. On all others (mobile and desktop) the stack has to sit outside the printer.

8. Ribbon – for thermal transfer applications.

Before ordering always see if you can get a sample of the label stock and make sure that there is a suitable ribbon available. Make sure it fits your printer and that it sticks to the label stock.

If your label might sit on a shelf for more than a year or in heat or direct sunlight then thermal transfer may be a better solution than direct thermal labels.

9. Adhesive?

The standard adhesive is permanent and for most applications does the job very well. In some situations you might require removable adhesive. If you are labelling product that goes into a freezer, get freezer adhesive so your labels don’t fall off.

10. Face stock?

  • Matt
  • Gloss
  • Semi-gloss

11. Material?

  • Paper
  • Synthetic material
    • Primax
    • Polyprop
    • 3M Mylar silver

12. EAN barcode?

If your are printing an EAN or UPC barcode and it is going into the retail chain make sure you allow for two weeks if you need to send it away to GS1 for a verification report. Many large retail chains ask for the report so make sure you print a barcode that is the minimum size and reads 100% and is in the right spot.

13. Other considerations?

The orientation of the label maybe important for other reasons. For example, you might think that to save money and buy a cheaper label printer that you should get the label 60mm x 120mm. Consider the product you are trying to label.

But later you have the problem that the label applicator machine that can apply the labels to the bottle for you needs the labels 120mm x 60mm. So, in this case, to avoid hand labelling every bottle you should spend more and get a wider label printer which would be cheaper in the long run compared to ongoing labour costs.

Always think about the whole process from start to finish. That way you can avoid costly mistakes that are easily avoidable.

Recently someone thought that our label price was too expensive. We quoted for 60mm x 110mm labels printed in full colour (pre-printed with the company name, ingredients, common information) on small cores to suit the Zebra LP-2844 label printer. So there would be 500 direct thermal labels per roll.

The customer bought elsewhere and when they got the rolls they called us and came over with them. They received 20,000 labels. 2000 per roll on 76mm cores. They certainly don’t fit into an LP-2844.

Plus they were cut 110mm x 60mm wide and they were thermal transfer (requiring a ribbon). So, I could get them to fit (just) into a ZM400.

And the final problem, the labels were top coated so no ribbon would stick to them!

So what could the customer do with 20,000 labels that he can’t print on?

One alternative is to print the variable information needed onto a smaller label and then hand apply this into the space on the large label – the spot you should have been printing onto in the first place.

Doing this is extra labour and to be honest, doesn’t look good for a food product going to an export market for the first time.

My advice was to redo the labels and get a new printer.

Click here to Contact Us For more information or pricing, call us on (02) 9636-5299

 

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