Barcode Scanners and Barcode Printers

Almost every business, where great number of physical products are sold or moved daily, makes use of barcode labels and scanners. They allow these items to be tracked accurately, and help managers maintain the necessary stocks easily. The barcodes are represented by a number of vertical bars, where their thickness, number, and space between them is what carries the coded information. This information is read by barcode scanners, also called readers, sent to another device, typically a computer, and then transformed into a human-readable data with the help of a software program.

The bar code technology had seen great many changes in the past few years, which, along with the different needs of the different industries, has led to the development of different scanner types. They are divided into handheld and fix-mounted, laser and CCD, linear and omni-directional, and are capable of reading 1D (linear) or 2D (matrix) labels. The most basic, and general-purpose scanners are the ones that we typically see in the grocery stores, and these are simple, yet robust devices, capable of reading accurately barcode labels, and connecting via various interfaces to sophisticated POS systems. The scanners, which are used in the manufacturing plants or the large warehouses, come with different types o qualities and are typically more expensive. These scanners are almost always shock-proof, could withstand great number of drops from a sizable distance, and are designed for continuous and heavy-duty performance. They are almost always wireless as well, which allows the labels to be read from a greater distance and the data transmitted to hundreds of feet to the base. The base itself typically serves as a battery charger too and could operate with more than one scanner at a time.

The barcode printers also come in many different models, but they are usually direct thermal printers, which unlike the most popular computer printers do not use ink, but rather heat. They are divided into two categories: thermal transfer printers and direct thermal printers, and could range from the most affordable, portable ones to industrial printers, sold for thousands of dollars.

The competition amongst the different barcode scanners and printers manufacturers has led to better and sturdier products, as well as wide variety of models, from which the businesses can choose from Business Printing Solutions