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Most label printers in the paper or office category are meant to sit on a desk. They're small enough to carry easily, but with rare exceptions aren't designed to work on battery power, so not fully portable. On the other hand, printers for plastic, or industrial-type, labeling come in both portable and AC-power only models. Here's what you need to know about them. Print creations directly from your phone using the free app - simply connect your phone via Bluetooth HP has managed to shrink the inkjet printer to the size of a cigar box while adding a battery compartment. The result is a highly portable device that can turn out crisp color documents at a rate of 10 per minute in mono or 7 in color. The HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One Printer is the only current AIO portable inkjet we know of, but that's not the only reason we've included it here. It impressed us enough when we reviewed it to earn an Editors' Choice award for a portable printer, with its ability to scan and copy being only one reason why.
Because the label rolls are generally continuous, the time per label depends on the length, and the printers are rated in millimeters (mm) per second or inches per second (ips). Actual speed in our tests is usually slightly slower than the rating, but print time isn't the only factor to consider. This Brady labeler is a typical standalone, handheld label printer for IT and communications wiring. (Credit: Brady) You can power it from any live USB port, like the one in your car, and an optional rechargeable battery is available. It’s compatible with AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, making it easy to print from your mobile device.
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You'll want to assess the connectivity options. If you want a hassle-free printing experience, use a portable printer that offers wireless connectivity and support for protocols like Apple AirPrint. This miniaturization marvel combines a scanner and full-color inkjet printer in a device that will fit in a travel bag. It also has a small display, an automatic document feed (ADF), Wi-Fi, and a rechargeable battery.
Canon has done well to shrink this full-color inkjet printer to a size that will fit easily into a briefcase without compromising print quality. It comes with key features such as Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity, an OLED screen, and the ability to store custom templates. These could be useful for repeat printing, whatever forms your business uses regularly.For a photos with a square aspect ratio printed at just bit larger than wallet size, it's hard to beat the Kodak Mini 3 Retro. The printer weighs just shy of a pound, measures 1 by 5 by 4 inches (HWD), and prints 3-by-3-inch photos using dye-sub technology and a four-pass ribbon, with the last pass laying down a clear projective coating. As is typical of dye sub printers, the picture quality is a clear step above what you'd expect from competing printers that use Zink technology. Kodak promises a long life for the prints, too, rating them at up to 100 years.
You can connect devices you want to print from, such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It's not hard to find standard inkjet printers that are small and light enough to take with you on a business trip or vacation, so you can print a letter- or legal-size document in your hotel room before a meeting, or print photos of a family picnic. To count as "portable" for purposes of this roundup, however, the printer also needs the ability to run on battery power, at least as an option. The battery will let you print anywhere, including in your car or while on that picnic, with no AC outlet in sight. These true portables are rare, but they do exist—Canon, Epson, and HP have a handful. Their offerings even fall into two subcategories: single-function printer, and all-in-one printer. COST PER LABEL. The cost per label for continuous rolls varies with the length of each label you print. If you want to compare running costs between competing models, divide the cost per roll by the number of inches in the roll, to get a comparable cost per inch. Be sure to do the calculation for the types and widths you plan to use.Resolutions for these printers can be as low as 203 by 200dpi, which is fine for 10- or 12-point text, but can leave smaller fonts and graphics looking a little ragged. However, it's not hard to find models with 300dpi resolution, which is at the lower end of laser quality. And unlike the paper you may remember from fax machines, paper for many thermal printers is available in cut-sheet and fanfold formats, as well as rolls. You can connect the printer to computers and smartphones through USB or Bluetooth, but since there's no Wi-Fi connectivity, you can't use Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, and other connection that rely on Wi-Fi. A portable AIO is of obvious interest to anyone who needs to both scan and print (including for copying) while on the go. But even within that group, it's not for everyone. If you usually need scanning only or printing only, you could be better off with a separate printer and scanner, to let you carry just the one you need on a given trip. But if you usually need both scanning and printing, the OfficeJet 250 will be less cumbersome to set up. Even better, it may be lighter that the combined weight of two units. Thanks to their compact and lightweight designs, you can carry them around using batteries to power them, making them incredibly versatile devices.
If you need moderate or heavy-duty printing, you'll want a printer that's a little faster, and perhaps one that prints from a computer or mobile device. But for light-duty printing, the LW-PX300's wide choice of tapes and affordable price—alone or as part of the LW-PX300VP kit—can make it a compelling choice for small businesses and hobbyists. Quite simply, it will give you lots of label flexibility without having to spend a lot of money to get it. This printer uses "dye-sublimation" to transfer layers of color onto a medium. Although it’s a slower process than the technology used in standard inkjet printers, the results are better than what you'll get from regular printers.For example, this makes them ideal for printing photos from your phone. And, while portable printers are smaller than normal printers, that doesn't mean they aren't able to provide the same level of print quality. As we mentioned earlier, many portable printers are designed for printing photographs, so as you'd imagine, they offer excellent print quality, especially when used with photo paper. Start with an old-fashioned fax machine that prints on thermal paper (that is, without ink), throw out the parts that handle faxing, and what you're left with is a basic monochrome printing mechanism. Add your choice of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB connections, a battery, and a driver for your PC's operating system or an app for your mobile device, and you've got a portable, monochrome thermal printer. This is essentially a regular mains-powered color inkjet printer but reduced in size and functionality to fit into a briefcase. No Ethernet port or scanner bed exists, but that flat top is perfect for scanning documents using your smartphone and Canon’s iOS/Android companion app. At the same time, the inclusion of both Bluetooth and AirPrint makes it easy to connect wirelessly. CONNECTIONS. Most all-purpose portable printers offer both Wi-Fi and USB for connections. Some support PictBridge, as well, for printing photos directly from cameras that support the spec. If you want to connect cable-free via Wi-Fi, make sure the printer supports Wi-Fi Direct. And if you might need to print straight from your phone or tablet, make sure the printer also supports mobile printing with your specific device. (Credit: PCMag)
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