If you plan to open a small shop to sell your crafts and other unique items, you'll want a way to make labels for them since they won't come with barcodes or stock labels. Labels provide information for your customers, and they help you control inventory. Printed labels are more professional than making hand-written labels that you stick on the products. One of the best printers for making labels and barcodes is the thermal transfer printer. Here's why you should consider making your labels with one of these printers.

Thermal Transfer Labels Last A Long Time

Thermal transfer printing burns part of the ribbon onto the label so the print is crisp and dark. This process makes the print last for a long time. This is important for inventory that might be in storage for months as you rotate seasonal goods. Some forms of printing, such as plain thermal printing, fade over time. While that might be suitable for labels with a short lifespan, if you want labels that won't fade, then thermal transfer printing is a good option.

Thermal Transfer Printing Is Best For Barcodes

Barcodes are important because they contain information about your product. If you plan to distribute your crafts, such as bars of handmade soap, a department store or grocery store will usually require a barcode to identify what the product is and who manufactured it. When connected with a software system, the identifying information in the barcode brings up the current price. Barcodes also help stores track inventory, so they are very useful. Thermal transfer printers are ideal for making your own barcodes because the print is clear and the ink won't fade. The barcodes you make with your personal thermal transfer printer look just as good as the barcodes made by major manufacturers.

Thermal Transfer Printers Make Color Labels Too

You can buy an affordable printer that is small and prints only in black and white for making barcodes, or you can buy a larger thermal transfer printer that can perform other functions too. Design and create attractive labels for all of your products in black and white or color. If your inventory is fairly small, you can save money by making and printing your own labels and barcodes with a desktop thermal transfer printer, and you'll have professional results. If your business becomes a big success and you need huge quantities of labels, then you may want to hire a print shop to mass produce them using the thermal transfer process.

Thermal transfer printers produce quality materials but the printers are affordable, especially the small models. The printers come with software that allows you to design your labels and print them in a variety of fonts. There are several online sites that make it easy to create images for your labels that you can print with your thermal transfer printer. You can even create your barcodes online and upload the information to the printer to create barcode labels that help your products get into larger stores.