What kind of materials can be used in barcode printers?
It depends on the printer brand and model, not on the printer being a bar code printer.
Some printers are designed for specific applications and that’s all they can do — such as wristband printers. Other printers are highly versastile.
The most common material used for printing bar codes is paper and many bar code printers are optimized to print on paper and other lightweight materials.
Other printers are designed to print on heavier, more durable materials and can print bar codes on a wide range of materials. For example, DuraLabel thermal transfer printers print bar codes and they are know for printing on more types of materils than any other printer. (Vinyl, magnetic-backed, cryogenic labels, oily surface labels, phosphorescent, reflective, chemical resistent, high temperature and others.)
Printers designated as "bar code printers" typically have a print resolution of 203 dpi or less. This limits their ability to print very small bar codes — although this is not a common need. Industrial label printers are available with higher resolutions, such as 300 dpi. This allows them to print smaller bar codes, such as those that might be needed on shrink tubes for wire and cable labels.
Besides a wide variety of label materials, barcode printers can also print on tag and ticket stock, wristbands, polyester, polypropylene, and other synthetic materials. Different colors are available, but color should be used cautiously because insufficient contrast between bars and the background space will produce unreadable barcodes. Brand protection media is available with overt and covert security features for authentication, counterfeit and diversion deterrence, and secure data encoding. Label media, coatings, and adhesives provide resistance to temperature extremes, moisture, acids, washes, UV exposure, and other hazards to label quality. Thermal printers can also print and encode smart labels, which contain a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip and antenna inlay embedded within the label media.
